The independent., 1903-11-19
History Of Monstary Systems.
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Ito Of 61k for / was adopted In the
seventh century and lasted until the
second valuation" of Alfred, about
A. D. 878, after which the Roman ra-
ito became dominant. The Arabs
were expert moneyers and their coins
the finest made and to them Mr.. Del
Mar attributes the origin of the word
sterling" as applied to the fineness
OF the metal used in fabricating coins.
He is persuaded that the Arabian half
dirhem was known to the Gothic races
O. an "iestcrling" or 'esterling."
The chapter on statistics of the ra-
tiO is of more than ordinary interest
to those who are called upon to COM
bat the fallacy that cost of production
determines value, and that, therefore,
the ratio changes because of change in
the cost Of production. Mr.. Del Mar
says that 'at the earliest period OF
which we have any knowledge the
coinage ratio of the Orient was or
6h for 1, whilst at the same time 1t
was 13 for / In Persia. Down to the
epoch OF Mahomet 1t seems to have
been the policy of every state In the
west, which secured any important
share of the eastern trade, to value
It's gold coins at twice the quantity OF
silver for which they exchanged in
the Orient. Such was the case with
Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedon,
Egypt under the Ptoemies, and I'm
perial Rome. Is evident that no
such enormous disparity Of value as
this could have been maintained II
private coinage had been permitted,
either in the Orient or Occident. Mel
ther could any small or weak state
have upheld such a condition OF af-
fairs The control of money and trade
must have been in very powerful
hands to maintain gold IL the west at
twice its value in the east, or silver In
the east at twice its value in the west.
Whose hands were these? The an
swer Is, the priesthood; the priests of
Brama or Budha in the east, the
priests of Cyrus, Darius, Tiglath-pil-
Esar, Nebu-Nazura, Osiris, Alexander,
PtOlemy and the Caesars in the west.
With the advent .of Mahomet all this
changed, the priests of the west lost
t..eir power, and the same ratio pre-
vailed at Delhi, Bagdad and Cordova.
When Rome resumed her sway over
the long-lost province of Spain the
eastern ratio entirely disappeared
from the coinages of Europe; when
her emissaries reached India 1t began
to fade in the Orient. Today the ra-
ito of Caesar, as modified by the leg
islation Of Charles w., Philip ", and
Louis XVI, dominates the monetary
systems of every state in the world"
For something like six hundred
years two antagonistic ratios were in
use. The western trader In the Orient
exchanged his goods for gold, which
was there valued at only 613 times its
weight in silver, and brought 1t home
where it was valued at IL times as
much. Did he wish to purchase Orien-
tai goods for sale at home? Then he
took silver with him. worth only one
twelfth its weight in gold at home, and
exchanged it for goods in country
where 1t was worth two-thirteenths
as much. The "cost of production" of
either silver Or gold cut no figure, nor
did the socially necessary labor
time involved in digging these met
ais. Their coinage was exclusively in
lne hands of the state, hence, what
ever valuation the state placed upon a
given coin was the valuation at which
It passed current within the jurisdic-
tion issuing 1t. Elsewhere, of course.
1t passed by weight at the valuation in
use H. the country where used.
Naturally the readers of The Inde-
pendent will understand the difficulty
Of giving more than glimpse of
what Is contained in this valuable
book, the result OF years of hard study
and investigation. l, must be read
from preface to index in order to be
appreciated Throughout its pages Mr.
Del Mar never loses sight of the great
fundamental truths that (a) the power
10 coin money Ia sovereign preroga-
tive; (b) that that which the state
DEGREES to ba money Is money; (c)