Mr. Farmer: Mr. Lawyer, just what do you mean by a "standard of value"?
Mr. Lawyer: A "standard of value" is anything that may be selected by which all other things in some particular locality or country are measured.
The Indians of British Columbia used haiquai shells; one string being equal to one beaver skin. In Australia tough green stone and red ochre were used. In Central Africa slaves were used. In Iceland the law made cattle the standard of value. In the Fiji Islands whales' teeth. In the South Sea Islands red feathers were used. In Mexico and Abyssinia salt was used.
Agriculture has produced its standard of value; corn, maize, olive oil, cocoanuts, cocoa-nut oil, tea, tobacco, cacao, beans, wheat, rice.
The pastoral life produced its standard of value; sheep, cattle, goats, horses and practically every other domestic animal, according to the time and place.
The following history of American experience in the development of a standard of value cannot be better restated, and is practically a repetition of the experience of mankind in all the ages, therefore I want to read what Horace White says upon the subject:
"It may be said that Virginia grew her own money for nearly two centuries, and Maryland for a century and a half.
"The first settlers of New England found wampumpeage, sometimes called wampum and sometimes peage, in use among the aborigines as an article of adornment and a medium of exchange. It consisted of beads made from the inner whorls of certain shells found in sea water. The beads were polished and strung together in belts or sashes.
"They were two colors, black and white, the black being double the value of the white. The early settlers of New England, finding that the fur trade with the Indians could be carried on with wampum, easily fell into the habit of using it as money. It was practically redeemable in beaver skins, which were in constant demand in Europe. The unit of wampum money was the fathom, consisting of 360 white beads worth sixty pence the fathom. In 1648 Connecticut decreed that wampum should be 'strung suitably and not small and great uncomely and disorderly mixt as formerly it hath been.' Four white beads passed as the equivalent of a penny in Connecticut, although six were usually required in Massachusetts and sometimes eight. In the latter colony wampum was at first made legally receivable for debts to the amount of 12d. only. In 1641 the limit was raised to fifty pounds sterling, but only for two years. It was then reduced to forty shillings. It was not receivable for taxes in Massachusetts. The use of wampum money extended southward as far as Virginia.
"The decline of the beaver trade brought wampum money into disrepute. When it ceased to be exchangeable in large sums for an article of international trade the basis of its value was gone. Moreover it was extensively counterfeited, and the white beads were turned into the more valuable black ones by dyeing. Nevertheless it lingered in the currency of the colonies as small change till the early years of the eighteenth century. While it was in use it fluctuated greatly in value.