A peculiar kind of beads, made of blue glass, had come into use with the women on the island as ornaments, and being greatly in demand, small in bulk, and of most durable material, they were thought to be peculiarly well fitted to serve the purpose of money. They were accordingly adopted, and for a time fairly answered the purpose. But all at once the women declared their continued use to be unfashionable; and all use and demand for the beads at once ceasing, the merchants and others who had accumulated a large stock of them, in exchange for other commodities, at the same moment found that what they had regarded as money had no longer any purchasing power or value, and in consequence experienced great losses. Thereupon the community concluded not to use blue glass beads any longer as money.[6]
How fast the people on the island, by reason of their varied experience, educated themselves up to a knowledge of what constitutes good money may be inferred from the following incident:
A portion of the inhabitants on the island were heathen, and, to defray the expense of efforts to civilize and Christianize them, it was the habit of certain good men to take advantage of the assembling of the people from time to time to solicit and receive contributions for such objects. It was observed, however, on such occasions that some persons, either through ignorance of what constitutes money, or by reason of great poverty, were in the habit of depositing commodities in the hat which were not money; and the practice having been brought to the attention of Robinson Crusoe (who generally presided at such meetings), he is reported to have administered rebuke and instruction in the following impressive manner:
“Before proceeding to take up our regular contribution for the heathen,” he said, “I would suggest to the congregation—and more especially to those who sit in the gallery—that the practice of putting into the hat commodities which are not money, more especially buttons, shows a degree of ignorance respecting the uses of money on the part of some in this community which I had not supposed possible, after all our recent and varied experience on this subject. But if, through ignorance or impecuniosity, any should feel obliged to continue to contribute buttons in the place of money, I would request that they do not stamp down or break off the eyes; inasmuch, as while by so doing they utterly destroy the utility of these commodities as buttons, and do not increase their desirability as money, they also utterly fail to deceive the heathen; who, although ignorant of the Gospel, and not using buttons for any purpose, are nevertheless, as a general thing, good judges of currency.”
[1] “To my mind, the great and immediate need of the day is the issuance of more legal-tender notes, in order to impair the confidence in them to an extent as to cause the owners of them to desire to exchange them for other kinds of property, or man’s wants—not simply to loan out on short or long date paper, with fire-proof security, at low or high rates of interest, which can now be done to any extent required—but absolutely part with them for other kinds of property.”—Views of Enoch Ensley, of Memphis, Tennessee, on the National Finances, Memphis, September, 1875.
[2] “In the midst of the public distress, one class prospered greatly—the bankers; and, among the bankers, none could, in skill or in luck, bear a comparison with Charles Duncombe. He had been, not many years before, a goldsmith of very moderate wealth. He had probably, after the fashion of his craft, plied for customers under the arcades of the Royal Exchange, had saluted merchants with profound bows, and had begged to be allowed the honor of keeping their cash. But so dexterously did he now avail himself of the opportunities of profit which the general confusion of prices gave to a money-changer, that, at the moment when the trade of the kingdom was depressed to the lowest point, he laid down near ninety thousand pounds for the estate of Helmsley, in the North Riding of Yorkshire.”—Macaulay’s History of England, State of the Currency in 1694–’95.
[3] “Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, it (the greenback) fortunately is not money; but, sir, when have we had such a long and unbroken career of prosperity in business as since we adopted this non-exportable currency?”—Speech of Hon. William D. Kelley, House of Representatives, 1870.
“I desire the dollar to be made of such material, for the purpose, that it shall never be exported or desirable to carry out of the country. Framing an American system of finance, I do not propose to adapt it to the wants of any other nation.”—Speech of General B. F. Butler before the New York Board of Trade, October 14th, 1875.
[4] “Some years since, Mademoiselle Zélie, a singer of the Théâtre Lyrique at Paris, made a professional tour round the world, and gave a concert in the Society Islands. In exchange for an air from ‘Norma,’ and a few other songs, she was to receive a third part of the receipts. When counted, her share was found to consist of three pigs, twenty-three turkeys, forty-four chickens, five thousand cocoa-nuts, besides considerable quantities of bananas, lemons, and oranges. At the Halle (market) in Paris, the prima donna remarks, in her lively letter printed by M. Walowski, this amount of live stock and vegetables might have brought four thousand francs, which would have been good remuneration for five songs. In the Society Islands, however, pieces of money were very scarce; and as mademoiselle could not consume any considerable portion of the receipts herself, it became necessary in the mean time to feed the pigs and poultry with the fruit.”—Jevons’s Money and Mechanism of Exchange.