Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/64

 that although she would be quite willing to give a jersey in exchange for an ironing-board and a washtub, she would not give anything at all for an unnecessary addition to her stock of plantains. Now, if they used money, this inconvenience would be completely avoided; the man who had the plantains would sell them for money to whoever happened to want them; he would go with the money in his hand to Mrs. Collins, and buy the jersey that he wished for; and she could then go with this same money to the carpenter, and buy her ironing-board and washtub. There was a great deal of talk about the inconvenience of having no money to make purchases with, and two or three suggestions were made to adopt some natural product of the island as money, and make all exchanges by of meansmeans of [sic] this product. The plan was even tried of using cocoa-nuts for money; they were not at all plentiful in the island; to procure them required a considerable amount of exertion, as they grew in distant places, and they were very generally valued for their own sakes, as the milk they contained was very refreshing, and the nut