198 THE EVOLUTION OF 



universal instance of a non-metallic money proper is the 

 cowry ; for these sea-shells, where chiefly used in the 

 East, are not of any domestic use whatever to the people 

 who pass them from hand to hand, and are expressly 

 imported in very large quantities, often from great dis- 

 tances, only for the purpose of a medium of exchange. 

 They afford a clear example of an untouched natural 

 product being converted into money as distinguished 

 from currency. 



We have now effected the great transition, and having 

 passed into the region of money are face to face with 

 a fresh natural law the Law of Money which will 

 follow us through all developments from the earliest 

 to the latest. For all these things broken rice, imitation 

 iron instruments, and cowries properly fulfil the con- 

 ditions for money. They have to be produced, and 

 though fairly common, the production is, in the conditions 

 in which the producers live, nevertheless limited, and 

 therefore they can have a token value. To take the 

 least likely instance. Rice has to be cultivated ; the 

 amount of cultivation depends on the capacities and 

 numbers of the cultivators ; of what is thus produced 

 a fixed quantity must go for food and another fixed 

 quantity for seed ; only what is spoiled in handling and 

 what is over can be used for money. The production 

 of broken rice is therefore distinctly limited and at the 

 same time sufficiently abundant. This is why to isolated 

 half-civilized villagers, living in certain places, broken rice 

 is money. The reasoning that makes it money for them 

 is precisely that which makes gold, silver, and copper 

 tokens money for us. 



Another example of all this is a feather ornament in 

 the New Hebrides, which is worn by men after cele- 

 brating the prescribed number of feasts and then used 



