The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

THE ELEMENTS OF PKIMAEVAL FINANCE. 115of the parties would automatically come into being.Atfirst it would take the form of a surreptitious bribe,intended to curry favour with a more powerful neighbour.This in time would become a recognized tribute, whencustom allowed of itsopen payment. As a consequence,the protection of the community against enemies wouldbecome the duty of the tribute taker, and to a certainextent the tribute would be used for this purpose.On the other hand, between equals, a treaty of peacewould be clothed in the guise of an alliance of marriage,or an exchange of gifts,and the price of a wife wouldconstitute one of the forms of the price of peace. Theold custom of carrying off a wife, and the consequentinternecine and Homeric struggles, would become theexception rather than the rule. Marriage would becomethe basis of a treaty of peace between the contractingparties,and the existence of the wife-mother from anothercommunity would be the guarantee of its stability.In this we find the true significance of marriagesnegotiated between the rulers of the ancient communitiesof the old world.This price of a wife from the outer world was one ofthe first instances of the direct and peaceful export ofthe goods of one community into the bounds of another,and the exchange of gifts would be another. The twotogether constitute the beginnings of foreign commerce,and are both variant forms of the price of peace.The custom of exchanging commodities of equal valuewas naturally limited to those persons between whomconditions of peace existed, and would, to a great extent,be local in its observance. Professor Eidgeway 2 has2Origin of Weights and Currency.i2