of wealth we may need at some certain time. A store full of boots 

 and shoes is wealth, but the man who owns them may need some- 

 thing else, and therefore he is eager to exchange these for some- 

 thing that everybody is willing to take. Now, we want something 

 by which we can regulate such exchanges ; the one has got to bal- 

 ance the othex*. Thus the advantage in having some standard in 

 order to tell us just how much wealth is represented by any com- 

 modity. This standard is money, and this is the difference be- 

 tween money and wealth. Wealth needs a standard of value, in 

 order to tell how much wealth is worth, so that we may know how 

 to exchange our products, and thus money is a standard of value. 



Now, these two things will give us the notion exactly what 

 money is. It is always a standard of value, and it is a medium of 

 exchange. These two things have got to belong to monej' every- 

 where money is found. In order to be a standard of value, it has 

 got to be valuable — that is, it has got to cost labor, and it has got 

 to be something which people will desire — both these |in order to 

 be a standard of value. And, if you keep both these elements in 

 mind, it is possible, you see, to have anything as a standard value. 

 Are you aware what the first money made legal currency in this 

 our Commonwealth wag? On the 4th of March, 1635, the Gen- 

 eral Court of the colony ordered that bullets of full bore should 

 be counted legal currency at the rate of a farthing apiece. In 

 1637, the same General Court ordered that merchantable beaver 

 should be reckoned as money at the rate of ten shillings a pound. 

 Next, wampum was made current. Innumerable other things 

 have been used as money, iron with the Lacedemonians, cattle with 

 the Romans and our Saxon ancestors, leather with the Carthagin- 

 ians, cubes of salt with the Abyssinians, etc. — so that anything 

 that is really an object of desire costs labor, from the time of 

 Abraham, when he paid to the children of Heth 400 shekels of 

 silver, till now. 



With the civilized and commercial people of the globe, gold and 

 silver have been the money of the world, and there are some 

 things which are advantageous in the metals, which explains why 

 they are used as money. They are valuable ; everybody wants 

 gold and silver, nor. simi:»ly as money, but for ornaments, for plate 

 and other uses. They are valuable in themselves, and then they 



