The poverty of the early settlers, added to that short sighted and now obsolete policy of Europe in the seventeenth century, which jealously sought to keep all specie within her borders, produced a general dearth of the precious metals in the currency of the New World, and all kinds of shifts were made to eke out the scanty supply. Corn, wheat, oats, peas, poultry and the like sufficed to satisfy any obligation. But then, though answering well in cases of barter, where two mutual desires met, were far too bulky and unwieldy for general use. Naturally then recourse was had to an article in extensive use among the traders, and possessing in a measure the portability of gold and silver, and wampum became a constituent part of the currency. In one feature at least, the old civilization held its own beside the new. As early as 1637, wampum was made a legal tender in Massachusetts for any sum under 12d., at the rate of six beads for a penny.[38] The same year it became a legal tender in Connecticut for any amount. The general court declaring it receivable for taxes "at fousen (4) a penny."[39]
But coin grew scarcer in Massachusetts and shell money increased in value, till in 1640, the authorities were compelled to adopt the valuation of Connecticut, ordering that the white pass at four and the "bleuse" at two a penny, "and not above 12d. at a time except the receiver desire more."[40] The public needs soon required another change, and the legality of shell currency rose to £10.[41] This novel coinage, thus regulated from time to time, answered well for money throughout the colonies, till after a while trouble arose from an unexpected source. The enormous demand at length brought upon the market beads of stone or unallowed shells, as also many rough, ill-strung specimens of the genuine article. The disorder was aggravated, because the Indians, who best understood the qualities of their wampum, would take only the genuine from the traders, while the refuse was thrown back into the circulation of the colonies. The commissioners of the United Colonies being appealed to for a remedy recommended to the separate governments to suppress this poor "peage" by law. Accordingly in 1648, the general courte of Connecticut ordered "that no peage, white or black, be paid or received, but what is strung and in some measure strung suitably, and not small and great, uncomely and disorderly mixt, as formerly it hath beene."[42] A similar order was passed in Massachusetts, where it was further enacted to prepare this Indian money for ready use, that it be "suitably strung in eight known parcells, 1d. 3s. 12d. 5s. in white; 2d. 6s. 6d. and 10s. in blacke."[43] Another favorite length was the fathom, containing 360 beads and current at about 10s. Thus during these years shell money was current throughout New-England, and constituted, doubtless, the best and most convenient portion of the currency. The government received it for taxes, the farmer for his produce, the merchant for his wares, and the laborer for his hire. It formed a frequent item in the inventories of deceased colonists, being often the only cash mentioned. It even found its way into the coffers of Harvard college, for we read that the lease of the wampum trade in Massachusetts was attended with the obligation to take from the college the wampum which it might have on hand from time to time.[44] In the forest, likewise, it now circulated as money, for the Indian was quick to copy the white man's use of his beads.
Toward the middle of the century wampum reached its highest value in New-England. Thereafter the increasing prosperity of the colonies, the domestic coinage of silver, and perhaps the too extensive manufacture of the shell money, gradually diminishing its value, drove it from circulation. In 1650, it was refused in payment of country rates in Massachusetts.[45] This action of the government naturally created distrust among the people, to counteract which it was ordered that "peage" should still "remagne pawable from man to man, according to the law in force." Close upon this followed another decree, limiting it as a legal tender to 40 shillings.[46] These laws continued in force till 1661, when wampum was declared to be no longer a legal tender in Massachusetts.[47] Rhode Island passed a similar decree the next year[48] and Connecticut, probably, soon afterwards. But though wampum now ceased to be legally current, it lingered among the people for years and constituted in great part the small change of the community. As late as 1704, it was a common mode of payment in country places.[49]
Shell money was used extensively and for a long time in the Dutch colonies. Here for a while absolutely no coin was in circulation, and wampum being the feasible substitute was universally adopted. So great was the popular demand, that even the unstrung wampum, prohibited in the eastern colonies, passed at but a trifling discount.[50] For many years the easy-going government at New Amsterdam does not seem to have regulated the currency by law, as did its more thorough neighbors, and the amount of wampum requisite to make a stiver, was left to be determined by the parties concerned. Such a course was fraught with inconvenience to the public, and frequent petitions were made for the establishment of some uniform rate.[51]
The rate, however, which obtained by common consent, was four of the strung and six of the loose beads for a stiver.[52] But in 1641, there came from foreign parts an inundation of "nasty, rough" sewan, which drove the better sort out of circulation, "nay," so runs the record, "threatened the ruin of the country," and legislation was imperatively demanded. This inferior article was therefore condemned to pass five for a stiver during the following month, and afterwards six, at which rate the loose, unstringed wampum, which served the community as change, subsequently circulated.[53] The importance of wampum during these years is well illustrated by the fact that the opulent West India Company in 1664, sought to negotiate a loan of five or six thousand guilders in it, wherewith to pay the laboring people, the obligation to be satisfied with good negroes or other goods.[54] The Dutch succumbed to superior force, but wampum still held its own. It continued to be the chief currency not only in New York, but in the many settlements to the west and south, which were then under the control of the authorities at New York. In 1672, the inhabitants of Hoanskill and New Castle on the Delaware, having been plundered by Dutch privateers were permitted by the government at New York to lay an impost of four guilders, in wampum, upon each anker of strong rum imported or sold there.[55] A guilder, which was about six pence currency or four pence sterling, consisted of twenty stivers, and eight beads were reckoned equal to one stiver. As heretofore there was little or no certain coin in circulation and wampum passed for current payment in all cases. Indeed the country was so drained of even this currency by the Indian trade, that there was difficulty in obtaining a sufficiency. To remedy this state of affairs, the governor and council of New York were in 1673 constrained to issue their proclamation which was published at Albany, Esopus, Delaware, Long Island and the adjacent parts, commanding that "instead of eight white and four black (beads), six white and three black should pass for a stiver; and three times so much the value of silver."[56]
The contributions in the churches were for many years made in wampum, and the first church on the Jersey shore was built with funds contributed in this way from Sabbath to Sabbath. As late as 1683, "the schoolmaster in Flatbush was paid his salary in wheat, wampum value: He was bound to provide a basin of water for the purpose of baptism, for which he received from the parents or sponsors twelve stivers in wampum."[57] Nor ten years later had the money of the aborigines become wholly supplanted by gold and silver, for we learn that "in 1693, the ferriage of each single person from New York to Brooklyn was eight stivers in wampum, or a silver two-pence."[58] Further than this we are unable to trace, though we have good reason to believe that it circulated, to a limited extent, for some time thereafter.
Thus while the Indian declined in power his simple coinage passed from hand to hand, among his conquerors, in the haunts where unnumbered generations of his ancestors had trafficked it in rude barter, or offered it with solemn ceremonial, their costliest offering, to their country's gods. It was for about a quarter of a century a legal tender in New England, while among the Dutch it was during half a century often the only circulating medium, and among both Dutch and English it filled a more or less important part in the currency for nearly an entire century.
When at length the increasing wealth of the people drove wampum out of common use, it still remained an important article in commerce. It was manufactured at New York until the commencement of the present century to be used in traffic with the Indians, for whom it had lost none of its charms, and to be carried by our whalers into the northern seas.
Treaties and compacts between the different tribes and the states, and later the general government, continued to be ratified by the interchange of wampum belts. The records of the eighteenth century abound with instances of this character. The last occasion of the kind is believed to have been at Prairie du Chien in 1825.[59]
Among the Indians of the present day wampum is unknown. The name still remains, but the trifles to which it is applied bear no resemblance to the ancient article. The glass beads now current as wampum and the original wampum are not less unlike, than the squalid Blackfoot of our western plains, and the proud and imperious Mohawk, beside his native stream.