476 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xm. 



writing, the Greek cultivation of the vine, Greek manu- 

 factures, and the newly-discovered art of striking coins 

 from metals. This coinage has been traced through 

 Gaul into Britain, in the Iron age (see pp. 436-9), as well 

 as over the whole of the area from Bohemia to the mouth 

 of the Ehine, and it penetrated into northern Italy. 



The introduction of stamped money marks an import- 

 ant change in the commerce of the world. It had passed 

 from its first simple condition of being an exchange of 

 goods, to a second and more highly- organised stage- 

 that is to say, an exchange of goods for metal, which, 

 instead of being weighed, was furnished with a stamp 

 marking its true value. The earliest coins are those of 

 Pheidon of ^Egina, circa B.C. 660, or of the Lydians in 

 the reign of Gyges, B.C. 700. A coinage of bronze was 

 introduced into Eome in the reign of Numa or Servius 

 Tullius, of silver in B.C. 269, in the First Punic war, and 

 of gold about sixty "years afterwards. 1 



The main routes of this commerce are clearly defined 

 by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. The caravans passed 

 from Massilia up the Ehone (see Eoute IV. of Map, 

 Fig. 168), down the Valley of the Loire and of the Seine, 

 and up that of the Saone into the Valley of the Ehine. 

 The two first of these, according to Diodorus Siculus, 

 were used for the trade with Britain ; and the last was 

 directed towards the amber of Schleswig and Holstein, 

 from which probably the greater portion of the precious 

 commodity was obtained. It may, however, have been 

 partially derived from Samland. It is said to have been 

 collected by the Gutones or Jutes, and to have been 

 sold by them to the Teutones, through whom it passed 

 into the hands of the Massilian traders. 



1 Lubbock, Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1879, p. 789. 



