Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/218

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MOKKS Seam, among Sailors, is, when the Selved get of Sails are laid a little over one another, and fewed on both fides.

MONETARIUS, a Name Antiquaries and Medalida give to thofe who druck the antient Coins, or Moneys.

All the old Roman, &c. Coins, have the Name of the Moxetarms, either written at length, or at lead the initial Letters of it.

MONEY, orMoNY, Mrnaa, a Piece of Metal matk'd for Coin, with the Arms of a Prince, or State, who make it circulate or pals, at a common rate, fur thing's of different Value ; to facilitate the Bufinefs of Commerce. See Com- merce.

Faulus the Lawyer, defines Money a thing llamp'd with apublic Coin, and deriving its (Jfe and Valuefromits Im- prefllon rather than its Subilance. ff. de Contr. Empt.

Monf. hoizard defines it a piece of Matter to which pub- lic Authority has affixed a certain Value and Weight to fcrve asa Medium in Commerce.

Tlie JEra of the Invention of Money is not eafy to be fettled. There is no room to doubt but that in theearlielt Ages, the ordinary way ofTraifick among Men was by trucking or exchanging Commodity for Commodity. Thus in Homer, Glaucus's golden Armour was valued at one hun- dred Cows i and Dlomedei's Armour at ten. See Ex- change.

Bui in courfe of time, it was found necelTary in the way of commutative Juliice, to have fome common Meafure or Standard, according to which all other things fhould be effimated. This, as the jew: gather from jofephtts, was firii invented by Cain: Tho the fird tidings we hear of it, is in the time of Abraham, who paid 400 Shekels for a Bury- ing- Place.

The Greeks refer tho Invention of Mmey to Hermodice, Wife of KlagMidas : And the Latins to Janus.

This being a common Meafure for reducing Wares to a Balance, it was call'd by the Greeks Nomifma j not from King Numa, but from Nomas, as being eflablifhed by Law. By the Latins it was call'd Pecunia ■- either becaufe the Wealth of thofe Days confided in their Cattel 5 or, as Pliny will have it, becaufe their firdCoin was damp'd with the Fi- gure of a Cow. They alfo call'd it Moneta, a monendo, as Suidas obferves, becaufe when the Romans were at a want of Money, Juno admonilhed them to ufe Juftice, and thete diould be no want of Money. The Effect whereof when they had found, die was fur-named Juno Moneta, and Money was coin'd in her Temple. In procefs of time, Money herfelf was made a Goddcfs, and indirined by the Name of Ilea Pecunia, in the Figure of a Woman holding a Balance in one hand, and a Cornucopia intheother.

On the fort Money now Hinds, it may be divided into Real, or EffeBvve i arid Imaginary, or Money of Account.

Under Real Mokev come all Coins or Species, of Gold, Silver, Copper, ciV. which have courfe in Commerce, and do really exiil ; Such are Guineas, Crowns, Ptftoles, Louis's, Pieces of Er;ht, Ducats, &c. Which fee under their proper heads j as aifounder Cum.

Imaginary Money, or Money of Account, is that which has never exiited, or at lead which does not exidin real Species, but has been invented and retained to facilitate the Stating ot Accounts, by keeping them dill on a fixed footing, not to be changed like current Coins, which the Authority of the Sovereign raifesor lowers according to the Exigenciesof S:aie. Of this kind are Pounds, Limes, Maravedies, %£c.

'i his Money of Account, M. Boiffart obferves, is a Sum of Money, or a certain number of Species which may change in Subilance and Quantity, but never in Quality. Thus fifty Pounds confitis of fifty Pieces call'd Pounds, which are not real, but may be paid in feveral real Species, as inGuineas, Crowns, Shillings, £j?c. which are changeable, as Guineas, v.g. which are fumetimes higher, fotnetimes lower.

Real Money, as the Civilians obferve, has three eflential Qualifies, vz.Matter, form, and Weight or Value.

For Matter, Copper is that thought to have been firft coin'd ; afterwards Silver, and, laflly, Gold ; as being the mod beautiful, fcarce, cleanly, divifible, and pure of all Meta's.

The Degrees of Goodnefs are exprefs'd in Gold by Ca- racas ; and in Silver by Penny-weights. See Caracts, i£c.

For there are feveral reafons for not coining 'em pure, and without alloy, viz. the great Lofs and Expence in refining them, the neceffity of hardening them to make 'em more durable, and thefcarcity of Gold and^Silverin mod Countries. See Alloy.

Among the antient Britons, Iron Rings, or, as fome fay, Iron Plates, were ufed for Money. Among the Lacedemo- nians Iron Lingers quench'd with Vinegar, that they might not ferve for any other ufe. Seneca obferves, that there was antiently damp'd Money of Leather, Corium forma pitblica hnpreffum. And the fame thing was put in practice by Frederic II. at the Siege of Milan j to fay nothing of an

old Tradition among ourfelves, that in the confuted time* of the Barons Wars, the like was done in England ■ But the Hollanders, we know, coin'd great Quantities of Pafte- boardinthe Year 1574. Numa Pomp,l,„s made Money of Wood and Leather. Nor does it appear that the Romans were much acquainted with the Art of driking Money in Metal in the Time of their Kings. The fird Silver Money they com d was in the Year of Rome 484 ; and their firft Cjold Money in 54*. See Coining.

As to the Form of Money, it has been more various than than the Matter.

Under the Form are comprehended the Wei°ht, Figure Impreffion, and Value. D

For the Imprejfion, the Jews, tho they deteded Images, yet damp'd on one fide their Shekel, the golden Pot which had the Manna ; and on the other, Aaron a Rod. The Dardans, two Cocks fighting. Alexander his Horfe Buce- phalus. The Athenians an Owl, or an Ox i whence the Proverb on bribed Lawyers, Bos in Lingua. They of AEgina, a Snail j whence that other faying, VhtutemiS Sa- fientiam vincum teftttdines. For the Romans, as they im- prefs'd the Image and Infcription of the Conful on their Coins while the Common-wealth flourifh'd, and afterwardj that of the Emperor on one fide ; fo they always varied the Reverfe upon new Events or Exploits. Some think that the great Ounce Medals both of Brafs and Gold were druck chiefly to do honour, and preferve the Memories of great Men ; but it is pretty plain they were current as well as the fmaller. See Medal and Medallion.

This Practice of damping the Prince's Image on Coins, has obtain'd among all civiliz'd Nations ; the Turks and other Mahometans alone excepted, who, in detedation of Images, inferibe only the Prince's Name, with the Year of the transmigration of their Prophet.

As to the Figure, it is either round, as in England ; mult- angular or irregular, as in Spain ; fquare, as in fome parts of the Indies ; or nearly globular, as in mod of the red.

After the Arrival of the Romans in this Ifland, the Bri- tons imitated them, coining both Gold and Silver with the Images of their Kings damp'd on 'em. When the Romans had fubdued the Kings of the Britons, they alfo fupprefs d their Coins, and brought in their own ; which were cur- rent here from the time of Claudius to that of Valentinian the Younger, about the fpace of 500 Years.

Mr. Camden obferves, that the mod antient Etiglifl, Coin he had known was that of Ethelbert King of Kent, the firft Chriftian King in the Idand ; in whofe time all Money Ac- counts began to pafs by the Names of Pounds, Shillings, Pence, and Mancufet.

Pence feems borrow'd from the Latin Pecunia, or rather from Fendo, on account of its jud Weight, which was about three Pence of our Money. Thefe were coarfcly damp'd with the King's Image on the one fide, and either the Mmt-Mafter's, or the City's where it was coin'd, on the other. _ Five of thefe Pence made their Scilling, probably fo call'd from Salingas, which the Romans ufed for the fourth part of an Ounce. Forty of thefe Scillings made their Pound, and 400 of thefe Pounds were a Legacy, or a Portion for a King's Daughter ; as appears by the laft Will of King Alfred. See Penny, S£c.

By thefe Names they Mandated all Sums of Money in their old Englifi Tedamcnt ; Talents by Pundes ; Judas's thirty pieces of Silver by thirty Scillinga ; Tribute Money by Penining ; the Mite by Fcorthling.

But it mud be obferved, they had'no other real Money, but Pence only; the red being imaginary Moneys, i. e'. Names of Numbers, or Weights. Thirty of thefe Pence madeaMancus, which fome take to be the fame with a Mark ; Manca, as appears by an old MS. was atimta pars Undo:. SeeMANCus.

Thefe Mancas or Mancus's, werereckon'd both in Gold and Silver. For in the Year <S8o, we read that Ina King of the Weft-Saxons, obliged the Kentifimen to buy their Peace at the price of thirty thoufand Manca's of Gold. In the Notes on King Canute's Laws, we find rhis didinction. that Mancufa was as much as a Mark of Silver ; and Manca a fquare piece of Gold, valued at thirty Pence.

The Danes introduced a way of reckoning Mmey by Ores, mentioned in Dooms-Day Book ; but whether they were a feveral Coin, or a certain Sum, does not plainly appear. This, however, may be gathered from the Abby- Book of Burton, that twenty Ores were equivalent to two Matks. They had alfo a Gold Coin call'd Bizantines, or Befants, as being coin'd at Conftantinople, then call'd Bi- zantium. The value of which Coin is not only now loft, but wasfo entirely forgot even in the time of King Edward the Third ; that whereas the Bifhop of Norwich was fin'd a Bezantine of Gold to be paid the Abbot of St. Edmond's Bury, for infringing his Liberties (as it had been enacled by Parliament in the time of the Conqueror) no Man then living could tell how much it was j fo it was refer'd to the King to rate how much he diould pay. Which is the 7 * more