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Show 3~4 D1SSERT. VI. '--v'---1 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E 'X I C 0. was like that of other idolatrous people, mixed with errors and fuperftition. They had priefl:s, temples, facrificcs, and eftablilhed rites, for the uniform woriliip of the Divinity. They had a king, governors, and magiftrates; they had numerous cities, and a mofi extenfive population, as we fhall make appear hereafter. They had laws. and cufl:oms, the obfet·vance of which was attended to by their magi{ l:rates and governors. They had 'commerce, and took infinite care to enforce jufiice and equity in contracts. Their lands were difiributed, and every individual was fecm:ed in the property and poffefiion of his foil. They exercifed agriculture and other arts ; n0t only thofe neceffary to life, but alfo thofe which contributed to 'luxury and pleafure alone. Wharmore is neceffary to defend nations from the impntation of being barbarous and favage? Money, fays M. de· Paw, the ufe of iron, the art of writing, and thofe of building lhips, conil:ructing bridges of ftone, and making lime. Their arts· were imperfeCt and rude; their language extremely fcarce of numeral terms and words fit ,to ~prefs univerfal ideas, and their laws mufl: be,reckoned none;. for law.s cannot be where anarchy and' defpotifm reign. . s E T. I. . ' Of the Want cf Money •. MR. de Paw decides that no nation of America was cultivated or civilized, becaufe no one made ufe of money; and to fupport this af.. fertion he quotes a paffage from Montefquieu : "Ariftippus," fays this politician (a)) " having been {hjpwrecked, made by ,fwimming to the " neighbouring ihore; he faw upon the fand fome figures of Geometry " drawn,, and became full of joy, being perfuaded that he was thrown ~' among a Greek peQple, and not any barbarous nation. fmagine to your ... '" felf that by fome accident you are placed in an unknown country; if " you find any money there. do not doubt that you are arrived among. " a polilhed people." But if Montefquieu juftly infers the· civilization of a country from the ufe of money, M. de Paw does not well (a) Efps·it det Loi.x, li,-, :nii,i, chap. J 3• deduce H I S T 0 R Y 0 . F M E X I C 0. deduce the want of civilization from the deficiency of money. If we DESSERT. are to underfl:and by money, a piece of metal, with the ftamp of the ~ prince, or the public, it is certain that the want of it in a nation is no token of barbarity. u The Athenians," fays the fame author, Mon-tefquieu, " becaufe they had no ufe of the metals, employed oxen for " money, as the Romans did {beep;" and from thence took its origin, as we all know, the word pecunia; as the Romans put the ftamp of a fheep on the :firfi money th~;y coined, which they employed after-wards in their contraCts. The Greeks were certainly a very cultivated nation i11 the times of Homer, fince it was impoffible that in the midft of an u ncultivated nation, a man fhould fpring up Capilble of compof-ing the fliad and the Odyfley, thofe two immortal poems, which, after twenty-feven centuries, are fiill admired, b1;,1t have never been equalled. The Greeks, however, at this period, did not know the ufe of coined money, as appears from the works of that renowned poet, who, when-ever he means to fignify the value of any thing, expreifes it no othexr-wife than by the number of oxen or fheep . which it was worth; as in the VIIth book of the IIi d, when he fays, that' Glaucus gave his arms of gold, which were worth an hundred oxen, for thofe. ,of Diomede, which were of copper, and not worth more than mne,\ Whenever he fpeaks of any purchafe by contraCt~ he ~cntions i~ no otherwife than by barter, or exchange. And therefore m that anc1ent controverfy between the Sabinians apd Proculians, two fects of law-yers, the firfi infifted that a real purchafe and fale could be made without a price, fupporting this pofition by certain paffagcs of Homer, where thofe are L1id to buy and fell who only exchange. The _Lacc-demonians were a civilized nation of Greece, although they d1d !lot ufe money; and among the fundamental laws puhl~lhed b.y Lycurgus, was that law of not carrying on commerce otherwife t?an by_means of exchange (b). The Romans had no coined _money un~tl the tlme of Servius Tullius; nor the Perfians until the. ttme of Danus Hyfl:afpes; and yet the nations which preceeded thofe epochs were no~ called ba~- barous. The Hebrews were civilized at leafi: from the time of their judges, but we do not find that ftamped money was in ufe among. th) Em.i fingula n.on pecunia fed cor~pcnfatione mercium jullit. J ullin. lib. iii. them • { |