Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/161

 similar ratio between the metals to have held at Carthage about the same period. That silver was scarce is shown by the fact that they did not coin it, although issuing gold, electrum and bronze. Ten silver didrachms would therefore = 1 gold didrachm of 135 grs., which is of course our ox-unit. This is a remarkable result, and of itself would make one believe that the sum represents the real value of an ox, which the practice at Eryx puts beyond doubt. We know that at Athens the people who were bound to provide the public sacrifices supplied very wretched oxen, so we need not be surprised to find precautions taken by the priests of Baal to ensure that proper animals should be provided for the altar, especially as they themselves got a share of the flesh.

Next let us see if that most ancient of all known civilized lands, Egypt, can produce from her store of monumental records any evidence for our purpose. Professor Brugsch, in his ''History of Egypt under the Pharaohs'', gives from inscriptions a list of the prices of various commodities about 1000 : a slave cost 3 ten 1 ket of silver; an ox 1 ket of silver (= 8 ten of copper); a goat cost 2 ten of copper; 1 pair of fowls (geese?) cost 1/3 ten of copper; 1 hotep of wheat cost 2 ten of copper; 1 tena of corn of Upper Egypt cost 5-7 ten of copper; 1 hotep of spelt 2 ten of copper; 1 hin of honey 8 ket of copper; 50 acres of arable land 5 ten of silver. Of course there must be more or less uncertainty about some of these statements owing to the imperfect knowledge which we as yet possess. At first sight the reader naturally wonders how it is possible to calculate the value of the ox as here given, which is only 1 ket of silver, that is, the Egyptian ox of 1000 B.C. was only worth 140 grains of silver, whilst an ox hitherto has been worth about the same amount in gold. At first sight this is enough to stagger us, but a moment's reflection makes the matter very intelligible. We have already noticed (p. 59) that at a certain stage in the history of the metals silver was far scarcer than gold, and that its rarity combined with its beauty no doubt made it to be eagerly sought and held in great esteem. We saw that the Arabs of the Soudan down to the present day prefer silver