CURRENCY AND COINAGE 217 



where used, are bought by local dealers wholesale by 

 weight in sacks and retailed by tale, so that the smaller 

 the cowries which the retail dealer can manage to pass 

 the greater his profit. In India the cowries of currency 

 are large, on the west coast of Africa they are of medium 

 size, in the South Pacific they are very small. A clear 

 instance of taking advantage of local conditions and the 

 state of public knowledge for personal profit. 



Lastly, in such discussions as this the question natu- 

 rally arises : why have some nations advanced further 

 than others in this matter, the capacity for reasoning 

 being the same ? The answer is that advance in any 

 given matter and in any given direction is due to a 

 general advance in other directions, itself due to a thou- 

 sand causes and very largely to environment. The 

 ability of individuals to advance is strictly limited to 

 environment. The capacity is always there, but it must 

 remain dormant until circumstances permit it to be 

 aroused. It all goes back to the action of the natural 

 law of contact, a condition which mankind has all along 

 unconsciously recognized in the universal proverb that 

 necessity is the mother of invention, and in the term 

 'opportunity.' In the words of the Preacher in the 

 Bible in remarking on the achievements of men : ' Time 

 and chance happeneth to them all.' Whole groups of 

 communities have observed this, and because of their 

 environment have evolved the unscientific doctrine of 

 Fate and its little suspected counterparts which exist 

 even amongst ourselves. 



