It is evident that this northern trade also was not carried on with money, but by barter. It was not necessary here, however, to have recourse to caravans, for the way lay through inhabited and civilised countries.[b]
SILVER AND GOLD IN ANTIQUITY AS MONEY
In the study of the chief commodities of Phœnician commerce, and especially of those which are interesting by reason of the historical influence they exercised on culture, we will first consider the precious metals. For silver and gold stand first and foremost in their great influence upon trade, and for their incalculable effects upon ancient culture.
The desire to obtain these precious metals from their sources, drove the Phœnicians to the most distant lands, gave rise to their boldest commercial undertakings, led their ships into unknown seas, suggested their voyages of discovery, and made them establish colonies in the farthest countries. According to ancient historians, the silver and gold of distant lands were the source of their wealth and prosperity in the world. Being the first to traffic with silver, they laid the foundation of an organised trade for their country, which was not furnished by nature with sufficient commercial commodities to trade with other lands. For what had Phœnicia to offer the far richer and earlier cultivated countries of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, or what could it give in equivalent exchange for the rich wares of India, if it had not had the precious metals which were quite or partially wanting in these countries?
In olden days silver ranked higher than gold, and it was used for fully a thousand years as an object of trade, before we find a trace of gold being used for the same purpose.
The use of silver as money was limited in olden times to the Semitic world and certainly to Phœnicia and the neighbouring countries. For whilst the oldest records of the Eastern world, such as Homer and the Zend writings, mention other objects of barter, no trace is found of silver being used for that purpose, whereas at an earlier date than that to which these writings can lay claim, we find the Phœnicians using money as the basis of their commercial intercourse with other countries.
The Mosaic Law, particularly in its oldest and best authenticated part, leads to the conclusion that silver money was common even at the time of the formation of the Israelite state. The ancient laws which treat of sentences of punishment, often state the amount of the expiatory sum of silver. Human beings were valued at their worth in money according to their age or rank (Leviticus xxvii.); houses, lands, and corn and victuals were all estimated according to their value in silver money. The thief, the man who hurts his neighbour, the foolish shepherd and the man who robs a lover of his maid, had to expiate their sins by a proportionate payment. And so also with “the holy things of the Lord”: the sacrifice of a ram was accompanied by a payment of shekels of silver; the first-born of the Israelites were redeemed from the Levites for five shekels apiece by the poll; when the people were numbered, a payment of half a shekel for every man was exacted; and the advice of a seer was paid for in silver money.
The use of precious metals as objects of exchange does not extend farther eastward than the Semitic dominion. In the Zend writings, we find no trace of a currency; an ox is mentioned as payment (pecunia), and in the Law of Zoroaster we find an ox exacted as punishment. According to Biblical testimony precious metals were of no account with the Medians and Parthians except for ornaments. India, even including the gold countries of northern India, was either not cognisant of the use of precious metals as payment, or only adopted such a use of them in a very small way in intercourse with foreigners; and whereas the taxes were levied in money in all the Persian provinces, the Indians paid theirs in bars of gold.
In ancient Egypt, silver money was the common means of payment in her intercourse with the Semites. The presentments upon ancient Egyptian monuments, in which gold and silver earrings are weighed would not prove this, but these presentments record the payment of taxes by foreign people; and the classics and Holy Scripture give concurrent testimony on their use of money. Reference is made to the laws of the old Egyptian kings on the circulation of money, and false coinage.