FREE LABOUR AND CONTRACT, 5H 



weight made valuations of exchangeable things more or less 

 vague. Even when stamped coins came into use, the mint 

 ing in various places by various persons, entailed unlike- 

 nesses in the amounts of metal; and after State-coinage had 

 replaced other coinages, debasement re-introduced indefi- 

 niteness. Only in modern times have trustworthy curren 

 cies given precision to contracts; and even still, in various 

 places, depreciated paper-currencies interfere with this pre 

 cision. 



Still another factor has to be recognized. In days before 

 writing was prevalent, and when men s promises were less to 

 be trusted than now, contracts had that kind of indefinite- 

 ness which takes the form of uncertainty. Hence hindrance 

 from the need for witnesses. In Anglo-Saxon times 

 &quot; Business had to be conducted publicly before witnesses, as there 

 was no means of giving a regular receipt, and it might often have been 

 difficult for a man to prove that he had not stolen a purchased article 

 unless his statement was supported by testimony ; hence the obligation 

 of trading in port. &quot; 



And at later dates there were State-appointed officials in 

 markets before whom bargains were made and exchanges 

 effected ; as during early days in the East. 



Finally, for the development of contract, human nature 

 has to undergo appropriate modifications. In low stages not 

 only are all things, all transactions, all ideas, inexact, but 

 there is a dislike of exactness. The uneducated have a 

 positive love of indefiniteness : witness the resistance of 

 cooks to use of weights and measures, and their preference 

 for handfuls and pinches. In the East at the present day, 

 where implements are rude and the lines, curves, and sur 

 faces of industrial products are never quite true, all things 

 are indefinite. Like our own in ancient times, the narrow 

 streets are extremely irregular; the unmetalled roads are 

 without boundaries; after long bargaining articles are sold 

 for half as much as \vas asked ; and there is repugnance to 

 distinct agreements. Negotiation with a dragoman has to be 



