306 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



SECT. I. 



Of the want of Money. 



MR. de Paw decides that no nation of America was 

 cultivated or civilized, becaufe no one made ufe of mo- 

 ney ; and to fupport this alTertion he quotes a pafTage 

 from Montefquieu : " Ariftippus," fays this politician 

 (a), " having been fhipwrecked, made by fwimming to 

 " the neighbouring more ; he faw upon the fand fome 

 " figures of Geometry drawn, and became full of joy, 

 cc being perfuaded that he was thrown among a Greek 

 <c people, and not any barbarous nation. Imagine to 

 " yourfelf that by fome accident you are placed in an un- 

 c£ known country ; if you find any money there, do not 

 " doubt that you are arrived among a poliftied people." 

 But if Montefquieu juftly infers the civilization of a 

 country from the ufe of money, M. de Paw does not 

 well deduce the want of civilization from the deficiency 

 of money. If we are to underftand by money, a piece 

 of metal, with the ftamp of the prince, or the public, it 

 is certain that the want of it in a nation is no token of 

 barbarity. " The Athenians," fays the fame author, 

 Montefquieu, ce becaufe they had no ufe of the metals, 

 " employed oxen for money, as the Romans did fheep 

 and from thence took its origin, as we all know, the 

 word pecunia ; as the Romans put the ftamp of a ftieep 

 on the firft money they coined, which they employed af- 

 terwards in their contracts. The Greeks were certain- 

 ly a very cultivated nation in the times of Homer, fince 

 it was impoffible that in the midft of an uncultivated 

 nation, a man fliould fpring up capable of compo- 

 sing 



(<z) Efprit des Loix. liv. xviii, chap. 13. 



