The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
AMERICAN SHELL N
INDIAN wAMPUM AND IT'S PART IN
THE HISTORY OF FINANCE.
Use of Sea Shells for n Medium of Ex-
change Commended Itself to
Many Different Peoples.
Ernest Ingersoll, in New York Post.

The strong interest felt just now in all
matters relating to money makes timely
an account of the shell money that was
current among our American Indians when
they were first met by Europeans. The
name and general use of the money beads
called wampum are familiar enough. but
the volume, Importance and effect of 1t up
on trade have been forgotten.
The use of a circulatir" medium to facil-
itate commerce by sh eving the awk-
ward devices Of barter opposed to In
dictate a considerable ad> .e towards civ
ilization in the people employing it. On
this score the North American Indians
ought to stand high in the list of barba-
rians, since they possessed an aboriginal
money of recognized value, although it had
no sanction other than common custom.
This money was made from sea shells,
which seem to nave commended themselves
for this purpose to widely different peo-
pies. A small brown cowry attained a
great circulation, and is still largely used,
in tropical Africa, India and the South
Sea islands. 1t was once the coin of those
regions to the exclusion CT everything else,
in trading with the savages, and ships go
ing after cargoes of ivory. palm oil, san
DIAL wood and similar products Were obliged
to first provide themselves with oargoes of
cowries at Zanzibar or some other port
where they could be bought in large guam
titles.
This small shell, smooth, shining, easily
perforated and not too common, was the
most suitable thing that could be found. 1t
could not be produced artifcially or coun-
forfeited or acquired without considerable
exertion. 1t therefore represented an ex-
penditure of labor on the part of its pos
SCISSOR and became at once a purchasing
power. It's intrinsic" value was derived
from the fact that strings OF this shell
were everywhere highly esteemed as orna-
ments and could always be turned to good
account in that way when their owner had
no immediate use for them in trade. This,
in fact. is the basis of value in all the shell
moneys, which were first and
became a monetary currency because of
their convenience and universal acceptable
ity. This resembles the way in which gems
were regarded in the middle ages, when
there were no banks or means of carrying
and transferring money by drafts or let
tiers of credit. A man going upon u long
journey would provide for his expenses by
putting his funds into jewels, one of which
he would sell whenever he needed more
cash This was the only practicable method
in those days of making ones wealth port
Among the aborigines of the cowry-using
countries the shetis represented approx
mately the purchasing power of money to-
day; but when European traders began to
gather them Systematically where they
grew, take them in shiploads to the interior
of Africa, the New Hebrides and similar
regions they increased the number in cir
c~ulation so enormously and outbid one an
ford to do that the shells became extremely
common and sank in value to almost moth
No alterations We're made to the cowry
except to punch a small hole in 1t for the
resembles the hiqua or money strings of
tusk shells (dentalium), which, as will be
presently explained, has only recently gone
out of use among the Indians of our North
west coast.
AMERICAN WAMPUM.
The original of American shell money
may be taken to have been somewhat as
follows: Shells by their pretty shape and
bright colors attracted the eye of the saw
age, who. finding them easy to suspend
about his clothing, employed them as orna-
ments. certain kinds becoming especially
fashionable. Only those tribes living on the
shores of the ocean could obtain these
shells, but as soon as they were in request
by natives of the interior exchanges quick
ly sprang up. Roger Williams, speaking of
the trades pursued by the members of the
Narragansett Indians of Rhode Island, re-
cords that those along the coast made
money as a regular and profitable opera
ton. The longer these exchanges contin-
ued, the more frequently and widely they
were carried on. the more the shell beads
lost their character as and be-
came truly money.
The shell money of the eastern coast
CONSISTED OF small cylnQrlCal DeaQS from a
fifth to a quarter of an inch in length, of
two kinds and values represented by diff
ferent colors, white and dark purple. A
great variety of names and spellings of the
Indian terms for these beads appears In
the books of the early voyagers and his
torians. none of which survive in popular
parlance except w~anpum. which seems Or
iginally to have designated the white beads
alone.
was Of inferior value. 1t was m
made from the central column of the large
p~ear-shaped conch (Fulgur), the most plen-
tiful large univalve on the Eastern coast.
Roger Villa ms wrote in his KEY" to the
language of the N-arragansetts: THE New
Lngiand Indians mar are lgnorant Of Europ,s
stock Of the oeriwincle. which they call
Meteauhok. when all the shell is broken
Off" This kind was distinguished by law
in Rhode Island as late as 1868, Smiths
thing Of that coast; and Beverley's His
tory of Virginia" date 1705. records that
the riches of the Indians there consisted of
peak, roenoke, and such like trifles."
The first was made from the quahaug
shell, but roanoke was the name of a
poorer sort of bead made from the conch.
The dark-colored variety of wampum-the
gold of the red man-was fabricated out of
a small part of the shell of the hard clam
or quahaug. which the Indians gathered
alive by wading or diving, not having such
rakes as are used by modern clam-dredgers
Towards one end (the forward of the
otherwise white interior of each of the
valves of this mollusk's shell is a deep
purplish or brownish-black scar. which
fishermen call the eye" 1t indicates the
attachment of the large muscle by which
the animal shuts and holds it's shells to-
gether. This dark spot the Indians broke
out of the shell and used as the material
for their dark-colored beads. These were
worth twice as much as the white ones.
because they represented that difference I'm
rarity and labor of manufacture.
HOW IT WAS MADE.
Soma of the methods of making this finer
sort of bead coin are interesting. Before
ever they had awle blades from Europe
says Williams. they made shift TO bore
their shcll-money with stone,' and from
the shell heaps along the New England
coast are now exhumed these old flint
avis or drills of a prehistoric design. which
may have been revolved in some cases by
a bow such as jewelers. employ at present.
Lawson describes. in his account of early
trading in Carolina, a method of drilling
with a nail stuck in a cane or reed. They
roll it continually on their thighs with their
right hand, holding the bit of shell with
their left: so in time they drill a hole quite
through it, which is very tedious work"
The coinage, so TO speak. of this shell
money was. therefore,. a work of patient
labor and great delicacy of manipulation
and there was no fear of increasing the
supply beyond the demands of trade by the
worth of one deerskin. since a savage
would rarely make a single bead more than
Sufficed for his immediate wants. 1t was.
however, q true medium of exchange
real currency. All the early writer's speak
of ii as riches" and money and current