THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY DAVIDSON. 187 



Beaver skins formed the greater part of the circulating medium, 

 and in 1631 it was enacted that grain could be paid unless 

 beaver or money (that is metallic money) were called for by the 

 contract. This law remained in force for half a century ; and 

 other agricultural commodities were added to the list as occasion 

 seemed to demand. Corn, wheat, barley, and peas, at fixed prices 

 per bushel, were sanctioned by law as currency, and taxes could 

 be paid in them at the discretion of the taxpayer.* 



A similar colonial policy produced similar results in French 

 Canada. The scarcity of metallic money was even greater than 

 in the English colonies ; and at all times commodity substitutes 

 for metallic coinage were in use. The scarcity was so great that 

 in addition to the beaver skin, which was practically the unit of 

 value, wheat was declared a legal tender in 1669 at four livres 

 the mint, while in 1673 the council further ordered that bear 

 skins could be tendered in payment at their current value.^f- 



But to return to the monetary practice of primitive communi- 

 ties. In the torrid zone clothing is a burden, and nature supplies 

 plenteous store of the food suited" to the climate. The chief 

 objects of desire are ornaments. The instinct for personal 

 adornment is one of the most powerful instincts of the race 

 Shells were the earliest and simplest articles so employed ; and 

 we find shell money used in all parts of the world. In the 

 torrid zone they still form the principal medium of exchange. 

 The cowries of the countries round the Indian Ocean have many 

 of the qualities which we require in the money material. They 

 are durable, portable, and are universally esteemed. In India 

 and Siam, in West Africa, as well as in East Africa, and indeed 

 at one time or another in every country in the world on whose 

 shores they are found, cowries serve as the small change of com- 

 merce. They are to-day collected in vast quantities in the 

 Maldive and Laccadive islands to be exported to serve as money 

 elsewhere. The value fluctuates enormously, depending on 

 their abundance or scarcity. In Africa traders estimate a 



*White : Money and Hanking, Chap. 1. 

 tKingsford : History of Canada, Vol. 1, p. 156. 



