THK. ArSTI^vALTAX MTSKl'M .MA(;AZL\E. 



281 



Barter, Currency and Coinage. 



By Wilj.tam W. 'I'horpk. 



TO-DAY, when one handles money, 

 one is more concerned regarding 

 its ]iiirchasing ])o\ver, or value, 

 than its ap])earance. As a work of art 

 a coin may be dis])araged, but all would 

 realise how essential money is to our 

 life, and what an im]iortant factor it is 

 in the mechanism of commerce. 



In days of old, those days so often 

 spoken of, money as we understand it 

 was imknown and barter ruled in its 

 place, one commodity being exchanged 

 for another. As an instance of this, one 

 may cite a trading custom that obtains 

 to-day in Papua, where stone-age man 

 yet lingers. The natives of Port 

 Moresby are adept ]X)tters, but the 

 sago palm, which affords their prin- 

 ciple article of food, does not thrive in 

 their district. Away to the west in the 

 Papuan Gulf the sago palm flourishes, 



and, as the natives there are not pot- 

 tery makers, what is more natural than 

 for them to trade ? So every year, at 

 the end of Se])tember or beginning of 

 October, the season of the south-east 

 trade wind being then at its close, a 

 fleet of lakatois, or large sailing canoes, 

 laden with pottery leave Port Moresby 

 on a voyage to the deltas of the Pa^nmii 

 Gulf, whence they later return with 

 cargoes of sago. 



This primitive form of exchange, 

 through which all communities must 

 have ])assed, later gave way to cur- 

 rency or the ado]ition of articles not 

 easily acquired or manufactured. A 

 host of things have served in this 

 capacity — grain, wheat, rock-salt, tob- 

 acco, gold-dust, cinnabar, sheep, cattle 

 (from which the word pecunia is 

 derived), skins, cloth, knives, armlets. 



Loading Lakatoi at Port Moresby. 



[After Lincll, 



