II. The Currency of the Queen Charlotte Islanders 1 Among most of the coast tribes the dentalium shell was prized, but not so much as a means of exchange among themselves as for barter with the Indians of the interior. By the Haidas the dentalium is called kwo-tsing, but as these people were by their position debarred from the trade with the interior, it was probably never of so great value to them. It is still sometimes worn in ornaments, but has disappeared as a medium of exchange.

Another article of purely conventional value, and serving as money, is the "copper." This is a piece of native metal beaten out into a flat sheet. . . . These are not made by the Haidas, -nor indeed is the native metal known to exist in the islands, - but are imported as articles of great worth from the Chil-kat country north of Sitka. Much attention is paid to the size and make of the copper, which should be of uniform but not too great thickness, and give forth a good sound when struck with the hand. At the present time spurious coppers have come into circulation, and though these are easily detected by an expert, the value of the copper has become somewhat reduced, and is often more nominal than real. Formerly ten slaves were paid for a good copper, as a usual price; now they are valued at from forty to eighty blankets.

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The blanket" is now, however, the recognized currency, not only among the Haidas, but generally along the coast. It takes the place of the beaver-skin currency of the interior of British Columbia and the Northwest Territory. The blankets used in trade are distinguished by points, or marks on the edge, woven into their texture, the best being four point, the smallest and poorest one point. The acknowledged unit of value is a single two-and-a-half-point blanket, now worth a little over a dollar and a half. Everything is referred to this unit; even a large four-point blanket is said to be worth so many blankets. The Hudson Bay Company at their posts, and other traders,

1 Dawson, "Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands," Geological Survey of Canada, 1878-1879, p. 135 B.

not infrequently buy in blankets, taking them when in good condition from the Indians as money, and selling them out again as required.

Blankets are carefully stowed away in large boxes, neatly folded. A man of property may have several hundred. The practice of amassing wealth in blankets no doubt had its origin in an earlier one of accumulating the sea-otter and fur-seal robes, which stood in the place of blankets in former days. This may help to explain the rich harvest of these skins which the first traders to the Queen Charlotte Islands gathered.

III. The Currency of the Abyssinians

The object Walderhoes and I had now in view was to change the dollar, and for this purpose we sought out that portion of the plain where, in several orderly lines, numerous salt brokers sat behind heaps of ahmulahoitsh, the remarkable currency of Shoa, in common with all parts of Abyssinia.

These ahmulahs, as they may be called, are thin bricks of salt, which have been not inaptly compared in size and shape to a mower's whetstone; they vary some little in size, but few of them are less than eight inches long. Their form is rather interesting, from the fact of their being cut somewhat in the ancient form of money pieces, thinner at the two extremities than in the middle, and if of metal might not have been inaptly termed a spit. The breadth across the center of the ahmulah is a little over two inches, whilst at the extremities it scarcely measures one inch. The height or thickness is uniform, being usually about one inch and a quarter. As may naturally be supposed, this money, consisting of a material so soft and deliquescent as common salt, becomes denuded by use, and a great difference consequently exists between the weight of a new specimen and one that has been in exchange for only a few months. During the rainy season, especially, in Abyssinia the waste of the ahmulahs is very great, although the inhabitants, by burying them in the wood ashes of their large hearths, or suspending them in the

1 Johnston, Travels in Southern Abyssinia, pp. 232-237.

smoke from the roof, endeavor to preserve them, at that time, from the action of the moisture in the atmosphere.

It not unfrequently happens, either from carelessness or atmospherical causes, that the ahmulahs become very cellular and light. In that case the holes are stopped up with a paste of meal and fine salt dust, but the ahmulah so adulterated is generally rejected at once when offered, or a very considerable reduction is made in its value when any article is purchased.

When by any accident the salt pieces are broken they are receivable only as common salt, although sometimes, if cut into two pieces, these are bound round with a piece of very pliant tough bark called lit, and at a diminished value still circulate.

Besides ahmulahs the Shoan markets are supplied with a rough broken salt in thin broad pieces, of no use but for culinary purposes, by the Dankalli, who bring it to Dinnomalee from the Bahr Assal, or salt lake, near Tajourah. This kind of salt is of less value than the ahmulah, and is only employed as barter, and the solid money piece will command weight for weight one half as much more of the Adal salt; so that the Shoans submit to a loss of just fifty per cent of material for the convenience of their clumsy currency.

IV. Currency in Central Africa 1

A regular system of exchange is carried on in arrows, beads, bead necklaces, teeth necklaces, brass rings for the neck and arm, and bundles of small pieces of iron in flat, round, or oval disks. All these different articles are given in exchange for cattle, corn, salt, arrows, etc.

The nearest approach to money, in our sense, is seen in the flat round pieces of iron, which are of different sizes from one half to two feet in diameter, and two thirds of an inch thick. They are much employed in exchange.

1 Felkin, "Notes on the Madi or Moru Tribe of Central Africa," in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, XII, 350.

This is the form in which they are kept and used as money, but they are intended to be divided into two, heated, and made into hoes. They are also fashioned into other implements, such as knives, arrowheads, etc., and into little bells to hang round the waist for ornament, or round wandering cows' necks.

Ready-made hoes are not often used in barter; iron as above mentioned is preferred, and is taken to a blacksmith to finish according to the owner's requirements.

Any tools may be obtained ready-made from a smith, and may be used in barter when new.

6. Barter Currency in North Carolina: Gresham's Law1

The Province of North Carolina was first settled by People from Virginia in low circumstances who moved hither for the benefit of a larger and better range for their Stocks, from such a small Beginning it was a great many years before it appeared there was any Increase of Inhabitants sufficient to form a Government the whole number of Taxables in Thirty years time not amounting to one thousand, and those generally dwelt on the North side of Albemarle sound, and composed the four Precincts of Chowan, Perquimons, Pasquotank & Currituck, which Precincts, now called Counties sent each of them five Members to the Assembly, the whole number at that time amounting to those Twenty Members.

The poverty of the first Inhabitants made (for want of a better currency) to Enact in their Assemblies that all Payments whatsoever, might be made in sundry Commodities or Products of the Province a List whereof here follows, agreable to the Law as it past upon the Revise, Anno: 1715.

1 From letter of Governor Johnston to the Board of Trade (1749), Colonial

Records of North Carolina, IV, 920-921.

This method has been continued down to this time with very little Alteration to the great Damage of the Revenue it being a stated rule, that of so many Commodities the worst sort only were paid. Altho' many attempts have been made to remedy the Inconvenience attending such a currency it has always proved fruitless (the People being generally fond of a Law which gave them such Advantages).

A coinage system does not exist in Burma. The former king coined some rupees stamped with the peacock, but this money has wholly disappeared. The bullion which passes in trade consists of silver alloyed with copper in three or four different proportions. The best, which is almost pure, is called bau; the next dain or youetni; and the least valuable, but most commonly employed in small dealings, is called azekiay. When a person goes to market he carries a piece of this silver, a hammer, a chisel, a pair of scales, and a set of weights. "What is the price of these kitchen pots?" "Show me your money," replies the merchant, who fixes his price at a larger or smaller figure. according to the appearance of the silver. The buyer then calls for a small anvil, and hammers at the piece of silver until he thinks he has chipped off the right amount. Then he weighs the silver in his own scales, since the merchant's are not to be trusted, and adds or subtracts enough to make the weight precisely right.

1 Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, II, ii.