West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1895-09-05
SILVER THREADS AMONG THE
GOLD"
Money and other Things.
By AARON w. FREDERICK.
Written specially for THk ARsUs.
ARTICLE l..

Cham bers's Encyclopedia by the
American Book Exchange, New
York, is the only encyclopedia l have
at hand here in the pine woods of
Fresno county, California. Here
follow the
EXTRACTS.
Money.-Originally, those sub
stances In nature or Of art which
commerce among men proved to
have the most general uniformity
of value and convenience In use as
measures Of exchange of other com
moditiesj which substances being
confirmed In such use, in civilized
countries, by laws making them the
sole legal tender as money, derive
an increased, more certain, and
more uniform value by reason of
such legal confirmation of their
sovereign use.
The first American money that
history informs US Of was wampum
and the dried goldfish of Newfound-
land. The latter were in general
use as money and answered the pur-
pose better than any other material
that could have been procured in
that region. A single fish was
sufficiently small change for small
transaction, and mass of them
not too cum bersome for the pur-
chase of anything barbarian would
be likely to want. Only acquired
by labor, easily preserved and trans.
ported, at all times useful to tribes
away from the seashore, and ex-
changeable for what they had which
the seashore Indians had not, it's
superior convenience to any other
one commodity made its adoption
for money natural. On the Allan
tic coast south of Massachusetts,
another form of money of higher
type was found among the Indians.
This consisted of small shells strung
like beads. They were OF two
kinds, white and black. The white
was the periwinkle, the black was
made with moro labor out of the
black part of clam shell, and was
double the value of the white.
Strings, groups of strings, and
belts made from them (these shells)
were the money known as wampum.
In the early DAYS of
the colonies when coin money was
scarce, wampum was adopted and
used to great advantage in trading
not only with the Indians, but
among the colonists themselves.
Wampum was made a
legal tender in the Massachusetts,
colony for IL pence only.
In 1641, in the Plymouth colony,
corn was made a legal tender for
payments of debts, "to save the
debtor from the iniquity of forcing
him to great sacrifices in conse-
quence of the scarcity of the money
Of the realm" In
1900 the colony Massachusetts, is
sued notes for about one seventh of
the debt contracted by a disastrous
expedition against the French in
Canada, and made them receivable
for taxes and for goods paid into
the treasury for taxes. In 1892 a
premium Of 5 per cent over coin
was allowed at the colonial treasury
for these bills, and they remained
at par for twenty years.
aABB
The arts of banking we're at this
time engaging the attention of
schemers the world over. John
Coleman, of Boston proposed a plan
to issue notes on land security.
The council did not permit him.
but did itself in 1715 "bank," that
is, issue 10000 pounds of notes
payable In coin in 10 years. y
In 1871 another "bank" of money
was issued, drawing interest to the
government, payable IN hemp or
fax.
HB
In 1873 Pennsylvania authorized
the issue Of colonial paper money
to the amount of $4,000 pounds. -
"Tho wealthy inbabi.
tauts opposed any addition, being
against all paper currency, from the
apprehension that it would depre.
ciate, as it had done in New Eng
land, to the injury Of all creditors.
We had discussed this point in our
! junta, where 1 was on the side of
an addition; being persuaded that
the first small sum struck In 1928
had done much good by increasing
tho trade, employment, and number
OF inhabitants in the province: since
now saw all the old houses in.
habited and many new ones build
ing; whereas remembered well
when j first walked about the
streets Of Philadelphia, eating my
roll, ! saw many Of the houses in
Walnut Street between Second and
Front streets with bills on their
doors TO be LETT which made me
think the inhabitants Of the city
we're deserving il. The
III