Kuna and Veveritsa |
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Let's open Iliad Homer: Achilles then handed out the third prizes to the Danes. The first prize is a tripod big for fire. That tripod Among themselves, the Achaeans estimated twelve bulls. For a defeated husband, he brought a woman out, in works Many skilled, this one was rated at four bulls. As you can see, the bull appears here as the unit of account. It is the cattle, the cap of the greatest value, that acquired the character of money among the ancient Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Arab, Indian and other tribes. “At that time, money,” wrote Plutarch, “was not yet widely used by the Romans, and wealth was measured by the number of cattle. Therefore, they still denote good by the word "peculia" (peculia) after the name of small livestock, and on their oldest coins they minted images of a cow, sheep or pig. ". In 1018, having been defeated in the battle with Boleslav of Poland and Svyatopolk, Yaroslav arrived in Novgorod with the intention of going overseas. Novgorodians dissuaded the prince from this venture, assuring them that they were ready to fight his offenders, and "Start collecting cattle from her husband for 4 kunas, and from headmen - 10 hryvnias, and from boyars - 18 hryvnias". Livestock was the main measure of wealth and the subject of sale and purchase among many nomadic tribes. It is interesting that the original meaning of the word “commodity” borrowed from the Turks was just “lamb, domestic animals”. High-bred horses replaced money among the ancient Altai people - with this currency they paid for brides and ransomed prisoners. From the Scythians, horses could be bought off even if someone was sentenced to death. At the end of the last century, the Mongols had money "Honi" - rams, all monetary taxes were calculated in them. In the old days, the Kazakhs evaluated other cattle and livestock products in rams, and the one-year-old ram served as the measure. A three-year-old was equated to two "currency" ones, and a one-year-old calf cost the same. The cost of a camel was twenty rams, the price of ten sheepskins or lambs was equal to one ram, and two felts for yurts cost three and a half rams. The most expensive ransom for a wife among the Masai Africans is three cows; in the State of Zaire it is considered sufficient to pay the goat; the price of a noble bride in Somalia is very high - one hundred camels, the fee for a poor bride is reduced, but there should not be less than fifteen camels. Among the inhabitants of Melanesia (as it is customary to call New Guinea together with the surrounding archipelagos), the role of the largest monetary unit is retained by the common pig. At the same time, it is not the weight and not the fat content that determine its value, but the shape of the canines of the lower jaw. The value of a pig rises if its fangs are crooked, and the pig, in which they are bent in a ring (sometimes even Double), from the point of view of the Melanesians, is a real treasure. Sometimes molars are broken off to animals, if only precious fangs grow better. The connection of money with cattle (or the most valuable game animal) is clearly demonstrated by the very form of the most ancient, still primitive metallic money. So, in Knossos and a number of other cities of Crete, archaeologists have discovered large copper ingots with curved edges like a bull's hide, as scientists believe, equivalent to the cost of one bull. In the village of Nemesis on the territory of present-day France, money was in circulation in the form of ... a boar's leg. The surroundings of Nemesis abounded in wild boars, which were hunted by the inhabitants of the village, which is why the boar was also the oldest settlement unit in this area.In Olbia, a Greek colony in the Northern Black Sea region, in the 6th-4th centuries BC, a round cast copper coin with the image of an eagle clawing a dolphin was used, while money was also made in the form of figurines of the same dolphin. Speaking about the images of animals, birds, fish, insects on coins, one must bear in mind that the oldest of them (as we have already seen with the example of the first money of Rome) were echoes of the previous era, when cattle were money. The economic importance of game animals could also play a role. So, in the Greek polis (city-state) Panticapaeum, located on the site of the present city of Kerch, coins with the image of a sturgeon were minted. In ancient times, as now, the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait abounded in fish, which served (in salted form) one of the most important articles of the Panticapaean export. And the Erythrians in ancient Greece, when minting their coins, depicted a cuttlefish on them. It is known that the ancient Greeks willingly used cuttlefish for food. It is also possible that she served as an object of religious worship. In the 5th century BC, Athenian coins with the image of an owl, a symbolic attribute of the goddess Athena, were the most widespread in Greece. On the silver Carthaginian coins are images of a horse or a horse's head; one of the coins depicting a galloping horse was colloquially called "horse". On the coins knocked out by Tamerlane, a lion flaunts. A coin depicting an Italic bull trampling on a Roman she-wolf is attributed to the 1st century BC (in 125 BC, the Italians rebelled against Rome). Bigates - the oldest Roman silver coins in denominations of one denarius - had the image of a chariot. An ant is depicted on the obverse of a small silver coin of Panticapaeum (5th century BC). Experts are still puzzling over the meaning of the image. Only a guess seems a bit logical that the coin was minted by order of Mirmekia (translated as "Anthill") - another Greek polis in the Crimea. The fate of the image was changeable "Gallic rooster"... It first appeared on 20 franc coins during the 18th century French bourgeois revolution and immediately became a national emblem. Napoleon I abolished the "Gallic cock"; in 1830 he was reinstated; in 1852, under Napoleon III, he fell into disgrace again. Finally, since 1871, the rooster has finally established itself as a symbol on French coins. "Animal" there could be not only images on coins, but also the names of monetary units. The coin of the Dutch Republic of the 17th century, which had on the reverse side the image of a lion walking on its hind legs, was called the lion thaler (leewendaalder). Quetzal is the name given to a Guatemalan coin equal to 100 centavos, it depicts the quetzal bird, which is the national emblem of Guatemala. Lev is the currency of Bulgaria. According to Herodotus, in his time lions were still found in ancient Thrace, whose territory is now partly part of Bulgaria. In 1967, the African state of Sierra Leone, having withdrawn from circulation the colonial means of payment - the pound sterling, introduced a national currency called "Leone" (in translation - "a lion"). Polish numismatist Edmund Smulski has amassed a curious collection. Smulsky's collection contains coins depicting a bison (USA), a condor (Chile), a ken cougar (Uruguay), a dolphin and a bee Remember the story of Tui Malila the turtle told in the chapter "Living Attractions"? So, the unprecedented honor that surrounded the gift of Captain Cook to the kings of Tonga was not limited to a high title and a specially built palace, - the image of the famous turtle was minted on Tongan coins. More recently, the same great honor was awarded to ... a cat. The tailless cats of the Isle of Man, off the coast of Ireland, are a local attraction.In 1970, the London Mint issued a special coin. On the obverse and reverse sides of the new crown there are two images: Queen Elizabeth II and a tailless cat. If the Yoshek had conceptions of vanity that coincided with those of men, they could, perhaps, turn up their noses, having been honored to coexist with a special royal family ... And what is this "Kuna" and "Faith"in the title of the chapter? In addition to cattle, furs and skins also played the role of the currency of the ancients (in Ancient Rus, Scandinavia, among the Indians of North America). In the "Tale of Bygone Years" we read: "And the Khazars took from the meadows, and from the northerners, and with the Vyatichi, a silver coin and a squirrel from smoke." Squirrel, marten, sable furs have served as a means of payment in Russia for a very long time. Even in 1594, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich sent 40,360 sables to Vienna as a "monetary" subsidy for the war with the Turks. As for such monetary units as kuna (or kunya muzzle) and polushka (half-ear, half-ear of a marten), their origin is completely transparent. In the X-XI centuries, the content of silver in kuna corresponded to V25 hryvnia. Use of the term "Kuna" in the meaning of money remained in Russia until the 17th century. The role of furs in monetary settlements is reflected in ancient folklore. "A marten, a fox, a golden hryvnia and a glass of wine" it was customary to ask as a bride price. Compare other matchmaking sayings: "Cook, cook father, cook mother, stand on sable feet, on sable heels"; "Give the red maiden for the marten"... The ancient word "ku.nshchik" was called a tax collector; "Kun-ny" meant "abundant, dear". "Kunet" (meaning "to enter into force, to mature") was attributed not only to the marten and other fur-bearing animals, but also to a teenager, especially a girl. Veveritsa (the same - veksha, squirrel, squirrel skin) was the name of the smallest ancient Russian currency, which was 4/6 of the kuna. Veveritsa has been mentioned by chroniclers since the middle of the 9th century. Squirrel skins were a bargaining chip: after all, tens of thousands of them were mined! A similar monetary unit existed in ancient times among the Udmurts, in whose life hunting played a significant role. In Udmurt squirrel skin was called "Horses"... It is curious that this term has survived to this day: this is how the Udmurts call ... a penny. The fur trade was also of great importance among the Selkups, a small people of the Far North and Siberia (according to the 1970 census, there were 4300 of them). In the 19th century, a good Selkup hunter hunted up to twenty squirrels a day. "Proteinization" was the occupation of entire families. And it is not surprising that the main exchange unit among the Selkups was a bunch of ten squirrel skins, called "Sarum"... This word has become an integral part of all Selkup numerals meaning tens, starting from twenty. Among the outlandish ones can be attributed to the money of the Aztecs - golden sand packed in rods of goose feathers. The value of such a coin was determined by the length of the rod. In Alaska in the middle of the 19th century, leather money in the form of a rectangle was in circulation. They were made from lavtak - the skin of pinnipeds - by the Russian-American Company. Leather money was issued in denominations of 5, 10 and 25 rubles. The dream of numismatists is the coins made of ivory issued at the end of the last century on the Cocos Islands. The Melanesians still use the original currency - dog teeth (there are many dogs in Melanesia: they are bred here like beef cattle). At the end of the last century, the ransom for a bride was estimated at a hundred dog teeth, and for one canine one could buy 100 coconuts. European traders brought a lot of dog fangs to the islands, causing real inflation, devaluation of local money. The crooked fangs of the Misty Panther replace money for the Dayaks in New Guinea (Borneo). “In times of famine,” writes Pierre Pfeffer in his book "Bivouacs in Borneo", - two teeth of a smoky panther can be exchanged for 20 muds of rice (one mud contains 16-20 liters); and if, moreover, the teeth float on the water, as is the case with the hollow canines of old animals, then they are 2-3 times more expensive. True, the seller should always, as they say, keep an eye out: the island has its own counterfeiters who, instead of the precious fangs of the panther, slip in much cheaper thinned bear teeth or even fakes, skillfully carved from a deer horn. There is also, it turns out, and money from bird feathers. Their address is the Santa Cruz archipelago. In parrots of the local breed, scarlet feathers grow under large feathers. Having caught the birds, the islanders pull out these feathers from them and stick them on a ten-meter belt braided from laces, to which it is already glued "priming" - white feathers of a forest pigeon. With a new - with a needle - a coin made according to all the rules, you can buy either a hunting dog or a fattened pig, which is allowed to be eaten only on a holiday. If the buyer expects to feast on pork on a weekday, he must pay by all means “with an old, tarnished from time to time, feather coin. The richest history of shell money. As early as 1000-1500 BC, seemingly unremarkable shells of sea mollusks played the role of a means of payment in China, India, Japan, on many islands of the Pacific Ocean and the seas washing Asia and Australia. One of the ancient Chinese inscriptions, for example, reads: "Jiang bestowed shells 10 bundles, slaves to 10 families, people 100 people"... The hieroglyph for the word "captive" usually depicted a man getting shells: apparently, prisoners of war were used in the hard work of catching shellfish. Archaeologists have discovered shell money in Western Europe, including Britain, and in ancient burials in the western regions of the former USSR. Nassa snail shells, appropriately processed and then strung on cords, are popular in the Pacific islands. Papuans of New Guinea make multi-meter chains from them. In North America, shells were used as coins and at the same time jewelry "Abalone" and denta-liums. Cowrie shells - the most valuable currency - were mined mainly on the islands of the Maldives archipelago. With their shell money, the Maldivians bought, in particular, rice from India. Cowrie's sphere of circulation became even wider in the period from the 15th to the first half of the 19th century, which was marked by the colonial expansion of European states and the unprecedented scale of the slave trade. In Africa ivory, gold, valuable wood, slaves were sold for cowrie. Over the course of a century, 115 thousand tons of cowries were brought to Guinea alone. The lowest of this number of shells could have girded the Earth around the equator 37 times! At the present time, cowrie and others (types of shell money retain the value of a means of payment in certain regions of Africa, in some places in North India and Bengal, on the islands of Oceania. They are especially highly valued in Melanesia. There are cases when young men who have earned money on plantations of Europeans “Quite a few” silver coins still cannot marry without a sufficient supply of shells to buy the bride from her parents, while shells are used to pay off dancers performing at religious festivals and local artisans. Shell money businesses were once widespread throughout Oceania. Now their number has decreased significantly. On the Solomon Islands, for example, only one such "mint" has survived to this day - on the island of Duca. To finish the story of the amazing longevity of shell money, let us note also the monetary reform carried out in Ghana in July 1965. Until that time, pounds sterling, shillings and pence inherited from the era of colonialism were in circulation in the country. From now on, the main currency of Ghana was the coin "Sit" - by the name of a small local shell, which once had the value of money. Krasnopevtsev V.P. - Seagulls on a pedestal |
The first coins that open the official history of banknotes appeared at the end of the 8th - early 7th centuries BC in Asia Minor (in the state of Lydia) and on the Greek island of Aegina. But this does not mean at all that there was no currency before.
| In gratitude | Where the eagle tore the snake ... |
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