174 THE EVOLUTION OF 



The actual use to which currency and coinage are put 

 is to enable human beings to exchange commodities or 

 conveniences with each other. The object of this 

 lecture is to examine, so far as the time available per- 

 mits, how far human beings manage to put currency 

 and coinage to their use. 



j The idea of exchange, in the sense of a gift for an 

 equivalent in return, is itself a development. I doubt 

 if it is present in young children, and I throw out the 

 suggestion that it would be an interesting occupation 

 for those in a position to do so, to determine the average 

 age at which the child proceeds definitely from the idea 

 of the gift to the idea of barter, or gift for gift. [Since 

 delivering this lecture I have been told by a competent 

 observer of very young children in numbers that the 

 idea of gift for gift, without knowledge of relative value, 

 comes to the highly civilized English child with the 

 taught knowledge of counting, and that * swopping ' of 

 articles of assumed equal value, involving thfe idea 

 of relative value, comes much later with the taught 

 knowledge of games based on counting. It will be 

 presently seen that the progression of ideas here is 

 precisely that which has been observed amongst primi- 

 ) tive savages.] 



At any rate there are in existence savages, who have 

 not even yet developed beyond the initial stage and 

 have no definite notion of barter. The most primitive 

 savages of my acquaintance I have learnt too much 

 caution to say the most primitive in existence are the 

 Andaman islanders in the Bay of Bengal. Among them, 

 excepting in the absolute essentials of life and in the 

 most cherished articles of food, all possessions are com- 

 munal and freely given away, even children, for the 

 asking. Among many of them also, who are still out 



