Читать книгу The Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards - William Ridgeway - Страница 8

Fig. 9. Rings found in the tombs of Mycenae.

The rings seen on Egyptian monuments (of which we give a representation in a later chapter) are of round wire; those found by Schliemann in the tombs of Mycenae[57] (Fig. 9) consist both of round wire rings like the Egyptian, and likewise of spirals of quadrangular wire. As finger rings (δακτύλιοι) are not mentioned in Homer, it has been assumed that the Homeric Greeks did not employ rings at all. Hence in a famous passage where the ornaments made by Hephaestus for the goddesses are described, we find mention of brooches, bent spirals (ἕλικες) ear-drops[58], and chains. Helbig[59] explains the helikes as a kind of brooch made of four spirals, such as are worn in parts of Central Europe, but it is difficult to believe that people who were using brooches with pins and necklaces would not have known and employed the far simpler ring. Again, why should we find two distinct words for brooches coming thus together? Is it not far more likely that in the spirals of Mycenae we have the real bent helikes of Homer? These spirals would serve not only for finger rings, but might be used in the hair, or more probably still were used as a means of fastening on the dress, being passed through eyelet holes or loops, on the principle of the modern key ring[60]. On comparing them with the Scandinavian spiral (Fig. 1) the reader will see that this primitive form of employing gold was widely diffused over Europe. The Scandinavians used such ornaments of bent wire (O.N. baugr, A.S. beag from root BUG, to bend) very commonly, beside oxen and other property, as media of exchange. Thus both beag in Anglo-Saxon, and baugr in Old Norse became used as general names for treasure. Thus baugbrota (cf. hring brota), literally ring-breaker, was used as an epithet of princes, meaning distributor of treasure[61].

Fig. 10. Nos. 1, 2, found in Tipperary; 3, Scandinavian; 4, 5, found in Co. Mayo; 6, 7, 8, ordinary Irish type.

The same spirals of quadrangular wire were probably employed by the Kelts, as that shown in Fig. 10, No. 3 was found in Ireland; Nos. 4 and 5 are of quadrangular wire but are simple hoops, whilst in Nos. 6, 7, 8, we get the regular Irish type of a round wire not completely closed[62]. The latter probably represent a more advanced state of art, as their makers must have had considerable metallurgic skill, No. 8 being made of gold plated over a copper core.

As we shall see further on, the Egyptian rings are made on a standard almost identical with the Homeric talent, and I have shown elsewhere that the rings from Mycenae were made on almost the same standard[63]. I shall endeavour to show in an Appendix that the Irish rings also show evidence of being made on a definite standard, whilst it has been long well known that the Scandinavian rings and armlets have likewise a standard of their own.

When occasion arose they cut off a piece of this bent wire (for it was really nothing more), and gave it by weight. Such a piece was called a scillinga, and is the direct ancestor of our own shilling[64]. It is not unlikely also that the ancient inhabitants of Portugal employed similar pieces of wire, as Strabo tells us that the Lusitanians have no money, but that they employ silver wire, from which they cut off a portion when necessary[65].

We now pass on to Africa, where we shall find most varied systems of currency. Thus on the West Coast of Africa the bar is the unit. In fact all merchandise is reckoned by the bar[66], which now at Sierra Leone means 2s. 3d. worth of any kind of commodity, although originally it meant simply an iron bar of fixed dimensions, which formed the chief article of exchange between the natives and the earliest European traders. In other parts of the same region axes serve as currency; these are too small to be really employed as an implement, but are doubtless the survival of a period not long past when real axes served as money. Thus we get a complete analogy to the hoe money of the Chinese and the fish-hook currency of Ceylon and the Maldive Islands. In Calabar they formerly employed bunches of quadrangular copper-wire as currency. Each wire was about 12 inches long, and they were of course meant to be made into necklets and armlets[67].

Fig. 11. Axe Money (West Africa).

In other parts of the West Coast, as in the Bonny River territory, iron rings very closely resembling in shape the bronze fibulae found in Ireland, which probably were armlets, are employed as money. Those which I have seen seem too small to be used as bracelets, and are now probably a true money, retaining the old conventional shape (see Fig. 12)[68].

Fig. 12. Old Calabar copper-wire formerly used as money.

In the region of the Upper Congo brass rods are employed as currency for articles of small value. This wire, made at Birmingham, about the thickness of ordinary stair-rod, is sent out in coils of 60 lbs., and is then cut into pieces of a foot long[69]. Short brass rods and armlets are also largely exported from Birmingham for the African trade.

Fig. 13. 1. Bronze Irish Fibula found in Co. Cork. 2. Bronze Irish Fibula found in King’s Co. 3. Iron Manilla from W. Africa. 4. Iron Manilla used as money in Bonny River Territory.

There is no absolute standard length—and thus while 36 inches is the one most commonly used, the length varies from 32 to 36 inches.

They go out in boxes containing 100, in straight lengths, and soft to admit of their being wound into armlets, &c.

The diameter of the rod varies from ³⁄₁₆ in. to about ⅜ in.—but a rod weighing about 24 oz. to 3 ft., and ⅜ in. thick, is the one most often made.

Arm rings are made from solid brass rod about ⁷⁄₁₆ in. thick and are usually 2½ in. to 3½ in. in diameter—they are also made in large quantities from brass tubes of ½ in. to ⅝ in. diameter, more frequently from ⁹⁄₁₆ in., the rings being from 2½ in. to 3½ in. in diameter, and weighing from 2½ to 4 oz. each[70].

Slaves and ivory tusks form the chief units in the same region. The slave usually is worth a tusk. In other parts pieces of precious wood of a red colour, each piece being a foot long, were employed as currency[71].

When we come to regions where the ox can live we at once find that animal occupying a foremost place. Thus when the Cape of Good Hope was first colonized, the Hottentots employed cattle and bars of iron of a given size as currency[72], and at the present moment the cow is the regular unit among the Zulus, ten cows being the ordinary price paid for a wife, although as in Homeric Greece fancy prices are paid by the chiefs for ladies of uncommon attractions. But our chief interest must centre in the peoples north of the Equator, who from time immemorial have been in contact with the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean.

Thus among the Madis of Central Africa, a pure negro tribe, cattle form the chief wealth; a rich man may have as many as 200 head, a very poor one only 3 or 4. The average number possessed by one man is from 30 to 40. They keep the milk in gourds.

“A regular system of exchange is carried on in arrows, beads, bead necklaces, teeth necklaces, brass rings for the neck and arms, and bundles of small pieces of iron in flat, round, or oval discs. All these different articles are given in exchange for cattle, corn, salt, arrows, etc. The nearest approach to money is seen in the flat, round pieces of iron which are of different sizes, from three-quarters to two feet in diameter and half an inch thick. They are much employed in exchange. This is the form in which they are kept and used as money, but they are intended to be divided into two, heated and made into hoes. They are also fashioned into other implements, such as knives, arrow-heads, etc. and into little bells hung round the waist for ornament or round wandering cows’ necks. Ready-made hoes are not often used in barter. Iron as above-mentioned is preferred and is taken to the blacksmith to be fashioned according to the owner’s requirements. Any tools may be obtained ready made from a smith, and can be used in barter when new.

“Compensation for killing a woman or any serious crime must be paid for in cattle. No cowries are used as coins in this district, no measure of weight, quantity or length is used. The payment for a wife must be made in cows of a year old, or in bulls of two or three years[73].”

But it is in Darfour and Wadai that we find the primitive system in its fullest form. Wives are bought with cows, 20 of which with a male and female slave are the usual price of a wife, hence the Darfouris prefer daughters to sons. Hence the proverb that girls fill the stable, but boys empty it, which recalls the cow-winning maidens of Homer (παρθένοι ἀλφεσίβοιαι). There is absolutely no metal of any kind in Darfour, except that which is imported. Having no money, they accept certain articles as having a certain monetary value.

Facher was the first place in Darfour which had anything like a currency; it consisted of rings made of tin, which were employed in the purchase of every-day necessaries of life. These rings are called tarneih in Darfouris. There are two kinds, the heavy ring and the light ring; the light serves for buying the most trivial articles. For purchasing articles of value they have the toukkiyeh, a piece of cotton cloth six cubits long by one broad. There are two kinds of this stuff, chykeh and katkât. Four pieces of the former and 4½ pieces of the latter are worth a Spanish dollar. Buying and selling is also carried on by means of slaves: thus one says, “this horse is worth 2 or 3 sedâcy (a name given to a negro slave, who measures six spans from his ankle to the lower part of his ear)[74].” A sedaciyeh is a female negro slave of the same height. A sedâcy is worth 30 toukkiyeh, or six blue chauter, or 8 white chauter or six oxen, or 10 Spanish pillar dollars, the only coined money known in Darfour, where it is called abou medfa, i.e. cannon piece, the pillars being taken for cannons. The inhabitants of Kobeih employ beads for money, which are called harich. They are green and blue and circulate in strings of 100 each. This bead takes the place of the tin ring (tarneih) used at Facher in the purchase of cheap commodities. The harich as money is employed in numbers of from 5 to 100 beads (the string), from one string to ten and indefinitely further[75].

The toukkiyeh is worth in the markets mentioned 8 strings of harich. Thus a sedâcy is worth 240 strings. At Guerly and its environments the falgo or stick of salt almost as big as one’s finger is employed. This salt is obtained artificially, and when liquid is poured into little moulds of baked clay. This salt is sold by the falgo, not by weight, and one buys by 1, 2 or 3 falgo according to the value of the article.

At Conca tobacco is used as money. At Kergo, Ryl, and Chaigriyeh articles of moderate value are bought with hanks of cotton thread. These threads are ten ells long, and there are only 20 threads in each hank. For common articles raw cotton with the pods attached is given; it is not weighed but simply estimated by guess. At Noumleh onions are employed as money for common articles, and the rubat or hank of thread, and toukkiyeh for the more valuable, whilst the chauter and dollar are unknown.

At Ras-el-Fyk[76] the hoe (hachâchah) serves as currency. It is simply a plate of iron fitted with a socket. A handle is fitted into this socket, and one has an implement suited for chopping the weeds in the corn fields. Purchases of small value are made with the hoe from 1 to 20: above that amount the toukkiyeh is employed and likewise the chauter.

At Temourkeh they use as moneys cylindrical pieces of copper (called damleg) for articles of some value, whilst a kind of glass bead called chaddour is used for small articles. Near Ganz, the eastern part of Darfour, the principal article of exchange is the doukha for articles of moderate value. They give it by the handful, or by the double handful up to the amount of half a moda; whilst as elsewhere articles of value are bought by the toukkiyeh or dollar. In a very great number of places merchandise is exchanged against oxen; thus the horse is worth 10 to 20 oxen.

Accordingly while each district of Darfour has some peculiar form of currency for small change the higher currency is the same everywhere, the piece of cloth, the ox, the slave[77].

In the region of Wadai the same shrewd Arab tells us that cattle are kept by even the most barbarous tribes[78]. Thus the Fertyt tribe, who go in a state of almost complete nudity, and thus have no need of cloth, possess large herds of cattle, which are not branded, but each owner distinguishes his cattle by giving a peculiar shape to their horns as soon as they begin to grow. In the less barbarous communities of Wadai slaves and beads are employed as currency as well as cattle. The bead used is called the mansous. It is of yellow amber and of different sizes. Number 1 is so called because one string (containing 100 beads) weighs one rotl (pound) of 12 ounces; Number 2 because two strings weigh a rotl; Number 3 because 3 strings make a rotl and so on. The first is the most costly of all beads. Often a single bead of this sort (soumyt) is worth two slaves; if it is abundant each bead is worth a slave.