MONEY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12487, 13 March 1909, Page 4

MONEY.

Mr H D. Bedford writes in the Otagp Daily Times" v :— The Ethiopians carried on their exchanges by 'parved pebbles. The New England colpnists. used, wampum. rye, porn have been employed in many (countries as currency. The Greeks of the Homerio period used cattle ; and Biter the abandonment of Britain by. the Romans, coin became scarce, the inhabitants returned to the use of "living money." j"lt is very possible," says Sir senry:. Maine :.' 'that ikirie were first exclusively valued for jtheir fleßbv and milk ; h^iit it is true thai in very early times a distinct "and 'ißpecial importance 'belonged to them bs the msfcrumerit or medium of exlohangei'^,Copper, stewers ' were once moiiey -in • and Adam' Smith speaks of a" village in Scotland in his own day where. nails were used as money. In the early days of the_United States the ordinary irioney of Virginia and Maryland was'i jfcobftcco ; that of Carolina' was i rice. :.i', 'Even ifees" and salaries were tafcen in rice 6nd tobacco." During -the same period dry cod was used in Newfound- _ land, and sugar "inAthe. .yVest Indies. Furs long -constituted: /the: money :of pertain -parts r bf Russia. It was in 1631 that the: Massaclmseits Court or-, dered that corn should pass for pay-; jiaent of all debts: ■ Tea is still used as K medium of exchange at the : great Russian fairs, and, in compressed blocks, circulates to-day in China. Down to the" present time p36ng the Arabian Gulf debts are_dis«hargedwith"glass beads; and'in the islands of: the -Indian Ocean with shells and red feathers. :■'■'■'■''_' .All these articles were as truly rao'neyi "as " tUe coins wliicll are now generally -used. They/all^possess the one andlonly'essentialvfeature ""of a meduiin7of exchahge-4namely,- that they "were generally; accepted in payment of- debts and : - discharge of. liabilities. ;/ . ■[ ■■■■;■- ■■_:.!'■> •';■'"'■' ; :