V. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY, BY PROF. J. DAVIDSON. 

 PHIL. D., Fredericton, N. B. 



(Read May Ikth, 1900). 



It is hardly possible to determine whether there ever was a 

 time in the history of the race when each individual was self- 

 sufficient, and, like the Homeric Cyclops, paid no regard to 

 others. Some of the Australian tribes are so low in the scale 

 of civilization that even barter is unknown amongst them, but 

 whether these represent the universal primitive type cannot be 

 determined one way or the other. It is evident, however, 

 wherever we find the first germs of social life, we find, at the 

 same time, a kind of rude division of labor which necessitates, 

 and renders possible, the beginnings of trade. Trade in its 

 origin is simply barter, the direct exchange of one article for 

 another. But barter, however simple in appearance, is more 

 complicated than modern exchange. It must often have hap- 

 pened in the early history of trade that two parties failed to 

 make a trade for the simple reason that, while both were anxious 

 to give what they had, in exchange for what they wanted, neither 

 of them needed or desired what the other had to offer. This 

 lack of coincidence has frequently placed travellers in very 

 great straits. If the native who holds the store of food does 

 not find in articles which the explorer displays to catch the 

 aboriginal fancy, something which attracts him, he passes on, 

 and the traveller and his party have to go hungry. Sir R. 

 Burton warns the would-be explorer against assuming that any 

 sort of trinkets will suffice for the purchase of supplies and the 

 hiring of labor. The African native has his own standard of 

 taste, and no matter how gaudy and how gimcrack the stock of 

 Brummagem goods displayed may be, the native will take such 

 things only as agree with his standard of taste. Nothing wilt 

 induce the primitive savage to take what he does not immed- 

 iately require in exchange for the food the traveller desires, 



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