510 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tions did not easily become habitual; since family-relations 

 did not involve ideas of exchange. As Prof. Cunningham 

 remarks: 



At the time of Caesar . . . society was bound together by ties of 

 blood and personal duty.&quot; 



&quot;The more highly developed life of the eleventh century involved 

 the habitual use of definite ideas of ownership and status, such as men 

 in the condition Caesar describes could not have grasped. Dealings at 

 markets and fairs, as well as the assignment of definite portions of 

 land, necessitate the employment of measures for which the primitive 

 Germans could have had little use.&quot; 



This last sentence brings into view another factor in the 

 development of contract. Under one of its leading aspects 

 evolution, no matter of what kind, involves change from the 

 indefinite to the definite; and it is thus with measures of 

 quantity, whether of w y eight, capacity, length, or area. 

 &quot; While primitive tribes may estimate land very roughly by 

 units which have no precise areal value, agriculturists in a 

 highly civilised society desire to have an accurate metric 

 system.&quot; Similarly with other contracts, the habit of ex 

 changing led to precision of measures, and precision of meas 

 ures facilitated the habit of exchanging. Derived from 

 organic lengths and weights the cubit, the foot, the carat, 

 the grain measures became precise and State-authorized 

 only in course of time ; and only then did contracts become 

 definite. Only then, too, could the idea of equivalence be 

 made clear by comparing the quantities which different 

 dealers gave in exchange. 



For complete development of contract definite measures 

 of value w^ere also needed. We have seen in Chapter VIII 

 how greatly, in early stages, exchange was impeded by ab 

 sence of a currency. We have seen how a currency, at first 

 consisting of leading articles of consumption, such as cattle, 

 had units of variable worth. When manufactured articles 

 weapons, tools, cloth, became media of exchange, indefi- 

 niteness still characterized prices. After weights of metal 

 were employed as money, differences in the standards of 



