Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/163

 ancient world. The great supply of silver had not yet been obtained which in the 10th century made silver at Jerusalem like stones. "As for silver," says the sacred writer, "it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon" (900 ), who had "made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones ." By this time silver had become very cheap in Egypt likewise. At least if we can at all rely on the author of the books of Chronicles. For the king's merchants "fetched up and brought forth out of Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for one hundred and fifty: and so brought they out horses for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria ."

The shekel here meant is probably that of 130-135 grains, while the price of the ox in Brugsch's list is 1 ket or 140 grains. At a moderate computation this would make a horse worth 150 oxen, if our documents were contemporary. But from lists of relative prices in ancient and modern times it is preposterous to suppose that at any time or in any place such a remarkable difference in value existed between the horse and the cow. From this it follows that if Brugsch is right in his translation of his Egyptian text, the latter must date from several centuries before 1000, when as yet silver was of the same or almost the same value as gold. Finally, we have no means of knowing the age of the ox, but as it is equal in value to only four goats, it is possible that it was not a full-grown animal. I have dealt with this point at some length, and have little positive gain to show, but it is necessary to put before the reader all data which may aid in our search, and still more necessary to do so in the case of evidence which seems to present serious difficulties.

Unfortunately for us the Old Testament gives very scanty information on the question of the cost of various commodities, and in no place do we get any information regarding the price of cattle. For in the account of the purchase of the threshing-floor and oxen of Oman the Jebusite by king David, there is a discrepancy in price between the Second Book of Samuel (xxiv. 24) and First Chronicles (xxi. 25), the former making