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

THE ELEMENTS OF PRIMAEVAL FINANCE. 125stores of foreign made goods were needed for the everydayuse of the community though of a certainty adespicable class in an elementary community. Theircourage was not great enough to allow them to take thechance of the perils of travel, their industry was notsufficient to earn the comparatively small but steadyprofits of agriculture but their greed, and the cunning;of their wits, enabled them to drive hard bargains, andcontraryto Aristotle's natural law to earn theirlivelihood at the expense of fellow -members of theirown community. From this class, much later, sprangthe money-lenders, who, from the safe basis of Aegina,gained possession of the mortgages on Attic land, andreduced to poverty the agricultural population of thatstate. To this class a local currency was a necessity,in which to hoard for opportunity their superfluouswealth, which could only be expressed in such a form,or in the intangible security of a mortgage on land,slaves, or person. These last conditions, however, onlycame into being in historic times.But, though this digression is necessary to exemplifythe three peaceful developments of commerce, theexistence of such a race of pedlars was not possible tillquite late, when the " King's peace " was enforcible uponthe highways. Protection to the high-roads and seatrade-routes only came after the pioneers of commercehad established them. And those times were not yet.Let us, therefore, return, and demonstrate clearly thatwealth in precious metals held no privileged positionamong the early Egyptians. For their country givesus the necessary example of a self-contained and selfsupportingcommunity, which grew into great power andprosperity in the most ancient times.