Robinson Crusoe's Money;

land Came to Use Currenc

. The middle of the island, on the other hand, was elevated into high mountain ranges, covered with dense forests, in crossing which travelers journeying between the two cities were often robbed of all the gold they carried about them. To obviate this danger, and avoid the necessity of carrying gold, persons living at opposite ends of the island, therefore, adopted a system of giving written orders for money on each other, which each reciprocally agreed to pay to the person whose name was written in the order or dra

were convertible into gold at will, and that no more tickets were issued than corresponded to gold actually deposited and retained, soon came to be regarded as equally good and valid as gold itself, and vastly more convenient for the purpose of making exchanges. And thus it was that currency (from the Latin curro, to run) originated and came into use on the island as a substitute and representative of money.2 The name originally given to these receipts was first "bank-credits," and then "bank-notes," but a

least in value, it perfectly answered the purpose of money, without actually being so. It also furnished another striking illustration of the superiority of the commodity gold to serve either as money or as an object of value for deposit, against which receipts or certificates of deposit might be issued to serve as currency; for if other valuab

is not a

y banks in different places, to serve as currency; the value or purchasing power of a ton of coal, or a fat ox, being one thing at the mouth of a coal-mine or on a prairie stock-farm, and quite a different thing ten, twenty, or a hundred mil

, who, ever liable to persecution, adopted a system of drafts, or written orders, up

est (always promptly paid) at the rate of four per cent. per annum. Soon after the establishment of this bank one of the depositors died; and it becoming necessary to distribute his estate among five children, his bank-credit was divided into five portions and transferred to five new owners. A system of transferring bank-credits was thus introduced, and proved so useful that in a brief time the mercha

be issued by those men, women, and children who perform useful service"-i. e., grow corn, mine coal, catch cod-fish, pick up chestnuts and the like-"but by nobody else;" such results of service being deposited in safe receptacles, and having receipts of deposit issued against them to serve

labor is entitled to t

1

nnati

to B

HOURS'

, or a Hundred

am Mo

F-- S

is We

ing and a hundred pounds of corn. But one hundred pounds of corn in Illinois are the result of only a quarter as much labor as a hundred pounds in New England; and what comparison is there between eight hours' work of a

roves on Warren's ideas, and proposes that the United States Governm

nd, in -- bushels of Illinois Fall Wheat, at United Stat

ble for all debts du

Government of the United States to have store-houses for wheat at Chicago, pig-pens at Peoria, coal-mines or dép?ts at Pottsville, and trained professionals ready on call to plead a case, preach a sermon, cure a cold, and cook a dinner; and all of these last must take