This is another curious feature in the manners of the primitive societies of the Aryan race. It is well known that among thenations of Graeco-Latin antiquity, the sheep and ox were the medium of exchange and the common measure of value. InHomer, the value of things, of arms particularly, is estimated in heads of cattle. The etymology of the word pecunia , whichsignifies "riches", "money", and is obviously derived from pecus , leaves no doubt on the point. The first metallic coins borethe impress of an ox or sheep, of which they were a kind of representative symbol, just as the bank note now is of the coincurrency. In northern languages we find similar etymologies and synonyms. The word fâ, fe , in Icelandic and Norwegian,denoted riches; in English the word denotes the reward of a service, honorarium . These words obviously come from vee , vieh , cattle. Cattle was, in fact, pre-eminently wealth, and afforded the best means of exchange. The Germans, who hadsettled near the frontiers of the empire, were acquainted with the use of money; those in the interior, Tacitus tells us, hadrecourse to barter for the exchange of their wares. Strabo says the same of the Dalmatians: "The use of money is unknownto them, which is peculiar to them alone of the nations in these parts; although they resemble many barbarous nations in thisrespect." (9) These barbarians, however, had a medium of exchange; but, as it was not metallic coin, historians assert that theywere not acquainted with money. The tribute which the Frankish conquerors demanded of the vanquished Frisons andSaxons, consisted of a certain number of oxen. It is beyond dispute that cattle did serve as a medium of exchange; we evenknow that the respective values were six sheep for one ox at Rome, and twelve sheep for an ox in Iceland, and probably inGermany as well. The fact, however, always seemed strange. Still it may be easily explained, when we remember theagrarian organization of village communities; but except in this way it cannot be explained. The essential quality of theinstrument of exchange, is that it should be useful to all, accepted by all, and should, consequently, circulate from hand tohand without impediment. It is for this reason that furs have served as money in Siberia, codfish in Newfoundland, blocks ofsalt or strips of blue cotton in Africa, tobacco in America during the war of independence, and postage stamps often amongourselves at the present day. In primitive communities, every family owns and consumes cattle: it is, therefore, in a positionto pay it away and satisfied to receive it. As it may make use of the common pasturage, it will be in no way incommoded, ifsundry sheep or oxen are given by way of payment, it will send them on the waste with the rest of its herd. By the agency ofthe herdsman, whose duty it is to drive to the pasturage the common herd of all the inhabitants of the mark, payments insheep or oxen can be effected by the banking operation known as " virement de parties ," which the London clearing houseshave brought to perfection. If A owes B ?,000, and they have the same banker, payment is effected by mere entrance in abook: the ?,000 are taken from A's credit, and carried to that of B. In the primitive community payment could be effectedin the same way. If one man owed another ten oxen for a sword, he informed the herdsman, who took them from thedebtor's herd and added them to the creditor's. The use of cattle as a medium of exchange, which seems general amongAryan nations, shews that before their dispersion they lived under the pastoral system; and economic history thus comes tocorroborate the results at which comparative philology had already arrived.
At the time when the Greeks and Romans make their first appearance in history, they have reached a more advanced andmore modern stage of civilization than that of the Germans in Tacitus. They have long since abandoned the pastoral system;they cultivate corn and the vine, and live less on flesh: agriculture furnishes the chief part of their subsistence. There are still,however, very clear traces remaining of the primitive system of community. Thus cattle could not have been used as amedium of exchange, if the greater portion of the land had not been common pasturage, on to which every one was entitledto send his herds. The two customs are so closely connected, that we cannot conceive of one without the other. Givenseparate and limited property in land, and I can no longer accept oxen in payment; for how am I to keep them? If cattle serveas the medium of exchange, we may at once conclude that a great part of the soil is collective property. This system,accordingly, must have existed in primitive Greece and Italy.
Yet another proof of the existence of community in Greece and Italy is to be found in the universal tradition of a golden age,when private property was unknown. Generally nothing is seen in it but a mere poetic fiction; but, when once theincontestable facts of the economic history of mankind make us understand the necessity of this system, we are forced toadmit that the ancient poets, in this as in many other points, were depicting a state of society, the recollection of whichsurvived in their own time. We will quote some well-known passages from the Classics, which celebrate, in almost the sameterms, the happy age when the earth, the common property of all, knew nothing of the limits traced and the boundaries setup by the quiritary law.
Listen to Tibullus, I. I., Eleg . 3:
Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege priusquam Tellus in longas est patefacta vias!
Nondum caeruleas pinus contemserat undas;Effusum ventis praebueratque sinum;
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Non domus ulla fores habuit; non fixus in agria, Qui regeret certis finibus arva, lapsa.
Ovid ( Metam . 1. 135) expresses himself in similar terms Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis et auras, Cautus humum longo signavit limite mensor.
