The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards — John Shaqi
The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight StandardsRidgeway, William
History
The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards
Ridgeway, William
Money -- Origin; Weights and measures -- History
The same method of using the buffalo as the chief unit is employed by
the Moïs, among whom a slave is reckoned at 10 buffaloes. Again, among
tribes such as the Tjams, with whom the string of copper _cash_ (or
sapecs) borrowed from the Chinese, is employed as their lowest unit, a
full-grown buffalo = 100 strings;[36] the Mexican _piastre_ or dollar
circulates freely as in China, a small pig costs 10 strings, pork by
retail costs two strings per lb. (_livre_), ducks cost 1½ to 2 strings. A
large caldron costs 3 buffaloes; a handsome gong = 2 buffaloes; a small
gong = 1 buffalo; 6 copper platters = 1 buffalo; two swords = 1 buffalo;
2 lances = 1 buffalo; a rhinoceros’ horn = 8 buffaloes; a pair of large
elephants’ tusks = 6 buffaloes; a small pair = 3 buffaloes. When the wild
people have dealings with the more civilized peoples of the plain, who
employ the Chinese cash and silver dollars, a large buffalo = 100 strings
of cash, a small one = 50 strings; a fine horse = 100 strings; a she goat
= a piece of cloth. The Orang Glaï have often to buy elephants’ tusks,
at the rate of 8 buffaloes for a pair, or 8 bars of silver (640 francs).
The Szins of Kharang have often to pay a tax of a buffalo per hut, or
for the whole village 10 buffaloes, the horns of which must be at least
as long as their ears[37]. In Cambodia iron ingots[38] form a special
kind of money. These ingots are not weighed, but they are as long as from
the base of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger; they are in breadth
two fingers, and one finger in thickness in the middle, tapering off to
either end.
Cowries and other shells seem to have gone out of use altogether among
these tribes, but we may recognize in the practice of reckoning the
_cash_ by the string a distinct survival of the olden time when shells
were so employed. It is of great importance to note that where silver has
come into use, its unit, the bar, is equated to the buffalo, the unit of
barter, just as we find the Homeric gold Talent equal to the ox.
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