Show 1 MONEY PROBLEMS OF LONG AGO Romans Had Their Troubles as Did Other Nations in the Adjustment of Currencies to the Demands of Trade and Public Welfare The Romans were slow to get a colna coinage e system Three hundred years after the founding of ot the city far advanced In many respects Remans Romans Ro Re- mans were trading like a n tribe of ot aborigines Reuben Cahn writes In Inthe Inthe inthe the Chicago 0 Tribune They were quoting prices In sheep and oxen The two were related In a n decimal system system ro K sheep equaled 1 lox ox In Etruria which lay Iny northwest of the Tiber river were copper mines and at an early date copper was brought to Rome nome It came to be used In shields harness wagons ships nn and for Cor many other purposes Thus Is Ishad Ishad Ishad had n a market value and it became the custom to use lumps Jumps of it In makIn making mak main In lag ing payments The government paid no attention to this Innovation Inno however however however how how- ever for some years At a time when pieces of ot copper were being used In trade a n souse ln dri driving hrs his chariot charlot recklessly along the Applan boulevard boulevard boule boule- vard yard might have to settle seme with the jud Judge e by jn driving up a flock of sheep Since copper was sold by wel weight ht It became convenient to have pound lumps called an as liS There were also two and three pound pieces Thus copper served as money before the state started Issuing pieces of metal stamped with picture of ot the gods m mythical heroes and contemporary contemporary contemporary politicians When after B. B C. C the Romans became commercially ambitious ambitions and founded a maritime colony they took up coining The mone money was bronze lead and tin being combined with raw copper The unit of or value weighed an as and was called by that name Silver which the Roman generals found round desirable to 10 have on hand to buy army equipment as they went vent on conquests and which was already widely used elsewhere thanks to Greek and Alexan Alexandrian Influence became became be be- came official money In Rome after B B. B C C. Thereupon the double standard was adopted silver and copper cop per both being coined and a mint ratio of to 1 was established Although Although Al Al- though silver was used exclusively In the foreign trade copper continued con tinned to constitute the principal money at home Now Nov silver greatly increased In quantity For one thing thins Alexander discovered enormous tr treasures of both gold and silver in the Orient and set them in circulation And there was the great silver mine In Spain which at one time employed miners This had the effect of ot cheapening silver er boosting prices In terms of silver slIer At the time when wars had cut off ocr the supplies of Romes Rome's copper the value of that metal In relation to silver sUver rose more morp than did the general commodity Index Index Index In In- dex number And furthermore cop copper copper per was a commodity useful to have around while warring Roman statesmen well understood Gresham's law Jaw 18 13 centuries before Gresham with a double standard an Increase In the supply of silver being coincident with a reduction In the supply of and an Increase In the demand demand de de- demand mand for copper would have led Jed to the hoarding of ot copper as money If the double standard was to work It was necessary to reduce the mint ratio from to 1 And so the size of the coin as was chan changed ed from 12 ounces of bronze to 10 8 6 6 G and eventually to 2 ounces Thus the relation relation re re- lation of silver to copper fell as low lowas lowas lowas as 20 to 1 I while the normal normaJ sources of metal were unavailable When the time peace-time flow of new copper was established re-established and the war-time war demand de de- demand demand mand was cut off ocr the old ratio of to 1 was restored Copper and silver performed similarly In the World war The market ratio was 30 to 1 In 1 1917 now 1917 17 now now Is 76 70 to 1 Devaluation of or copper was not undertaken undertaken undertaken un un- by the Roman republic at any time for profit nor to relieve I Ithe the burden of debtors the en ends s. s sought by gold today It was done to maintain the double standard It was the Ute earliest example example example exam exam- of a successfully managed cur cur- rency On the Ides of ot March 44 41 B. B O. O the great Caesar esar wab wan slain After him came emperors who used e ethe t the e republican precedent to debase the currency as a racket until its ita value aluc was but one one-fi one fiftieth o of what It was before The history of ot money in the Roman Roman Ro Ro- man republic was a succession of readjustments readjustments re ra adjustments to make a double standard standard stand stand- ard rd work That the republic supplied supplied sup sup- plied Its citizens with a sound and an nn honest medium of ot exchange Is testimony testimony testimony mony both to their ability and their character |