CURRENCY AND COINAGE 207 



for reckoning money. We have further the old dozen 

 or duodecimal scale with a most ancient descent, so con- 

 venient in dealing with small quantities and, unlike the 

 decimal scale, so inconvenient in the case of large ones, 

 whence the prolonged current controversy on their re- 

 spective merits. And lastly, we have a whole gamut of 

 scales in the Far East developed out of those prevalent 

 in the Middle Ages among the Malays on the commercial 

 high water-way from East to West, which in themselves 

 are probably all of Indian origin : and the modern 

 Indian scales representing developments side by side of 

 indigenous scales and those imported originally from 

 Europe. 



The idea of counting currency has also, wherever it 

 has existed, led at once to those of interest, or return of 

 more than one lends, i. e. gives temporarily, and of capital 

 which is the accumulation of separate pieces. It is not 

 at all necessary that metal money, or even easily 

 divisible or separable money, should exist to turn it to 

 personal pecuniary advantage by way of interest or 

 capital. In the South Pacific islands there is the mat- 

 money, consisting of mats made in great lengths in folds, 

 whose relative value is determined by the number of 

 folds counted in tens and their blackness or age. Mats 

 with fewer or newer folds are lent in return for mats 

 with more or older folds. Here is the whole theory of 

 interest, and when these mats are accumulated we arrive 

 at capital. In the same way masses of tapa or black 

 cloth money in Fiji when accumulated represented 

 capital. In these cases we have strong instances of the 

 law of the constancy of human reasoning. 



To go back to the lumps of bullion. A piece of 

 bullion metal whose weight only has been tested is still, 

 though capable of being counted, an uncertain medium 



