CURRENCY AND COINAGE 175 



of contact with civilization, the utmost development 

 of the idea of barter is the making of a gift in 

 expectation of another gift in due course in return. 

 If the return is neglected there is a row. This you 

 will perceive is, however, not real barter. It has not 

 got so far. It is not even the giving of a definite 

 thing for another definite thing in return. That idea 

 involves a further development, which some of these 

 savages in their untutored state, and only some, 

 possess in that fluid fashion in which they possess all 

 ideas. 



This development has been brought about by environ- 

 ment. Those of them that have chanced, owing to local 

 conditions, to possess the monopoly of a thing have 

 exchanged it, in an indefinite manner, for something else 

 they could not readily get. That is, they gave cooking- 

 pots made of a special clay, found only in certain parts 

 of the islands, to friendly tribes for gifts made imme- 

 diately in return. 



Now I ask you to observe, that even in such primitive 

 conditions as these, the human mind has been working 

 on regular lines of thought development. First there is 

 the gift, then simply a gift for another gift. Then there 

 is the gift of an article that a particular class only 

 possesses for a gift in return of an article that it wants. 

 In all this there is as yet no idea of relative value. It 

 is not yet true barter. That requires a still further 

 development. But in the very little distance we have 

 proceeded on our journey we have stumbled across 

 a general law of nature, which will meet us everywhere 

 on our further progress and in every anthropological 

 investigation the pressure of contact on human de- 

 velopment. As it is the possession by some of the 

 Andamanese of a thing that their neighbours cannot 



