THE AGE OF BRONZE 
cows. We find a trace of this ancient practice in our word 
“pecuniary,” which comes from the Latin pecus, meaning a 
herd or flock. Later, in early historic times, the Romans 
used as a crude sort of money a rough ingot of bronze, 
stamped with the figure of an ox, sheep, or pig, recalling 
the time when these animals were themselves the medium 
of exchange (Fig. 94). 
A fixed quantity of grain of 
one sort or another also served 
as a standard of values in some 
regions till recent times. The 
Japanese, down to the middle of 
the nineteenth century, com- 
puted incomes in bags of rice, 
each holding about five bushels. 
But the development of a 
true coinage resulted from the 
introduction of metal. Man 
soon realized that bronze ob- 
jects—rings, tools, and weap- 
ons—provided him convenient 
objects to trade with; they were 
much in demand and in their 
very nature they came to be 
more or less standardized in size 
and weight and quality. Their 
use, which extended wherever 
the knowledge of bronze ex- 
tended in late prehistoric times, 
represented, of course, only a 
special form of barter. You 
“swapped” a bronze ax or hoe 
or knife for so many furs or so 
Fic. 95. Early Chinese knife- 
money of copper; about 650- 
250 B.c. After Lockhart 
much amber. But in time the weight of full-sized bronze 
tools and weapons presented difficulties, especially on a 
long trading expedition; so small models of the objects were 
cast to take their place. Thus token money was devised. 
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