39 
Cattle being counted by the head, they were called capitate, 
hence the word capital, also the legal term chattel. 
In agricultural states, corn has usually been the currency. In 
Egypt in particular this was so. In Mediterranean lands, olive oil 
has been used as currency. This is a convenient medium from the 
point of view of divisibility. It lasts a very long time, and is in 
constant demand. Fufilling therefore, two of the conditions neces- 
sary for a commodity when used as currency. In Central America 
cacao nuts have been used. 
Two of the best known vegetable currencies are tobacco and 
sugar. In the North American plantations, now the New England 
States, tobacco was the currency for a very long period. In 1732 
Maryland made tobacco and Indian corn legal tender for pay- 
ments. 
In the West Indies, payments were legal in sugar, rum, 
molasses, indigo and tobacco. 
In Barbados the currency was at first cotton and tobacco. 
In 1640 sugar became the currency and was rated in sterling at 
10s. per 100 lbs. By the close of the 17th century, coin had taken 
the place of sugar to a great extent, and by 1715, a metallic stan- 
dard was formally established. 
Manufactured goods have also figured as currency. Pieces of 
cloth known as guinea pieces have been used on the west coast of 
Africa; salt in Abysinnia, Sumatra and Mexico; Benzoin gum and 
beeswax; in Sumarta, feathers, tea, etc. 
In general the development from simple barter to the modern 
system of metallic and paper currency has followed much the same 
course. Various media of exchange were used until the idea was 
hit upon of making a metallic token to represent the article for- 
merly used. A piece of metal comparatively rare at the time was 
taken and stamped with a mark to indicate that it was worth a unit 
or multiple of the customary standard of value. Thus in the case 
of ancient Greece, payments were made in bronze coins, reckoned 
in terms of cattle. That is to say. the money of account was cattle, 
but the currency was copper. As time went on the idea of the 
original currency became vague, and the metallic representative 
itself became the standard of value, and the money of account, 
as well as the medium of exchange. Increased mining operations 
made the chosen metal more common, and more of it had to be 
given in exchange for other things, that is to say: prices rose. 
The amount of coin to be handled then became inconveniently 
large, and at length a rarer metal was selected to represent thv 
higher values in a more portable form. Thus copper, then silver, 
and lastly gold, were pressed into use for metallic currency. 
Ultimately owing to great expansion of trade, even gold became 
too bulky for convenience, and the further device was resorted to 
