THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY—DAVIDSON. 183 
the possession of the metals, and has acquired the power of 
working them, a long course of monetary development is possible 
for him. He tinds out by experience which metal suits his 
purpose best; and that purpose may change as the centuries 
pass. Our present currencies are the result of the law of the 
survival of the fittest. The primitive condition was general 
use ; and that always remains the first condition of the use of 
an article as currency. But along with that, there are other 
conditions which are stated in every monetary text-book. All 
the metals have been used in turn. Iron was used in Sparta, 
and is used to-day in the Dark Continent. Lead and tin, and 
platinum, gold, and silver, and copper, have all been used. But 
experience has shown that gold and silver pre-eminently, and 
copper, or some alloy of it, in a less degree, are best suited for 
currency purposes. 
This has been the general course of development ; but though 
it is sometimes hard, amid all the talk about progress to realize 
that the stationary state of society is the usual phenomenon, 
yet it is true that most peoples have not become civilized, and 
since many remain in the most primitive stages of society, we 
still have many actual instances of primitive currency in present 
day use. Progress seems alike impossible in the frozen north 
and in the torrid south ; and in these regions the conditions of 
life are almost unchanged, and there we may see the kinds of 
money our forefathers of untold generations ago employed. 
The rigour of the northern winters prevents the rearing of 
domestic animals, or the systematic cultivation of the soil, and 
there the primitive hunting stage still exists. The wealth of 
these Arctic communities consists in skins, and in some cases of 
dried fish, which they exchange with the trader from the south 
for their few luxuries or use for their own clothing and _ sus- 
tenance. Under these conditions skins, or their modern equiva- 
lents, form the natural medium of exchange. A writer in a 
popular magazine gives a graphic description of the skin money 
used in the Hudson Bay Territories : 
“Tn old times, when an Indian wanted a rifle, the rifle was 
stood on end, and the Indian laid furs flat on the ground till 
