When the Argives, in the reign of Pheidon, abandoned the use of metallic bars, and began to coin money, the Spartans followed in their train, but still adhered to the use of iron, so that the coins which first proceeded from a Laconian mint, probably resembled quoits more than crown-pieces. Mr. Müller observes, but I know not on what authority, that the chief coin was called from its shape, and perhaps also from its size, πέλανορ, the cake used in sacrifices. If this was the case it must have been a coin of extraordinary conformation, for the pelanos resembled, in figure, a bull, horns and all,[[1526]] and was habitually offered to Apollo, Artemis, the Moon, and Hecatè. This odd-looking piece of money was in value about four chalci or hemioboloi, that is, about three farthings. But such an unwieldy coinage, which, as tokens, might serve very well for the home currency, would be of no service abroad; so that when Sparta began to aim at foreign conquest, it found it necessary to set aside the ancient laws, and create a currency for effecting its purpose. A tribute was therefore imposed on the islands, and a contribution of a tenth was demanded from all those Greeks who acknowledged its supremacy.[[1527]]

It seems, however, to have been intended by the legislator, that individuals should not possess gold and silver money; but the severity of the punishment[[1528]] awarded transgressors, instead of proving how strong the hold of this ancient custom (of being without money) was upon the Spartan mind, shows the direct contrary, for there is no necessity to be severe with men who obey from habit, but with those who evince a disposition to break through all restraint. Besides, the law seems to have permitted the use of the precious metals when wrought into ornaments or articles of furniture. Offerings of gold, such as the stars of the Dioscuri, were dedicated by the state at Delphi, and statues of gold and ivory, the works of native artists, were set up within the city about the period of the Persian war.[[1529]] A hundred years earlier, when the state desired to gild the face of Apollo, at Thornax, they travelled as far as Lydia[[1530]] in search of the necessary gold, which wholly disproves the assumption of Bœckh mentioned above.

But after all the learned researches of modern writers, this Spartan ordinance respecting the possession of money is surrounded by insurmountable difficulties. For Sparta, unquestionably, carried on some commerce, which it could not have done without possessing a coinage of universal currency; though Mr. Müller is not authorized to state, as he does, that there was a constant export of corn from Laconia and Arcadia downwards to the coast of Corinth, since the passage in Thucydides,[[1531]] on which he relies, merely relates in the words of the Corinthians, that unless they joined in the war against Athens in aid of the maritime states, they would find no market for the produce of their lands, (including corn, no doubt,) nor would they be able to import what they might stand in need of from abroad.[[1532]] However, so far back as the Persian war, the Peloponnesos did not produce corn sufficient for home consumption, since we find it importing it from the countries of the Black Sea. It is, therefore, extremely improbable that it should have done so in the time of the Peloponnesian war, when it had grown far more populous, so that possibly among the things which ἡ θάλασση τῇ ἠπείρῳ δίδωσι corn may have been included.

It appears, therefore, that Sparta both exported and imported; but who were the agents? The state, which alone it is supposed possessed an available instrument of exchange, could not, it is argued, have carried on the trade. But wherefore? “Because it would have required a proportionate number of public officers.”[[1533]] Those officers, however, might easily have been found, and, therefore, this is no reason; and that no such officers existed, our knowledge of the government is too scanty to enable us to affirm. Accordingly, it does not follow from this that the trade “was in the hands of the Periœci.” However, if such was the case, the possession of a gold and silver coinage must have been permitted to them, which at once places the great majority of the free inhabitants of Laconia in precisely the same condition as other nations in this respect. Admitting this, it will be difficult to believe that their neighbours and acquaintances, the military and ruling class, would abstain from what they enjoyed. In fact, we cannot consent to believe, that such a state of things “could not have had much influence on the Spartans, since they had not any personal connexion with the Periœci, the latter being only tributary to the state.” The reverse of all this is true, as any one might know without any other testimony than his own experience. Our countrymen in India occupy the same position as the Dorians in the Peloponnesos, and for a short time kept much aloof from the natives. But personal intercourse became inevitable, and it would now be absurd to say, that the wealth of the Hindûs would exercise little influence on the English, supposing the latter to be poor and proud as the Spartans. The fact of the Periœci being tributary, which seems to be offered as a reason, is no reason at all. It were far better to confess our ignorance at once, than by a series of groundless conjectures, put forward with confidence, to create a semblance of knowledge. There does not appear to be any foundation for the statement, that none but iron money was used in the Spartan market, where the landlords and their serfs disposed of the produce of their lands. On the contrary, it seems probable, that as, in many cases, it must have been sold to the Periœci for exportation, (foreigners being excluded,) the landlords would receive gold and silver unminted, perhaps, to evade the law in return. Again, the kings of Sparta, it is evident, could possess gold and silver. This, history proves so clearly that Mr. Müller is constrained to confess it. And if the kings and the Periœci, nay, even the very Helots could amass and enjoy the precious metals, and the luxuries they purchase, it is too much to suppose that the masters of the kings, of the Periœci and all, would have dwelt in ascetic forbearance in the midst of so many temptations. Besides, we constantly find the Spartans in situations in which their iron money could be of no service to them. What, for example, could it have availed them at Olympia? Yet there they were, the men in person, the women by proxy, with their horses and their chariots, and every mark and indication of wealth.

But to men travelling beyond the borders money was allowed. This sum they might expend, or they might not. If they did not, were they searched on their return, and the surplus taken from them? Otherwise men would make journeys and accumulate cash in that way. Again, we are told, that great obstacles were placed in the way of foreign travel by the necessity of obtaining a passport along with the travelling expenses (ἐφόδια) from the magistrates or the king, and reference is made to Herodotus. But that historian in the passage referred to is speaking of king Demaratos, who being driven from the country by his mother’s bad character, takes what money he needs for his journey, and departs without asking leave of any one.[[1534]]

However, when straitened in circumstances individuals had sometimes recourse to the kings or to the state as to a bank; and that the thing was customary appears from the fact, that princes, in order to start with a popular measure, always upon their accession remitted the debts of the citizens both to themselves and to the state.[[1535]] On this occasion they destroyed all the bonds or instruments of mortgage (κλάρια), bringing them into the agora, and there piling them up into a heap and setting them on fire.[[1536]]

It is certain, therefore, and admitted even by Mr. Müller, that whatever may have been the intention of the original Spartan institutions, their severity was soon relaxed, and wealth with all its concomitants, introduced into the state. Even so far back as the ages before the Persian war, as we learn from the speech of Leutychides,[[1537]] at Athens, foreigners found no obstacle to prevent their bringing gold and silver to Sparta, where one of the most distinguished citizens undertook the keeping of a rich Milesian’s money, whose children he afterwards endeavoured to defraud. Could he have made no use of this money he would scarcely have desired to retain it. The share of the plunder accruing to Sparta in the Persian war was evidently not confined to the public coffers, though we may possibly allow that the Persian subsidies went to the defraying of national expenses.[[1538]] At all events certain it is that Sparta, about the time of Socrates, was by many regarded as the wealthiest state in Greece, and that not as a community, but individually, reckoning their estates in Messenia, the number of their slaves, Helots and others, their splendid studs, and vast droves of cattle. Nay, their wealth in gold and silver is particularly specified, with the additional remark, that for many ages the precious metals had been flowing into that country, both from Grecian and barbarian sources,[[1539]] but that no one had ever seen any flow out, an observation which Montesquieu,[[1540]] and others have applied without reflection, to Hindústân.

It exceeds our faith in human nature to believe, with Mr. Müller, that, in spite of these untoward circumstances, “the citizens maintained the same proud indigence.” History, in fact, renders inexcusable the belief in such virtue, though men occasionally arose at Sparta, as well as at Athens and elsewhere, who, with a stoical firmness, resisted the allurements of riches and pleasure. The greater number fell, and yielded themselves up with so much enthusiasm to the pursuit of gain, adding acre to acre and gold to gold, that from the Ephoralty of Epitadeus downwards, the city was infested with usurers, great capitalists, and extensive landed proprietors, who, by degrees, got into their hands the whole property of the country. Much less ingenuity than the Spartans possessed would, in fact, have enabled them to evade the old law, which seems to have immediately grown obsolete when the arts of rendering it powerless had been invented. They deposited their surplus wealth at Delphi, in Arcadia, and several other countries, so that if driven into exile,[[1541]] of which there was always a probability, they might be able to subsist in splendour in their new country.[[1542]] But these speculations sometimes failed; in the case of the Arcadians, the possession of the gold converted bankers into enemies, as, by picking a quarrel with the owners, they hoped to be able to defraud them.[[1543]] Lysander, though he did not commence this practice, at least countenanced it by his example. Gylippos, inheriting from his family the thirst of gold, was condemned and starved to death, by the Ephori, for purloining public property. His father Cleandridas, in conjunction with king Pleistoanax, had accepted bribes from Pericles, and ended his days in exile.[[1544]] From this period, as seems to be undeniable, the possession of gold and silver by private individuals was permitted by law, or connived at; and the Spartans proceeded, after the manner of all other nations, to divide themselves into very rich and very poor, to house together, in the same city, misery and splendour, extreme luxury and extreme want, until the common fate, foreign conquest and slavery, overtook them.

The trade which, meanwhile, was carried on by Laconia must have been at times very considerable, though there were few points on the coast provided with roadsteads, or harbours, capable of receiving ships of burden. To facilitate intercourse with foreign nations, an artificial harbour was constructed at Trinasos, around which the inhabitants of Gythium, situated on an eminence some distance inland, gradually clustered, deserting their ancient residence for one more convenient and profitable. From hence the productions of Laconia, which will be enumerated elsewhere, were shipped for foreign countries, Libya for example, and Egypt, whence merchandise of various kinds were obtained in return. But, as this port appears to have been little commodious or secure, the merchantmen, on their return from Africa, usually put into the island of Cythera,[[1545]] where are several harbours, amongst which that of St. Nicholas, anciently Scandeia,[[1546]] on the eastern coast, is sheltered and spacious, and provided with so narrow an entrance that it may at pleasure be closed with a chain. The inhabitants of this island, like those of the Laconian territories on the main, were free Lacedæmonians, who appear to have directed their attention entirely to commerce and agriculture, and the management of the productive purple fishery, carried on among the shoals and rocks encircling their island.[[1547]] Besides its use in dyeing, this fish is said to have been employed as a bait in taking the pelamys, and there was, likewise, in this sea, a considerable whale fishery. The nerves of these leviathans, properly prepared, were used in stringing the psaltery, and other musical instruments, and also for bowstrings. It may, therefore, be presumed, that they formed an important article of commerce.[[1548]]

Here, likewise, were quarries of porphyry,[[1549]] from which, in earlier ages, the island is said to have obtained the name of Porphyrussa. At the distance of a mile and a quarter from Scandia stood the city of Cythera, with an Acropolis situated on a very high rock. At this place was a temple of the celestial Aphroditè, esteemed one of the most ancient in Greece,[[1550]] the inhabitants having addicted themselves to the worship of this goddess, because, when she first sprang from the waves, she is said to have come floating thither on a shell of mother-of-pearl.[[1551]] How many of the productions of this island passed annually into commerce cannot be known. But, it is described as abounding, in modern times, with wild asses, and deer, and hares, and quails, and turtle-doves,[[1552]] which last were, of old, sacred to the goddess of the isle. Corn, also, and oil, and wine of excellent quality, were found in Cythera, though by no means in abundance. It likewise produces tragoriganon and bastard dittany. The island being thus productive, it is by no means surprising that the Spartans should have set a high value on it, and sent thither, annually, a magistrate, named Cytherodices, together with a garrison of heavy-armed men. Another advantage which Sparta derived from the possession of this island was, that it served it as a kind of defence against the incursions of pirates, commanding, in some sort, the narrow sea between Peloponnesos and Crete.