MONEY (miin'n (Hcb. '1;3, keh-sef', silver).
This term is used to denote whatever com modity the inhabitants of any country may have agreed. or are compelled to receive as an equiva lent for their labor and in exchange for other commodities. Etymologists differ respecting its derivation. Bouterour contends that it is derived from ',tonere, because the stamp impresscd on the coin indicates its weight and fineness (Recherches sur les Monnoyes de France): and Suidas (s. v. Movikro), that it originated in the circumstance ot silver having been first coined at Rome in the tem ple of Juno Moneta.
(1) Various Commodities. Different com modities have been used as money in the primi tive state of society in all countries. Those na tions which subsist by the chase, such as the an cient Russians and the greater part of the North American Indians, use the skins of the animals killed in hunting as money (Storch, Trate d' Economic Politique, tome i). In a pastoral state of society cattle are chiefly used as money. Thus, according to Homer, the armor of Diomede cost nine oxen, and that of Glaucus one hundred (Iliad, vi :235). The etymology of the Latin word pecunia, signifying money, and all of its deriva tives,affords sufficient evidence that cattle (pecus) were the first money of the Romans. They were also used as money by the Germans, whose laws fix the amount of penalties for particular of fenses to be paid in cattle (Storch, /. e.). In agri cultural countries corn would be used in remote ages as money, and even at the present day it is not unusual to stipulate for corn rents and wages. Various commodities have been and are still used in different countries. Smith mentions salt as the common money of Abyssinia (Wealth of Na tions, i :4). A species of cyprcea called the eow tee, gathered on the shores of the Alaldive Islands, and of which 6,400 constitute a rupee, is used in making small payments throughout India, and is the only money of certain districts in Africa. Dried fish forms the money of Iceland and New foundland ; sugar of some of the West India Islands; and among the first settlers of America corn and tobacco were used as money (Holmes' American Annals). Smith Mentions that, at the time of the publication of the Wealth of Nations, there was a village in Scotland where it was cus tomary for a workman to carry nails as money to the baker's shop or the alehouse (i:4)• (2) Commerce. A long period of time must have intervened between the first introduction of the precious metals into commerce, and their be coming generally used as money. The peculiar
qualities which so eminently fit them for this pur pose would only be gradually discovered. They would probably be first introduced in their gross and unpunfied state. A sheep, an ox, a certain quantity of corn, or any other article, would after wards be bartered or exchanged for pieces of gold or silver in bars or ingots, in the same way as they would formerly have been exchanged for iron, copper, cloth, or anything else.
(3) Values Estimated by Weight. The mer chants would soon begin to estimate their proper value, and, in effecting exchanges, would first agree upon the quality of the metal to be given, and then the quantity which its possessor had be come bound to pay would be ascertained by weight. This, according to Aristotle and Pliny, was the manner in which the precious metals were orig inally exchanged in Greece and Italy. The same practice is still observed in different countries. In many parts of China and Abyssinia the value of gold and silver is always ascertained by weight (Goguet, De l'Origine des Loix, etc.). Iron was the first money of the Lacedxmonians, and copper of the Romans.
In the sacred writings there is frequent men tion of gold, silver, and brass, sums of money. purchases made with money, current money, and money of a certain weight. Indeed, the money of Scripture is all estimated by weight. 'Abra ham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four shundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant' (Gen. xxiii :t6). The brethren of Joseph carried back into Egypt the money 'in full weight' which they had found in their sacks (Gen. xliii :20. The golden earring presented by Abraham's steward to Rebekah weighed half a shekel, and the two bracelets for her hands were ten shekels weight of gold' (Gen. xxiv :22). In paying for the field of Hanameel, Jeremiah 'weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver' (Jer. xxxii:9). Amos represents the merchants of Israel as 'falsifying the balances by deceit' (viii:5). The shekel and the talent do not appear to have been originally fixed and stamped pieces of money, but simply weights used in traffic. Hence, 'thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small' (Deut. xxv :13). It was customary for the Jews to have scales attached to their girdles for weigh ing the gold and silver they received; but the Canaanites carried them in their hands.