CHAPTER III.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE OX AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF GOLD.
And round about him lay on every side
Great heapes of gold that never could be spent,
Of which some were rude owre not purified
Of Mulciber's devouring element.
Some others were new driven and distent
Into great Ingowes and to wedges square,
Some in round plates with outen ornament,
But most were stampt and in their metal bare
The antique Shapes of Kings and Kesars straunge and rare.
Spenser, Faerie Queen, II. vii.
Let us now take a general survey of the results of our
observations. First of all it is apparent that the doctrine of
a primal convention with regard to the use of any one particular
article as a medium of exchange is just as false as the
old belief in an original convention at the first beginning of
Language or Law. Every medium of exchange either has an
actual marketable value, or represents something which either
has or formerly had such a value, just as a five-pound note
represents five sovereigns, and the piece of stamped walrus
skin formerly employed by Russians in Alaska in paying the
native trappers represented roubles or blankets[1].
To employ once more the language of geology, we have found evidence pointing to certain general laws of stratification. In Further Asia we have found a section which presents us with an almost complete series of strata, whilst in other places where we have been only able to observe two or three layers,
- ↑ Elliot's Alaska, p. 8. This is an interesting parallel to the ancient tradition that the Carthaginians employed leather money. (Vide Smith's Dict. of Geogr. I. 545.)
