113 
or a talile was more valuable than ivory two or three times its 
weigh t.i 
I’rade naturally developed most in the regions of greatest 
prosperity, where the food supply was most certain and the population 
largest and most stable. The lowlands of eastern Canada vied with 
the Pacific coast in these respects. The Hurons and other agricultural 
tribes around the Great Lakes sold corn and tobacco to the Algonkians, 
receiving in exchange various furs.- These were the i:)rincipal 
commodities that passed between the two peoples, but there were 
many other articles, such as canoes, nets, and ornaments of shell 
and co])per. Indeed, the Algonkians probably derived less profit 
from their furs than from the sale of “medicines” (using that word 
to mean both herbal remedies, and magical amulets and rites), which 
were in great demand among all the tribes to the south and west.^ 
Even to-day Cree “ medicines ” have a high reputation for efficacy 
among the plains’ tribes, aiul are frequently bought and sold for 
what aj^pear to us ridiculous prices. 
Before Europeans penetrated far up the St. Lawrence, the 
Iroquoian natives had evolved a regular currency of beads, 
“ wampum,” which was manufactured by New England coastal tribes 
from clam and other shells. This wampum was carried in strings 
(“branches”, as the old French writers called them) or woven into 
belts and sashes, a normal belt in the early eighteenth century 
containing eleven strands, each of about one hundred and eighty 
beads. ^ They were of two colours, white and purple, which had 
different symbolic meanings and different values. The Iroquoians 
estimatefl the entire wealth of their nations by the number of beads 
they possessed. In commercial transactions only loose beads or 
strings were used, the strings being measured by the fathom. The 
Jesuit Relations speak of a certain Huron who returned from a six 
months’ trading journey with his gross receipts entirely in the form of 
wampum beads, of which he had fourteen thousand. This shell 
currency, however, was not altogether aboriginal. In pre-European 
times the beads were so difficult to manufacture with nothing but 
1 The are said to liave boUKlit planks for makinp: boxes from the Tsinishian (Handbook of 
American Iniiaiis, article “Commerce”); but thi.s nmst ha\i! occurred only rarely, because Queen 
Charlotte islands contain ,just as excellent stanrls of cedar and of spruce as the mainland. 
2 “ .Tesuit Relations," vol. xxxi, p. 209 et posshn ; Thompson; Op. cit., p. 261. 
2 “ Jesuit Relations,” vol. xvii, p. 211; Henry and Thompson: Op. cit., vol. i, p. 183. 
“tLafitau: Op. cit., p. 505. 
5 “ Jesuit Relations,” vol. .xxxiii, p. 185. 
