The arrival of Europeans in the New World provided a great trade stimulus. The major trading interest between Indians and Europeans was the fur trade. Here coastal dwelling Indian groups such as the Wampanoags took the advantage. Being first to meet the Europeans, they quickly established themselves as go-betweens in the trade, and besides doing trapping of their own, they traded for the furs of inland tribes, which they then traded to the Europeans for a profit.[338] The fur trade caused increased emphasis upon hunting and trapping. Since it was more profitable to trade skins than to wear them, the fur trade was a force that encouraged Indians to adopt European textiles and dress. The fur trade also was responsible for the introduction of wampum into Wampanoag culture. Wampum, used as money, was a trait belonging to Indian groups to the south. Purple wampum may have first originated on Long Island.[339] When the Dutch settled New Netherland, they found it a convenient medium of exchange and adopted it. The regular use and production of wampum found its way north to the Narragansetts, but it did not become popular with the Wampanoags until after 1627, the year in which the Dutch first brought wampum to Plymouth and suggested its virtues to the English settlers there.[340] Once its value was appreciated, Indians of the Plymouth area began to make it also.[341] Within the next twenty years, wampum as ornament and money became ingrained in Wampanoag culture. Purple wampum was double the value of white. Wampum was reckoned in value by count, 360 white beads equalling a fathom, which was worth five shillings. This number of beads might exceed or fall short of a fathom in linear measure, but the number of beads rather than actual length was the important criterion.[342] The value of wampum, however, was based on the market in furs.[343] After 1648 this market dropped, and after that date a 5-shilling “fathom” of wampum had to consist of 480 white beads. In the period immediately prior to King Philip’s War the use of wampum as currency declined.[344] Not all trade was in terms of skins and wampum. These were basic but not the exclusive goods in circulation. Guns and alcohol were popular items, introduced onto the market chiefly by the French—much to the distress of the English colonists and missionaries. Corn was also much involved in New England commerce.[345] Settlers traded corn with the Indians, according to the needs of each in a particular year. The Pilgrims at Plymouth traded corn to Indians in Maine for furs, although this pattern came to be replaced by an exchange of furs for wampum.[346] LABOR