310 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



were active and furs were plenty there appears to have been no diffi- 

 culty in passing any quantity of wampum in common with other cur- 

 rencies. The Bay annulled its statutes making the beads a legal tender 

 in 1661. Rhode Island and Connecticut followed soon after. * * * 



" In 1627 De Rasieres, with a Dutch trading vessel, came into Ply- 

 mouth from New Amsterdam. In her cargo was a lot of wampum 

 valued at £50, for the Dutch had learned its uses as a currency in their 

 traffic with the natives. They sent this first installment to the trading- 

 post on the river Kennebec, where it was kept in hand for two years. 

 Meanwhile the interior Indians heard of it, and the assured supply 

 brought a demand. For some years after the Plymouth men could 

 hardly furnish wampum enough, etc. * * * In 1637 the trade in 

 maize with the Indians up the Connecticut River was so importart to 

 the colonies below that they recorded an ordinance with penalties re- 

 stricting it. * * * In 1638 the same authority fixed the price of 

 corn * * * at Us. 6cl. per bushel in money, at 6s. per bushel in 

 wampum at three a penny, or if in beaver according to the order at 9s. 

 per pound. * * * This particular instance shows that wampum 

 had then made itself nearly equal in purchasing power to money of any 

 kind. The Bay authorities had fixed the rate in 1637 at six beads for 

 a penny for any sum under 12d. In the early statutes only one rate 

 is mentioned. Probably it was understood that the black was included 

 at double the rate fixed for the white. In many of the later laws the 

 two colors are mentioned in that proportion. The usual difficulty caused 

 by a standard of value fluctuating between different markets was ex- 

 perienced now. Connecticut received wampum for taxes, in 1637, at 

 four a penny. They tried to bring it to the Massachusetts standard, 

 for the ordinance of 1640 says: * The late order concerning Wampu at 

 sixe a penny shall be disolued, and the former of fower a penny and two 

 pence to be paid in the shilling shall be established.* 



" In the same year Massachusetts came to the Connecticut standard, 

 the white to pass at four and the 'bleuse 7 at two a penny, not above 

 12d. at a time, except at the will of the receiver. In 1641 they submitted 

 to the inevitable and made the shell beads a legal tender at six a penny 

 in sums of £10." 



Mr. Weeden, whose admirable memoir* has been freely quoted herein, 

 and who it is quite evident from numerous foot-notes has carefully 

 gleaned the records of the colonial period in this connection, goes 

 on to say : " Evidently the proud merchants and capitalists of the Bay 

 had adopted the Indian money only when the absolute necessity of 

 their community demanded the sanction of law. The precious maize 

 which many writers have designated as an essential factor in the pros- 

 perity of the early colonists had yielded the first place, and shell money 

 became the principal medium of intercourse with the natives. Stringent 

 necessity forced men like Winthrop and Endicott to receive tbese bar 

 * Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization. Baltimore, 1834. 



