Primitive money

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Video: The first means of payment

As primitive money , traditional cash and vormünzliches cash are cash referred to not as coins are shaped and in addition to their exchange value often a ( symbolic ) use value have so like other goods can consume. Such original forms of money and forerunners of coinage preceded the development of modern forms of money, were used in all regions of the world and are still used today as money substitutes for exchange; in a few cases they are considered the official complementary currency .

Since the term primitive money has a derogatory connotation (compare primitivity ), other terms are often preferred, such as pre-coinage means of payment or more precise terms such as shell money . A publication of the Staatliche Münzsammlung München uses the term primary money as a synonym for pre-coinage means of payment . An exhibition in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich in 2000 chose the name exotic currencies .

An essential feature of traditional means of payment is that they can basically be produced and put into circulation by every person without a central issuing or control point. The only decisive factor for the value of such primitive money is its availability and the working time required for its extraction and production; For example, mussel shells and particularly beautiful snail shells are only available near the sea, or the amount of work involved in salt extraction is very high.

functionality

Like all money, primitive money is also a value carrier and emerged directly from the barter. It arises when goods are not traded for direct consumption, but as an intermediate carrier for the value that every market participant brings on the market in the form of his own goods and would like to take back home in the form of other goods. If these goods are not available, it temporarily retains the value in the form of primitive money. The owner of the money is primarily not interested in its use properties, but uses it primarily to store value (store of value). In contrast to commercial goods , which are only of interest to traders and consumers of this special commodity, primitive money is generally accepted and accepted as a store of value by all market participants. Regardless of what each market participant trades in or what he wants to acquire, he is always a trader of this generally accepted commodity, primitive money.

Theoretically, any commodity from all walks of life can be used as primitive money. However, preference was given to goods with a high exchange value per mass fraction, easy divisibility (calculability) and a use value that was coveted as widely as possible (e.g. cigarette currency ). This makes it possible, on the one hand, to use primitive money universally in trading processes, to share it and to offset it, on the other hand, it prevents a decline in value because the owner can consume the money himself if he cannot find a trading partner. As a result, part of the money in circulation is eliminated and replaced by newly produced money. With certain primitive money, however, the use value was lost and the money was continued to be used as real money due to tradition or general scarcity.

Due to their properties, some commodities are relatively unsuitable for primitive money. Whether, for example, livestock or food - as some sources indicate - can be viewed as primitive money is questionable. A head of cattle has to be maintained by the owner after it has been acquired, so it requires an effort that cannot be claimed when it is sold, because the new owner only acquires the cattle, but not their food consumption in the past. Cattle lose value the longer an owner has to maintain them. The same applies to perishable foods that cannot be stored without being depreciated. The "salt bar money from Ethiopia", which is still a real commodity, the seed money of the Mayas (such as cocoa , beans) or the African agate snail money, which already shows the transition to real, symbolized money, are also marginal.

Examples of primitive money

Mineral money (salt money)

Salt money, also known as amole , was used as a means of payment in Ethiopia and Eritrea for many centuries . Salt was used as a currency unit early on. So received z. B. the Roman legionaries for their wages, which were paid in coins, salt (salarium - salary). In Ethiopia and Eritrea, salt was issued in bars measuring 26-30 cm × 5 cm × 4 cm and weighing between 650 and 950 grams. These bars were wrapped with natural fibers to prevent them from breaking. The bars were yellowish-gray because they were extracted from uncleaned blocks of salt from the salt deposits of the Danakil Depression in northeast Ethiopia. The large salt blocks were only extracted during the dry season (September to May), as the salt could be dissolved by the rain. In the highlands of Ethiopia, the bars were cut into their later shape.

The value of the salt bars was based on the distance from the salt quarries. The further one moved from these, the higher the value of the bars. (see also transport costs )

In the 19th century, the Maria Theresa thaler entered Ethiopia as a trading coin and the amolic rate was based on supply and demand. Around 1880, between 8 and 100 amoli were received for the taler coin.

Cocoa money

The value and history of the Aztec cocoa money is documented very precisely . For example, around 1200 you paid four cocoa beans for a pumpkin and a slave cost 100 cocoa beans. Back then, groceries cost between 10 and 20 cocoa beans. There are also documents about the assets. Sources indicate that the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. (Montezuma) owned a billion beans, approx. 1250 tons, which were accrued through tax revenue and could no longer be sold, as otherwise the value of the beans would have fallen sharply. Consumption in ground form by the population would not have been possible either, since the high exchange value of beans was also based on the fact that they were the only way to get the coveted drink. The bunkering of cocoa was probably preferred to destruction because one could demonstrate one's high status by owning large amounts of money.

Cocoa has as long a tradition among the natives of Central America as a means of payment as it does as a drink. Before the Aztecs, the Mayans also paid in beans until around AD 600. The roughly almond-sized cocoa beans are light, handy and long-lasting and have a lot in common with coins. In addition, the almost equally large beans - as well as coins - could be used to define units according to which the value of the goods could be calculated: For the Aztecs, for example, a "xiquipilli" corresponded to 8,000 cocoa beans.

What is unusual is that the beans were just as likely to be counterfeited as coins. Counterfeiters swelled beans in water or gave them an artificially ash-gray or pale red color - the hues of the finest varieties.

There was even a devaluation of the bean currency, known from inflation, which can occur in the event of overproduction . A price list from 1545 shows that, for example, a large tomato was roughly the value of a cocoa bean. With 100 beans you no longer got a slave - as in the Aztec times - but only a hare or a cottontail. This reveals a weak point in primitive money, as it can be produced and circulated by many producers. As soon as production becomes more effective and the labor time required to manufacture it decreases, it becomes even more lucrative to produce more money. The oversupply leads to inflation and further efforts to make production more efficient.

With the arrival of the Europeans, the currency stabilized as large quantities of beans were exported to Europe. In particular, the bunkers built by regional rulers to support the currency were cleared and additional production capacities were created. The conquistador and explorer Hernando Cortez was immediately after his arrival in Mexico in 1519, a cocoa plantation invest to breed for money. Due to the high demand of the colonial rulers and the constant withdrawal of beans, cocoa retained its value as currency during the colonial times and was of great importance as loose change in loose form. At the beginning of the 19th century, loose beans were still used as a means of payment, especially in the independent Central American states, especially in Nicaragua . In the middle of the 19th century, coins imported from the United States gradually replaced cocoa beans as change.

Tea money (tea brick money)

The so-called tea money is also one of the “natural money”. These were more or less powdered tea leaves that were pressed into bars (so-called tea bricks ). This is why these bars are also called "tea brick money". This currency was partly in circulation until the 20th century in southern China, Tibet, Burma, Mongolia and southern Siberia and was also considered an object of value. After 1949, luxury food was last used as money in China by the communist rulers. For the production of the approximately 1 to 2 kg heavy tea bricks, tea leaves were dried, crushed and sieved, soaked in steam and pressed into molds (also with the aid of binding agents). The tea tiles were provided with certain embossed patterns on the surface, which related to weight, quality or value.

Counterfeiting of the tea money was by no means isolated. In order to “upgrade” the color of the tea money, some soot was added to it during manufacture. It also happened that the inside of the tea bricks consisted of the worthless branches and stems of the tea leaves. These fakes were accepted insofar as the tea was not needed for personal use. If it was found that you owned a block of inferior quality, it could be exchanged for another commodity. This mechanism still leads to the fact that counterfeit money persists in the population because every owner of a wrong note does not sort it out, but sells it again in order not to lose its value.

Shell money

One of the most common means of payment was cowrie money from cowries . While it was mostly actual mussel or snail shells that were found on the beach, in China, for example, they were also carved from bones or cast from copper. Excavation finds from the early Zhou dynasty (1122-221 BC) document such pieces.

In addition to shell money, there is also what is known as mollusc money. This is a form of money that consists largely of the shells of various types of snail , less often of mussel shells. Due to this scientifically more precise classification, the name was changed to Molluskengeld , which, however, is only slowly gaining acceptance in numismatic language.

With the arrival of Europeans in Africa and Asia, glass and ceramic beads also came into fashion (millefiori, chevron).

Paternoster peas

The paternoster peas were mainly used as a means of payment in southern Nigeria and Cameroon . There they were at times just as important as the cowrie shells. 100 pieces of these peas (seeds) were worth one penny. To this day they are also used to make jewelry chains.

The blood-red seeds are on average 5 mm in size and have a black umbilical spot. They belong to the butterfly family and are poisonous.

Teeth, bones and hair as money

There are also u. a. nor tooth or dog money (incisors of dogs ) or long blond braided human hair ( Philippines ).

Dental money was made from the teeth of mammals. This money was used in various areas of America , New Guinea , the Fiji Islands , the Solomon Islands , the Gilbert Islands and other islands in the South Pacific . Individually and in small quantities, they were mostly used as change, strung on strings they represented a higher amount. There are also copies made of porcelain , which often came from European dealers who used the counterfeits to buy cheap local products.

Dog teeth were a popular means of payment in New Guinea and many South Sea islands. On the Admiralty Islands in 1929 you got ten coconuts for a dog's tooth , and a chain of 100 dog's teeth had to be put down for a pig . The curved canines of male pigs were more valuable. The more circular the boar tusks, the greater the value attached to them. In order for the tusks to grow so that they could not wear out, young boars were broken off their opposing teeth. The tusks then mostly grew back into the gums because of the strong curvature, which was painful for the animals. In the area of ​​the Sepik estuary (New Guinea) and on Nissan and Bougainville (Solomon Islands), the teeth of fruit bats and bats were used for money strings. In the Solomon Islands, dolphin teeth were popular as jewelry and currency. The largest currency of this type was the sperm whale's teeth, which were in circulation in the Fiji Islands. The male walrus' tusks, which were also large, were considered a means of payment by the Alaskan Indians and were also recognized as such in the shops of the Hudson's Bay Company . North American Indian tribes (including Schoschonen , Crow ) used the teeth of the elk as a means of payment and as a bridal gift. Around 1890 an elk tooth was still worth 1/4 dollar, but its market value fell steadily due to forgeries made from bones.

Commodities as money

Manillas

What is undisputed, however, is the use of everyday objects ( bell money from Asia), lumps of copper or iron ( boat money ), gold nuggets or gold dust (gold weight of the Ashanti ). Later, the metals were cast in bars , forged and often worn as jewelry (Manille or Katanga cross from the Congo ).

Material money

The so-called “fabric money” (raffia fabric) of the Shoowa / Bakuba, a tribe in Zaire - now the Democratic Republic of the Congo - is curious . The size of the fabric is approx. 45 cm × 35 cm. Fluctuations are normal. The money only got its "value" when it was woven by pregnant women.

Bar, ax money, spade money

Spade money

The oldest primitive money is the clasp money ( clasp bars ) from the Bronze Age around 1200 BC. Chr. (Thin metal strips approx. 10 to 15 cm long). The Oberding bar hoard was recovered in 2014 in Oberding in Bavaria in two blocks. So-called ax money was used as a form of money in Central America around 1500. Spade money - like knife money - was used as money in China.

Knife money

Knife money was used as a form of money in a wide variety of cultures and times. The most important early form can be found in China. The east of the Shandong peninsula is assumed to be the origin of this early Chinese currency . Besides knife money, no other means of payment was found here. The Chinese knife money belongs to the group of device coins. On the one hand, the shape of the knife is still recognizable, on the other hand, the spread of money as a form of money has advanced so far that it is viewed as a hybrid between device and coin money. Therefore, the term knife coins is often used.

In the states of the so-called Eastern Barbarians (Ji-Mo, An-Yang), which in the 7th century BC BC were conquered by their western neighbor Qi , early knife money is said to have been since the 9th century BC. Have been in circulation. The knife money from An-Yang was probably taken over in the kingdom of Qi. Most of the pieces are provided with characters. As a result, they are shown as “legal money” of the respective state.

The late knife coins, whose emergence between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC Believed to be narrower, thinner and more fragile than their predecessors. The end of the blade is no longer curved, but is increasingly cut off at an angle.

Research distinguishes three groups:

  1. The sharp knives from Zhao. Their legends usually consist of one character. However, different signs are used, some of which are already known from the early forms. But there are also cyclic characters here. Two mints from areas that did not exist until after 430 BC. B.C. belonged to the kingdom of the Zhao kings are known, so that these knife coins are not dated before said time.
  2. The second group consists of the most commonly found Ming knives.
  3. The third group includes straight knives, which are viewed as meager shapes. They are smaller than the shapes shown in Groups 1 and 2. The raised edge is stunted and the serial numbers are completely missing.

Larin

Larin (also called Lari) is a special form of device money . It consists of a bent silver wire. Its thickness is about 2 mm. A lari has an average weight of 4.5 grams. Both weight and flexion can vary. A lari is also known as fish hook money or hairpin money because of its shape.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, this form of money was used for the first time by the coastal peoples of Asia along the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, but especially on the Bay of Bengal , as a preferred means of trade and payment. Until the beginning of the 18th century, you could trade with a larin.

Following the Persian model, the larins were provided with Arabic characters in a flattened area, but these were often illegible. Today, a reliable determination of origin can only be made through the shape. One can distinguish several types in time and geography, so Larin's Persia , the Ottoman Empire , India , Ceylon , Java and the Maldives can be assigned.

The Persian pieces were produced and used as money since the early 16th century, mainly along the caravan routes between the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf. Under the influence of the Persian Larins are also the Larins of the Ottomans, who mainly come from Basra (today Iraq ). In India, the production of larins was massively promoted by the rulers of Bijapur . The Larins from Ceylon show a variety of drawings, but often have illegible characters. The Portuguese and Dutch colonial rulers also spent larins for a few years. Larins were among the most important and stable currencies in the early 18th century.

With the appearance of the European colonial powers, however, these forms of money disappeared more and more. The name Larin was later transferred to the copper coins of the Maldives. Even today, the decimal subdivision of the Maldivian rupee is referred to as Laari or Lari (100 Lari = 1 Maldivian rupee (Rufiyaa)).

Hack and weighing money

Rare metals were cast in bars (rarely in rings or bars). If necessary, smaller pieces were chopped off from these large pieces and then weighed. The fragments obtained in this way were called chopping money or weighing money . In order to make the fragments usable for bartering, the use of a scale was necessary for every trade in order to be able to determine the exact weight.

Exuberant forms

In the case of pre-coinage means of payment such as equipment, jewelry or weapon money, so-called splendor or usury forms also occur, i. H. the shape of the objects used as a means of payment is oversized. The reason for these usury forms is not exactly known, striving for prestige or an attempt to increase value is suspected.

The largest primitive moneys are made of stone ( Rai ) and weigh several tons (found on the South Sea island of Yap ).

Delimitations

Primitive money is not understood as the money that z. B. was issued in German cities and municipalities after the First World War : this was called emergency money , stamp capsule money or serial notes .

Overview of traditional payment methods

Animal products

  • Food (in kind): e.g. B. cheese cubes, butter bricks, stockfish, tuna
  • Durable goods (monies in kind): e.g. B. Sheep's wool, silk, furs (see fur money ), hides, fishhooks made from mussel shells

Jewelry (jewelry money): e.g. B. snail shells or mussel shells (mollusc money) from conus, kauri, nasal snails, dentalium, melo , pearl mussels

  • Teeth z. B. elk, pig, sperm whale, elephant or marsupial
  • Feathers, bones, corals, snake vertebrae, ostrich eggshells, tortoiseshell

Herbal products

  • Food and luxury goods (natural money): z. B. condiments, coffee beans, kola nuts, cocoa beans, coconuts, almonds, palm oil , opium, rice, raw sugar, sago, tobacco, tea bricks, wheat, dried onion balls, betel nuts
  • Durable goods (monies in kind): e.g. B. bast fiber mats, cotton, linen, turmeric powder, ingots made from redwood powder (tukula)
  • Jewelry (jewelry money): e.g. B. amber, kernels / seeds, coconut shells, palm fibers and other parts of plants

Minerals

  • Food and luxury goods (natural money): z. B. Salt Bars
  • Durable goods (monies in kind): e.g. B. axes made of nephrite, arrowheads made of stone, flint, aragonite stone money , (Yap)
  • Jewelry (jewelry money): e.g. B. jade, obsidian, bauxite, agate and nephrite beads, semi-precious stones, stone rings

Metals

Metallic objects

  • in the form of e.g. B. wires, plates, bars, rings, grains, discs, spirals, cast cakes, rods, pieces
  • made of precious metals, e.g. B. gold or silver
  • or made of non-ferrous metals, e.g. B. aluminum, lead, bronze, copper, brass, tin, iron or steel.

Metallic products

  • as devices (= device money) z. B. knives, picks, spades, gongs, bells, drums
  • as weapons (= weapon money) z. B. axes, hatchets, daggers, cannons, throwing knives, lance, arrow and spearheads
  • as jewelry (= jewelry money) z. B. Arm, foot, half-hoops, chains made of copper wire and metal beads, earrings

See also

  • Manille (historical currency in West Africa)
  • Opium weight (bronze weights in animal form)
  • Taboo shell money (complementary currency in New Britain in Papua New Guinea)
  • Aaht (shell money of the West Pacific Marshall Islands)
  • Dongo (former agate snail money in West Africa)
  • Wampum pearls (a former medium of exchange for sea snails and mussels among Indians on the US east coast)
  • Kula ritual (system of exchanging gifts for shell necklaces and bracelets on the Pacific Trobriand Islands)

literature

  • Ralf Althoff, Bernhard Weber-Brosamer: Pre-coinage means of payment and extraordinary forms of money from Southeast Asia, Africa and other parts of the world (= Köhler-Osbahr Collection. Volume 2.2). Culture and City History Museum Duisburg, Duisburg 1993.
  • G. Aumann: Primitive money - pre-coinage means of payment. Explanations of the exhibition collections of the Natural Science Museum Coburg. Issue 19, Coburg, nd 1974.
  • Paul Einsig: Primitive Money in its Ethnological, Historical and Economic Aspects. Second impression, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1951 (English).
  • Ute I. Greifenstein: Foreign money. Medium of exchange and valuation of non-European societies. An exhibition by Commerzbank together with the Museum für Völkerkunde, Frankfurt, nd
  • Peter Hofrichter: Kauri cultural history. 25 years of the Hanseatic Coin Guild 1969–1994. Hamburg 1994, pp. 127-222.
  • Jan Hogendorn, Marion Johnson: The Shell Money of the Slave Trade. In: African Studies Series. Volume 49, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986 (English).
  • Helmut Kahnt, Bernd Knorr: Old measures, coins and weights. A lexicon. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1986, licensed edition Mannheim / Vienna / Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-411-02148-9 , p. 394 ( primitive money ) and 398 ( premature currency ).
  • Horst Kimpel: Traditional means of payment. Early forms of money, pre-forms of coins, means of payment and objects of value of indigenous peoples, indicators of wealth. Accompanying the exhibition Traditional Means of Payment. Wuppertal, 1994.
  • F. Klusmeier: What is "primitive money"? In: Primitive Money Collectors. Issue 56, European Association for Collecting, Preserving and Researching Original and Extraordinary Forms of Money (EUCOPRIMO), 1999 ( online at eucoprimo.com).
  • Günter Kuhn, Bernhard Rabus: Money is what counts. Primary money: pre-coinage means of payment from all over the world. State Coin Collection , Munich 2009, ISBN 3-922840-24-8 .
  • Thomas Lautz: Steinreich in the South Seas. Traditional means of payment in Micronesia. 3rd special volume, European Association for Collecting, Preserving and Researching Original and Extraordinary Forms of Money (EUCOPRIMO), Cologne 1999.
  • Thomas Lautz: Feather money and shell necklaces. Traditional means of payment from Melanesia. In: The window. Topic 142, Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Cologne, January 1992 ( PDF file; 4.8 MB; 16 pages ).
  • Thomas Lautz: Bars as a means of payment. From the Bronze Age to the 20th century. In: The window. Topic 163, Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Köln, April 2003 ( PDF file; 689 kB; 16 pages ).
  • Robert D. Leonard Jr .: Curious Currency. The Story of Money From the Stone Age to the Internet Age. Whitman, Atlanta 2010, ISBN 0-7948-2289-4 (English).
  • Charles J. Opitz: Odd & Curious Money. Descriptions and Values. 2nd Edition. First Impressions, Ocala 1991 (English; first published 1986).
  • Charles J. Opitz: Cowrie Shells. First Impressions, Ocala 1992 (English).
  • Charles J. Opitz: An Ethnographic Study of Traditional Money. First Impressions, Ocala 2000 (English).
  • Alice Hingston Quiggin: A Survey of Primitive Money. The Beginnings of Currency. Emphasis. London 1978 (English; first published 1949).
  • Brigitte Templin, Waltraut Draeger: Mats, shells, manillas: beautiful values ​​- foreign money. Traditional means of payment in the world from the holdings of the ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, 2005 (on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, January 30 to June 19, 2005).

Exhibitions

  • 2014, Munich: Everything can be money ... Museum Mensch und Natur , May 16. until November 2nd.
  • 2005, Lübeck: Mats, shells, manillas: beautiful values ​​- foreign money. Traditional means of payment in the world from the holdings of the ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck , January 30th to June 19th, 2005.
  • 2003, Cologne: Bars as a means of payment - from the Bronze Age to the 20th century. Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Cologne , April 10th to November 1st.
  • 1994, Wuppertal: Traditional means of payment. Early forms of money, pre-forms of coins, means of payment and objects of value of indigenous peoples, indicators of wealth.
  • 1994, Cologne: Steinreich in the South Seas. Traditional means of payment from Micronesia. Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Cologne, April 14th to September.

Web links

Commons : Primitive Money  - Images and Media Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Monetary History Museum of the Kreissparkasse Cologne : Traditional means of payment. 2012, accessed September 25, 2014.
  2. ^ Museum of the National Bank of Belgium : Pre-coinage means of payment. 2014, accessed September 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Günter Kuhn, Bernhard Rabus: Money is what counts. Primary money: pre-coinage means of payment from all over the world. State Coin Collection, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-922840-24-8 .
  4. ^ Exhibition Exotic Currencies in the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich (2000). See the corresponding publication: Exotic currencies (1999).
  5. ^ Exotic currencies in the Völkerkundemuseum - Unusual means of payment in: Finanz und Wirtschaft , July 19, 2000.
  6. ^ Volker: The Importance of African Trade Beads for a Little Town in Germany. ( Memento from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Steinkunst.com. Own website, 2003, accessed on September 25, 2014 (English, based on Idar-Oberstein ; in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ Archeology in Germany (AiD), 5/2015 p. 4 .
  8. ↑ Museum Mensch und Natur : Special exhibition: “Everything can be money…” Munich, accessed on September 25, 2014.
  9. ↑ Brigitte Templin, Waltraut Draeger: Mats, mussels, manillas: beautiful values ​​- foreign money. Traditional means of payment in the world from the holdings of the ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck. Ethnological collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Lübeck 2005.
  10. ^ Thomas Lautz: Bars as a means of payment. From the Bronze Age to the 20th century. In: The window. Topic 163, Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Köln, April 2003 ( PDF file; 689 kB; 16 pages ).
  11. ↑ Horst Kimpel: Traditional means of payment. Early forms of money, pre-forms of coins, means of payment and objects of value of indigenous peoples, indicators of wealth. Book accompanying the exhibition. Wuppertal, 1994.
  12. ↑ Thomas Lautz: Steinreich in the South Seas. Traditional means of payment in Micronesia. In: The window. Topic 147, Geldgeschichtliches Museum, Kreissparkasse Köln, April 1994 ( PDF file; 12.1 MB; 16 pages ).