We have seen in the preceding pages that from the Atlantic seaboard right across into Further Asia the ox was universally spread, and from a period long before the daybreak of history already formed the chief element of property amongst the various races of mankind which occupied that wide region. We have likewise seen that gold was very equally distributed over the same area, being ready to hand in the still unexhausted deposits in the sands of rivers. And lastly we have seen that from the most remote times there was complete communication for purposes of trade between the various stocks. For whilst peoples in the pastoral and nomad stage do not dwell together in large communities they nevertheless are within touch of one another. No better illustration of this can be found than the relations between Abraham and Lot as set forth in Genesis (xiii. 5 sqq.): “And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right: or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.” But although, from the necessity of finding sufficient pasturage for their flocks and herds, they had parted from one another, they remained within touch. For we find that no sooner had Lot and his possessions been carried away by Chedorlaomer and his confederates, after the overthrow of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, than Abraham at once hears of his mishap and hastens to his rescue (xiv. 13 sqq.).

The picture here given may be taken as holding good for a large part of Asia and Europe. There is a great intermingling of various races and untrammeled intercourse between the various communities. Thus we find that Abraham was able to journey from Haran into Egypt with his flocks and herds and suffered harm or hindrance of no man. Nay, a still stronger proof of the safety and freedom of intercourse is that when Abraham entered Egypt, although afraid that if it were known that Sarah was his wife the Egyptians might murder him, yet he had no fear that they would take her away by force if she was supposed to be his sister. Thus, when his princes told Pharaoh that the Hebrew woman was fair to look on, though the king commanded her to be taken into his house, he did not act with high-handed violence against the stranger, but “he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.” And when Pharaoh discovered that she was really Abraham’s wife, although on account of Abraham’s mendacity the Lord had “plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Abraham’s wife,” he did not, as he might very justly have done, take a summary vengeance upon him, “he commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.” (Gen. xii. 12-20.)

Such then being the general distribution of cattle and sheep, and such again the distribution of gold, we can have little hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the ox, which we have evidence to show was the chief unit of value in all those countries, had the same value throughout, and in like manner that gold would have almost the same value over all the area in which we have shown that it was so impartially apportioned out by Nature. From this it follows that if the unit of gold was fixed upon the older unit, the ox, the same quantity of gold would be found serving as the metallic unit throughout the same wide area.

If then it can be proved that throughout the area in which those weight standards arose from which all the known systems of the ancient, mediaeval, and modern world were derived, the same gold-unit is found everywhere, and that wherever evidence is to hand, this unit is regarded as equal in value to a cow or ox, the truth of our hypothesis will have been demonstrated. For it would be impossible that such an occurrence should be a mere coincidence if found repeated in different areas. Furthermore, if it can be shown that in cases at a comparatively late historical period peoples who were borrowing a ready-made metallic system from more civilized neighbours, have found it impossible to do so without adjusting or equating such metallic standard to their own unit of barter, we may infer a fortiori that it would have been impossible for any people to have framed a metallic unit for the first time for themselves without any reference to the unit of barter. But as we have already proved that the unit of barter is in every case earlier in existence than even the very knowledge of the precious metals, it follows irresistibly that the metallic unit is based on the unit of barter. We have also given reasons for believing that gold was the first of the metals known to primitive man, but as yet we have not proved that the metals are the first objects to be weighed. If this can be proved, and if furthermore it can be proved that before silver or copper or iron were yet weighed, gold has been weighed by that standard, which we find universal in later times, we have still more closely narrowed down our argument and put it beyond all reasonable doubt that weighing was first invented for traffic in gold, and since the weight-unit of gold is found regularly to be the value of a cow or ox, the conclusion must follow that the unit of weight is ultimately derived from the value in gold of a cow.

If we begin in modern times and reflect on the articles which are usually sold by weight, we find at once that the more valuable and less bulky the commodity, the more regularly is it sold and bought by the medium of the scales and weights; furthermore, on enquiry we find that many kinds of goods which are now sold by weight were formerly sold simply by bulk or measure. At the present moment corn is generally sold by weight (though sometimes still by measure), although the nomenclature connected with its buying and selling shows beyond doubt that formerly it was sold entirely by dry measure. The English coomb, the Irish barrel, the bushel and the peck are indubitable evidence. The selling of live cattle by weight has only lately been adopted in some markets in this country; but go back to a more remote period, and you will find that even dead cattle were not sold by weight. Thus we see that it is only in a comparatively late epoch that two of the chief commodities on which human life depends for subsistence have been trafficked in by weight. Nothing now remains but man’s clothing, weapons, ornaments, fuel and furniture.

The more primitive the condition of life, the more scanty and rude is the household furniture, and as even in modern times timber is not sold by weight, beyond all doubt the same must hold good in a still stronger degree of a time when wood could be had for the mere trouble of sallying forth with an axe and cutting it. The same argument applies cogently to the question of fuel. For even though coal is now sold by weight, both coal and coke are still sold in some places at least in name by the chaldron, a fact that indicates that it was only when facilities increased for weighing large and bulky commodities that such a practice came into vogue. Similarly, although firewood is now sold by weight on the Continent, beyond all doubt at a previous period it was uniformly sold by bulk, as peat or turf is now sold in Cambridgeshire, in Scotland, and in Ireland.

Weapons and ornaments and utensils now only remain. To take the last-named first, at no period have vessels of earthenware been sold by weight. On the other hand those of metal, especially when made of copper and iron, are usually sold in this fashion, although vessels of iron and tin are commonly sold by bulk, or according to their capacity, thereby following, as we shall shortly see, a most ancient precedent. The value of ornaments largely consists in the artistic skill displayed in their manufacture, hence weight is not employed in estimating their value except when the material is gold or silver, and therefore possesses a certain intrinsic value apart from the mere workmanship. We may therefore infer that in early times no decorative articles save those in metal were valued by weight. Next comes the question of weapons, one of the most important sides of ancient life. Of course gold and silver are unfit for weapons and implements, save in the case of the gods, as for instance the chariot of Hera, with its wheel-naves of silver and its tires of gold[164]. The spear-head and sword-blade must be made from tougher and cheaper metals. Hence copper or bronze (copper alloyed with tin) in the earlier periods which succeeded the stone age, and iron at a later time, have mainly provided mankind with weapons of offence and defence. But precious as copper and bronze and iron were to the primitive man, we do not find them sold by weight: a simple process was employed; the crude metal was made into pieces or bars of certain dimensions, so many finger-breadths or thumb-breadths long, so many broad, so many thick, just as wooden planks are now sold with us, when the value of a piece of timber is estimated by its being so many feet of inch board, or half-inch board, and of a fixed width. Lastly we come to the question of clothing. Skins of course were sold by bulk, the hide of an ox or a sheepskin having generally a fixed and constant value. Even when sheep came to be shorn, the fleece was set at an average value. But beyond all doubt among the peoples who dwelt around the Mediterranean the practice of weighing wool was of a most respectable antiquity. Such, too, was the practice all through the middle ages in England and on the Continent. We have abundant specimens still left of the weights carried by the wool merchants, slung over the back of a pack-horse.

Having said so much by way of preliminary, we can now adduce testimony in support of our thesis. Once more let us start with the Homeric Poems. The weighing of gold is already in vogue, but the highest unit known is the small talent, the value of an ox, weighing 130-5 grs, or 10-15 grs more than a sovereign. Silver is not yet estimated by weight, although large and handsome vessels of that metal are described and have their value appraised. But it is not by their weight that their value is estimated, but by their capacity. Thus as first prize for the footrace Achilles gave “a wine-mixer of silver, wrought, and it held six measures, but it surpassed by far in beauty all others upon earth, since cunning craftsmen, the Sidonians, had carefully worked it, and Phoenician men brought it over the misty deep.” (Iliad, XXIII. 741 sqq.) Here we have a vessel wrought in silver evidently of considerable size, but it is simply by its content that its size and value are expressed. Among the lists of prizes in the same book we find the size of vessels made of copper or bronze similarly indicated. Thus the first prize for the chariot race consisted of a woman skilled in goodly tasks; and a tripod with ears, which held two and twenty measures; whilst the third prize was a lebes or kettle which had never yet been blackened by the fire, still with all the glitter of newness, which held four measures. So, too, in the case of iron. As the prize for the Hurling of the Quoit, Achilles set down a mass of pig iron, which he had taken from Eetion. It is a piece of metal as yet unwrought, so that here if anywhere its size and value ought to be reckoned by weight, since no account has to be taken of workmanship. But Achilles, instead of saying that it weighs so many talents or minae, describes its value in a far more primitive fashion. “Even if his fat lands be very far remote, it will last him five revolving seasons. For not through want of iron will his shepherd or ploughman go to the town, but it (the mass) will supply him[165].”

Thus of the four chief metals mentioned in the Homeric Poems, gold alone is subjected to weight. But the scales are used for another purpose still. In the Twelfth Book of the Iliad there is a curious simile wherein a fight between the Trojans and Achaeans is likened to the weighing of wool: “So they held on as an honest, hardworking woman holds the scales, who holding a weight and wool apart lifts them up, making them equal, in order that she may win a humble pittance for her children: thus their fight and war hung evenly until what time Zeus gave masterful glory to Hector, Priam’s son[166].”

Without doubt one of the first uses to which the art of weighing was applied was that of testing the amount of wool given to female slaves[167], or in this case perhaps to a freed woman, to make sure that they would return all the wool when spun into yarn, and not purloin any portion for themselves. Thus in the older Latin writers we constantly find allusions to the pensum (pendo = to weigh), the portion of wool weighed out to the slave. It is quite possible that in the sale of wool the more ancient conventional fashion of estimating the fleece as worth so much in other familiar commodities long continued for mercantile purposes, the weighing of the wool in small portions being only used as a check on the dishonesty of the spinners. At all events we have found wool estimated by the fleece in mediaeval Ireland, at a time when weights are in common use for the metals.

Such then is the condition of things in the Homeric Poems. Gold is transferred by weight and by weight wool is apportioned out for spinning.

Let us now turn to the Old Testament and find what are the objects which are dealt in by weight. All transactions in money are thus carried on, as for instance the purchase by Abraham of the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite when “Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant” (Gen. xxiii. 16). So likewise in Achan’s confession: “I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight” (Joshua vii. 21). And so too in the Book of Judges (viii. 26) the weight of the rings taken from the Midianites and given to Gideon was “a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels’ necks.” And again David bought the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite for six hundred shekels of gold by weight (1 Chron. xxi. 25), although the same purchase is described in 2 Samuel (xxiv. 24) as being effected for fifty shekels of silver. In Solomon’s time gold has become exceedingly abundant, and we find it reckoned by talents and minae (pounds). For “king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon” (1 Kings ix. 26-8). And after the story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit and her gift to the king of “an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones,” we read that “the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country. And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.” Spices such as myrrh, cinnamon, calamus and cassia (Exod. xxx. 23) were sold by weight, being as costly as gold. The familiar description of Goliath of Gath, the weight of whose coat of mail “was five thousand shekels of brass,” and whose “spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron,” will serve to show that articles in the inferior metals were at that time estimated according to weight by the Hebrews and their neighbours, the Philistines. Of the weighing of wool we find no instance, but it is quite possible that it was from the practice of weighing wool that Absalom when he “polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight” (2 Sam, xiv. 26). But it is perhaps more probable that the habit of weighing a child’s hair against gold or silver to fulfil a vow (which was almost certainly Absalom’s motive) may have suggested the employment of the scales for wool[168].

Finally, once in the prophet Ezekiel do we find food weighed, but evidently under special circumstances: “And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink” (iv. 10, 11). In any case we should expect to find traces of later usage in the writers of the age of the prophets, but from the directions regarding the amount of water, it is evident that we cannot take this passage as a proof of the ordinary practice of the time.

Unfortunately our oldest records of Roman life and habits go back but a short way before the Christian era, and hence we cannot get much direct information as regards the first objects which were sold by weight. We have already seen that in the time of Plautus (flor. 200 B.C.) the habit prevailed of weighing wool out to the women slaves.

However, from the legal formula used in the solemn process of conveyance of real property (res mancipi) per aes et libram, we may perhaps infer that the scales were used for none but precious articles such as copper, silver and gold. That they were used for those metals there can be little doubt. On the other hand, as we find all kinds of corn sold at a later period by dry measure, such as the modius or bushel, we may with certainty conclude that such too had been the practice of the earlier period.

From the literary remains then of the Greeks, Hebrews and Latins, it is beyond all doubt that in the early stages of society nothing is weighed but the metals and wool (for the apportioning of tasks). In this the records of all three nations agree, whilst from Homer we learn that the Greeks were using gold by weight, when as yet neither silver, copper nor iron was sold or appraised by that process.

To proceed then to a people compared to whom the Greek and Hebrews in point of antiquity of civilization are but the upstarts of yesterday. The Egyptians seem to have used weight exclusively for the metals; the Kat and its tenfold the Uten seem always used in connection with metals, whilst corn is always connected with measures of capacity. The following instances taken from the list of prices of commodities given by Brugsch (History of Egypt under the Pharaohs, II. p. 199, English Transl.) will suffice for our purpose: a slave cost 3 tens 1 Kat of silver; a goat cost 2 tens of copper; 1 hotep of wheat cost 2 tens of copper; 1 tena of corn of Upper Egypt cost 5-7 tens of copper; 1 hotep of spelt cost 2 tens of copper; 1 hin of honey 8 Kats of copper. Even drugs were not weighed by the Egyptians in the time of Rameses II. The physicians prescribed by measure, as we learn from the Medical papyrus Ebers[169].

Passing then to the far East, we naturally are curious to learn whether the oldest literary monument of any branch of the Aryan race, the Rig-Veda, throws any light on our question. We get there but meagre help: but yet, scanty as it is, it is of great importance. As we saw above the Indians of the Vedic age were still ignorant of the use of silver, although possessing both gold and copper. Now, whilst we have no evidence bearing upon the latter metal, there are two very remarkable and important words used in connection with gold which beyond doubt refer to the weighing of that metal. In the Mandala (VIII. 67, 1-2; 687, 1-2) a hymn commences: “O India, bring us rice-cake, a thousand Soma-drinks, and an hundred cows, O hero, bring us apparel, cows, horses, jewels along with a mana of gold.” Again, “Ten horses, ten caskets, ten garments, ten pindas of gold I received from Divodāsa. Ten chariots equipped with side-horses, and an hundred cows gave Açvatha to the Atharvans and the Pāyu” (Mandala, VI. 49, 23-4). As we shall have occasion later on to deal with the terms manâ and hiranya-pinda at greater length, it will suffice our present purpose to point out that we have a distinct mention of a weight of gold in the expression manâ hiranyayâ. In only these two passages have we any allusion to weighing, and in both it is in direct connection with gold. The Aryans of the Veda are beyond all doubt in a far less civilized state than the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks or Romans of the historical period. Hence we may without danger infer that they did not use weight for any cereals they may have cultivated. Therefore we may, with a good deal of probability, conclude that we have got a people who had already a knowledge of the art of weighing before they were acquainted with either silver or iron, and that this people used the scales for gold and nothing else. This, taken in connection with the fact that in Homer, although silver is known, the weighing of metals is confined to gold, leads us irresistibly to conclude that gold was the first of all substances to be weighed, or, to put it in a different way, the art of weighing was invented for gold.