Money

MONEY. The Scripture often speaks of Gold, of Silver, of Brass, of certain Sums of Money, of Purchases made with Money, of current Money, of Money of a certain Weight; but I do not observe there any Thing of coined or stamped Money till very late, which induces me to believe, that the ancient Hebrews took Gold and Silver only by Weight. That they only considered in it the Purity of the Metal, and the Degree of Allay, and not the Stamp. This is what we have endeavoured to prove, in a Dissertation upon this Subject, printed before our Commentary upon Genesis, of which we shall here give an Abstract.

The most ancient Manner of Commerce among Men, was by Way of Barter, or exchanging one Sort of Merchandize for another. One Man parted with what was needless or superfluous to himself, to accommodate another, who gave him in Return what he did not want himself, to receive for it what was more useful to him. Afterwards the more precious Sorts of Metals were used in Traffick, as Things whose Values were more generally known and stated. Lastly, they contrived to give this Metal a certain Mark, a certain Weight, and a certain Degree of Allay, to fix its Value, and to save the Buyers and Sellers the Trouble of weighing and examining the Metal.

At the Siege of Troy they make no Mention of Gold or Silver coined; there the Values of Things are rated by the Number of Oxen they were worth¹. They bought Wine, for Example, by giving Oxen, Slaves, Skins, Iron, &c. in Lieu of it². When the Greeks began to use Money, it was only little Pieces of Iron or Copper, called Oboli, Spits, of which an Handful was a Drachma³. Herodotus thinks⁴, that the Lydians were the first that stamped Money of Gold or Silver, and introduced it into Commerce. Others say, that it was Ishon King of Thessaly, and Son of Deucalion⁵. But others ascribe this Honour to Erichthonius, who had been educated by the Daughters of Cecrops King of Athens⁶: Others again to Phidon King of Argos.

Among the Persians it is said, that it was Darius Son of Hystaspes, who first coined Golden Money⁷. Lycurgus banished Gold and Silver from his Commonwealth of Lacedæmon, and only allowed a sort of rude Money, made of Iron steeped in Vinegar. Janus, or rather the Kings of Rome, made a kind of gross Money of Copper, whereon was seen on one Side the double Face of Janus, and on the other the Stern of a Ship.

I find nothing concerning the Money of the Egyptians, the Phœnicians, the Arabians, or the Syrians, before the Conquests of Alexander the Great. ‘Tis needless to speak of the Scythians, the Germans, the Gauls, or the Spaniards. They did not begin till long after, to coin Money proper to their own Countries or Nations. In China to this Day they stamp no Money of Gold or Silver, but only of Copper. Gold and Silver pass only as Goods and Merchandizes, and are not current in Trade. If any one offers Gold or Silver to buy any Thing with, they take it and pay it by Weight, as other Goods. So that they are obliged to cut it into Pieces with Sheers for that Purpose, and they carry a Stillyard at their Girdles to weigh it. As to Copper, they coin it into Money with a certain Mixture of other Matter. One of its Faces is marked with Chinese Characters, declaring the Value of it. Through the Middle they bore a little square hole, by which they string it upon Strings⁸.

The People of Albania, and those upon the Banks of the Araxes, had neither Money, nor Weights, nor Measures, and did not reckon beyond an Hundred⁹. Mr. Tournefort says¹⁰, that to this Day the Georgians, who succeeded the People now mentioned, despise Money, and would not sell their Provisions, but would truck for them. All the Trade of Mingrelia is carried on by Bartering¹¹. In Ethiopia and Bengal there is no Money, but they make Use of Sea-Shells of the Maldivia Islands, instead of the smaller Money. They also make Use of them in the Maldivies, and several Places of the Indies, as also on the Coasts of Guinea, and in the Kingdoms of Congo and Siam.

Let us now return to the Hebrews. Abraham weighs out four hundred Shekels of Silver, as a Purchase for Sarah’s Tomb: And the Scripture observes, that he paid this in current Money with the Merchant. Argenti probatæ monetæ publicæ. Joseph was sold by his Brethren to the Midianites Gen. xxiii. 15, 16. Gen. xxxvii. 28.for the Sum of twenty Pieces of Silver, Viginti argenteis; the Hebrew says, for twenty Shekels of Silver. The Brethren of Jo- Gen. xliii. 21. Gen. xxiv. 22. Ex. xxx. 24. Exod. xxxviii. 29. 2 Sam. xvi. 26. Isai. xlvi. 6. Jerem. xxxviii. 10. Isai. lv. 1, 2. Amos vii. 5.Joseph bring back with them into Egypt the Money they had found in their Sacks, in the same Weight they had given before; Argentum in pondere suo. The Bracelets that Eliezer gave to Rebecca weighed ten Shekels, and the Ear-rings two Shekels. Moses gave Orders, that they should take the Weight of five hundred Shekels of Myrrh, and two hundred and fifty Shekels of Cinnamon, of the Weight of the Sanctuary, to make the Perfume which was to be burnt to the Lord upon the golden Altar. He acquaints us in another Place, that they offered for the Works of the Tabernacle, seventy two Thousand Talents of Brass. We read in the Books of Samuel, that the Weight of Absalom’s Hair was two hundred Shekels of the ordinary Weight, or of the King’s Weight, when he cut it off every Year. Isaiah describes the wicked weighing Silver in a Balance, to make an Idol thereof; and Jeremiah weighs seventeen Pieces of Silver in a pair of Scales, to pay for a Field that he had bought. Isaiah says, Come buy Wine and Milk without Money, and without Price. Wherefore do ye weigh Money for that which is not Bread? Amos represents the Merchants encouraging one another, to make the Ephah small, wherewith to sell, and the Shekel great, wherewith to buy, and to falsify the Balances by Deceit. Imminuamus mensuram, augeamus siclum, supponamus stateras dolosas.

In all these Passages there is only Mention made of these three Things. 1. Of the Metal, Gold or Silver, and never of Copper, for it was never then made Use of in Traffick as Money. 2. Of the Weight, a Talent, a Shekel, a Gerah or Obolus, of the Weight of the Sanctuary, and of the King’s Weight. And 3. Of the Alloy, of pure or fine Gold and Silver, and of good Alloy, as received by the Merchant. It is spoken no where of the Impression, or of the Coin; but it is often said that they weighed the Silver, or that they weighed all Sorts of Commodities by the Weight of the Shekel and of the Talent. This Shekel therefore, or this Talent, were not fixed and determined Pieces of Money, but Weights that were indifferently made Use of for all Sorts of Things used in Commerce. Hence those deceitful Balances of the Merchants, who would increase the Shekel, that is, would augment the Weight by which they weighed the Gold and Silver they were to receive, that they might have a greater Quantity than was their Due; hence in the Weight of the Sanctuary, the Standard of which was laid up in the Temple, to prevent Cheating and Fraud; hence were those Prohibitions in the Deut. xxv. 13.Law, Thou shalt not have in thy Bag diverse Weights; a Great and a Small. Hence were those Scales that the Hebrews wore always at their Girdles, and the Canaanites Hosea xii. 7.in their Hands; as the Chinese still wear them at their Girdles, to weigh the Gold and Silver which they receive in Payment, they having as yet no coined Money among them, as we have said before.

And it is to be observed, that in the original Text there is never any Mention made of Money, or of any Thing like it. The Gold and Silver that is offered to Moses in the Desert, for the Use of the Tabernacle, and that which was given to Aaron to make a golden Calf, and that of which Gideon made an Ephod, and that which tempted Achan, and that which David left Solomon, and that which Gehazi received from Naaman, was only Gold or Silver made up into Rings, Bracelets, Pendants, Vessels, or Lingots. Not a Word of coined Money, of a Mark or Impression, nothing to shew the Form of the Money, or the Figure represented upon it. For generally coined Money has the Name of some Prince, or has some Animal or Flower represented upon it. Among the Greeks they say, a Philip, an Archer, an Ox, an Owl, &c. because of the Impressions upon them, which represented King Philip, an Archer, or a Man drawing a Bow, and so of the rest. But nothing of this Kind was to be found among the Hebrews.

It is true that in the Hebrew Text of Genesis we find, that Jacob bought a Field for the Gen. xxxiii. 19. Job. xlii. 11.Sum of an Hundred Kesitah’s; and that the Friends of Job, after his Recovery, gave to this Model of Patience each a Kesitah, and a golden Pendant for the Ears. We also find there Daricks, called in Hebrew Darcmonim, or Adarcmonim. And Mention is made of Minæ, Stateræ, Oboli; but this last kind of Money was Foreign, and are put for other Terms, which in the Hebrew only signifie the Weight of the Metal. The Kesitah is not well known to us; some take it for a Sheep or a Lamb; others for a kind of Money, having the Print of a Lamb or a Sheep. But we rather think it to be a Purse of Money of a certain Weight. See KESITAH.

Ezek. xlv. 12.The Darcmonims or Daricks, are Money of the Kings of Persia; and it is agreed, that under Darius Son of Hystaspes, they first began to see Money stamped or coined. Ezekiel tells us, that the Mina makes sixty Shekels; he reduces this Foreign Money to the Weight of the Hebrews. The Mina may probably be a Persian Money originally, and adopted by the Greeks and by the Hebrews. But under the Dominion of the Persians, the Hebrews were hardly at Liberty to coin Money of their own, being under the Obedience of these Princes, and making then but a small Figure in their own Countrey. They were still less able to do it under the Chaldæans, during the Babylonish Captivity, nor afterwards under the Government of the Grecians, to whom they were in Subjection till 1 Macc. xv. 6.the Time of Simon Maccabæus, to whom Antiochus Sidetes King of Syria granted the Privilege of coining Money of his own in Judæa¹². Permittimus tibi facere percussuram proprii numismatis in regione tua. And this is the first Hebrew Money properly so called, that we know of. There were Shekels and Demi-shekels of Silver. We have caused a good Number of them to be engraved, with the Explication of their Legends, before this Dictionary of the Bible.

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