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
We have seen the Siamese piece of twisted silver wire passing into a
coin of European style, and we shall find that the Chinese bronze knife
has finally ended by becoming a _cash_, just as we have already found
the Homeric talent of gold appearing, in weight at least, as the gold
stater of historical times. Thus in every point the analogy between what
we find in the Homeric Poems and in modern barbarous communities seems
complete. We may therefore with some confidence assume that we are at
liberty to fill up the gaps in the strata of Greek monetary history which
lie between Homer and the beginning of coined money on the analogy of
the corresponding strata in other regions. This assumption, resting on a
broad basis of induction and confirmed, as we shall see, by a good deal
of evidence special to Greece and Italy, will be found to explain the
origin, not only of weight standards in those countries, but also of the
Greek _obol_ and Roman _as_, as well as of the types on the oldest coins,
such as the cow’s head of Samos, the tunny fish of Olbia and Cyzicus, the
axe of Tenedos, the tortoise of Aegina, the shield of Boeotia, and the
silphium of Cyrene.
Let us now turn to the races who both in modern and in ancient times
have dwelt around the basin of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, whether
in Asia Minor, Central Asia, Europe or Africa. In what did their wealth
consist? When we first meet in history the various branches of the Aryan,
Semitic, and Hamitic races, they are all alike possessed of flocks
and herds. To deal first with the Aryans; we have already had ample
evidence that such was the case with the early Greeks. The ox plays a
foremost part, and they likewise possessed sheep, goats and swine, whilst
slaves formed also an important commodity. Further east again, in the
Zend-Avesta the cow is found playing the principal part in every phase
of the primitive life there unfolded, both as the chief article of value
and in reference to their religious ceremonies. Still further to the
east we find from the Rig-Veda that among the ancient Hindus the same
important _rôle_ was assigned to the cow. Turning now to Mesopotamia we
find that in the time of Abraham the keeping of herds and flocks was
the chief pursuit of the Semites. Passing on to Egypt, the hoary mother
of civilization, we find evidence that although “every shepherd was an
abomination to the Egyptians,” yet the worship of their great divinity
Apis (Hapi) under the form of a bull and the worship of the sacred ram
indicate that at a period preceding the invasion of the Hyksos the
Egyptians regarded the ox and the sheep with love and veneration. Whether
the Egyptians came from Asia into the valley of the Nile, or whether they
came from some region of Africa more to the south, one thing at least
is certain, and that is that in either case they came from a country
eminently fitted for the rearing and keeping of cattle. The functions of
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