money in each country during the early history of society were, it will be observed, such as at the time and place would be of sufficient quantity or volume to insure against any sudden deprivation of supply. In countries where the chase was common, the skins of wild animals were used as money; in maritime communities, shells; in pastoral countries, cattle; in the early history of agriculture, grain; in early mining periods, base metal; in primitive manufacturing ages, nails, glass, musket-balls, strips of cotton, etc.

As communities developed, and commerce between them began, substances somewhat common to all countries, portable and indestructible, such as the precious metals, came to be more, and other substances less, resorted to. By reason of their great beauty those metals were always in demand, even among barbarous peoples, for purposes of ornament and decoration. Because of their universal use for such purposes they came to be recognized as things for which anything else could with safety be exchanged, and as society advanced, and it came to be recognized that some medium should be adopted in which to make all exchanges, those metals were naturally selected for the purpose, so that, together, they became, as it were, a common denominator of value. Their selection proved a convenient method of storing away wealth in a form that commanded at all times every other form of wealth. They had always passed by weight wherever used, but as society became better organized, and its methods more complex, it became necessary, in order to insure against fraud, to form them into pieces convenient for handling, and to invest them distinctly with the function of money, so that, by law, they became a universal solvent for debts and demands, the stamp of the government placed on the coin testifying to its weight and fineness.

Both metals, as shown by the table, have been concurrently used as money for thousands of years—not only since the dawn of history, but from a period anterior to any historical records. The oldest annals show that they had already been employed as circulating media and that their relative values, or the ratio of their exchange for one another, had already been established. Gold and silver were used as money in Palestine as early as the year 1900 B. C. We read in the Bible that Abraham weighed to Ephron the Hittite 400 shekels of silver, "current money with the merchant." An inscription on the temple of Karnak, of the date of 1600 B. C. mentions those metals as materials in which tribute was paid.

But long anterior even to these dates, both metals had been used, as, among the relics of the bronze age of the prehistoric era, ornaments of both gold and silver have been found. Gold, being the less abundant of the two metals, has had the higher value; but the ratio between the two has been marvelously steady, taking into account the great sweep of ages during which they have been used as money. This will be seen by reference to the following tables of ratios. I will first take their relative values during ancient times.

Table showing the ratio of gold and silver in various countries of the world up to the Christian era.

By reference to the foregoing table it will be observed that the increase in the supply of gold in Europe, consisting of the spoils of the Orient, gathered by Alexander the