The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-01-18
The Worlds Gold and Silver.

w SAVObVu w uuG A3ChotVs
The Worlds Gold and Silver.
+, There is no period in the history of the
human race when gold and silver were
mot accounted among men as the "pre-
cious metals" Their existence as such
is traceable by the twilight Of tradition
Sar beyond the limits of the historic era;
and their use as measures Of value and
y medium of exchange was known and
recognized as an existing fact of long
ktanding even SO far back as the time
when Noah was still living among his
descendants on the plains of Shinar;
that is, within three hundred and fifty
years after the Flood. For. according to
the chronology commonly received,
abraham was torty-eight years old when
Noah died; and not many years there
Efter we find the Patriarch going down
10 Egypt to escape famine, and he was
khen recorded as. a wealthy man,-"very
kich In cattle, in silver and in gold"
And afterwards, again, when he came
10 bury his wife, he bought the cave of
Hachpelah of Ephron, the Hethite, for
The agreed price of ssfour hundred sheck-
els Of silver, current money with the
merchant" From this it is obvious that
even then, and doubtless long before,
these metals were in common use as
s'money" in commercial exchanges and
business transactions. Indeed the
probability is that their use as such was
known to the antediluvian ages; for, in
khe Typographical description given of
The garden OF Eden in the second chap
ter OF Genesis, when speaking of the riv-
hrs that watered it, 1t is recorded Of
Pison,-ssthat is it which compasseth
The whole land of Havilah, where there
Js gold; and the gold Of that land is
good"
4 Why men, in all lands and in all ages +,
should have accepted silver and gold as
kthe precious metals" par excellence;
and, as such, should have employed
them as standards by which to make
measurement of commercial values, to
the exclusion of all other metals, is ab-
eolutely inexplicable. But SO it was, as
is plainly traceable through all the orig
anal ciyilizations,-the Shemitic, the Ha-
mitic, and the Japhetic. 1t may be that,
rn the light OF facts accumulated through
khe lapse Of ages, we may now give good
reasons why those metals were the most
suitable for such purposes; but we must
consider that they were actually adopted
and used for that purpose long ages be-
Eore our present facts could have been
known from experience.
The Babylonian, the Assyrian, the
aindoo, the Egyptian, the Ph@nician.
Rhe Hebrew, all counted their riches by
the standard of gold and silver, at a time
when authentic history was not. And
considering the comparative ineficiency
Of their modes of mining, the vast accu
mutations of these precious metals
among all of those ancient peoples, is 9
matter to cause astonishment. vi
course we can not know the amounts in
nse among them as circulating medi'
nm at any given time. inasmuch as they
passed by weights and not by coinage
Butwe can not be at loss to admit theil
abundance, from the knowledge we
have OF the exceedingly lavish use made
of the Sc metals among those ancient ma
tions in personal adornment and In reli
Eious and architectural decora
tion. The Hebrews were by nt
means the foremost among thos'
nations OF antiquity in their accumula
xion Of gold and silver, because, OF then
pll, they were the least commercial; ye
we are told that, thousand years be
fore the Christian era, Solomon "made sn
yer, in Jerusalem, to be as stones" AM
we read with amazement Of the enol
nous expenditures of the preciou
metals by that monarch in the ornamer
tation OF his private palace and his won
derful Temple. And. yet in all thai
though he initiated, he nevertheless te
immensely behind the degree of lik
adornments lavished upon the temple
Of Baal ameng all the otfshoots Of th
Hamitic race, from Babylon to Egyp
and from Egypt to Palmyra.
WndL UeCdlue VI tAOSO dSOumuldtAOl
OF the. precious metals made by Ii
nations Of antiquity, is certainly an i
teresting question. Much Of 1t wa
necessarily lost in the use by abrasio
{ Infinitely more, being devoted to article
Sof personal adornment, to the making
plate for royal and religious uses, and
architectural ornamentation OF tempt
and palaces, was naturally consume
BY fires and foods, destroyed by wa
md sieges, and wasted by the waste
nges. But, that all Of these accumul
lions OF gold and silver could be vast
and destroyed is plainly impossib
Much oft has unquestionably surylv
the waste Of the o1es and the Mrsek X.