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

124 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.There would be no standard value possible amongsta race of bargainers. For it was their business tobargain with the different values of different countries.Hence they made use of precious metal, durable,compact, and desirable material ;in the earliest days,they chose bronze and copper, from which weapons andutensils could be made ;slightly later, silver, whichbecame " current with the merchant " 12; last of all, inthe days of pomp and luxury, gold, the most immutableand the most desirable of them all.As a direct consequence of this, the standard value ofthe various communities, when expressed in preciousmetal, and finally in gold, became the dominant form,so that in the time of Pollux the idea became inverted,and a gold coin was always a orarj|o, or valuerThe foregoing sketch of the separate beginnings ofDomestic and Foreign Trade will lead us to the conclusionthat the precious metals became naturally thecurrency of the merchant. At the same time, domestictrade in a self-supporting country developed a systemof alternative values, whose equality was given instandard units of value, which might be expressed inany recognized form of commodity. The combinationof the two, or the local value expressed in preciousmetals, in later times constituted the coin.Now, the Greeks had a systemof the two. Some, like Solon, boldlywhich was a mixturetook the risksof foreign adventure, some, like the Arcadians, stayedpeacefully at home amongst their flocks and herds.Others, like the Argives and the Aeginetans, becamepedlars and shop-keepers,a very necessaryclass where12Gen. xxiii. 16. " Pollux, ix. 59.