elementsofbankin025161mbp

|g THE ELEMENTS OF BANKING.
this universal want. The Hebrews we know
represent
silver: although no money was used at the period of tha
Homeric poems, copper
skewers were some time afterwards
employed as money
in Greece, which were MipcTstuied by
the silver coinage of Pheidon. The Ethiopian* uaul carved
pebbles, and the Carthaginians leather discs, with .some myuterioua
substance sewed up in them. Throughout the i*!and of tho
Eastern Ocean, and many parts
of Africa and India Hliolln ur5
still used. In Thibet, and some parts of China little hioekn of
compressed tea serve as money. Salt is used in Abyssinia : and
in the oasis of Africa a certain measure of dates, calkul a hatia,
serves as money. In the last century dried cod wan uod in
Newfoundland : sugar in the West Indies : and tobacco in Virginia.
Smith says that in his day a village in Scotland ud
nails. In some of the American colonies powder and whot ;
in
Campeachy logwood and ; among the North American Indium*
belts of wampum served the purpose of Money.
It is mid that
in 1867 the proprietors in Virginia were reduced to HUC!* IHKWHsity
as to use dried squirrel skins as money. And no doubt
many other things have been used by other nations.
But when we consider the purposes for which Money in
intended, it is easily seen that no substance pow,gHOH HO many
advantages as a METAL. The use of Money being to pr