did you know this I did not?
The word "salary" is derived for the Latin word for the salt used to pay soldiers.
How did that work? Could ya buy a chicken with salt? Roman coins were in circulation throughout the Empire.
about 1 month ago
Yes , each Roman soldier was paid in a ration of salt , called the " salarium" I believe . It seems like a strange form of pay . Salt must have been far more highly valued then because you would need about a dump truck full to equal a week's pay today .
about 1 month ago
Dirck wrote about this some time ago. it did work like you said. people were paid in an amount of salt it had currency value. they would barter goods for salt.I bet they did not throw it over thier shoulder.
about 1 month ago
At the rate we're going I might wonder if fresh clean water will be the unit of currency in 2099? Funny but colonial soldiers here in Australia were paid in gallons of rum. The so called 'Rum Corps' were the only police around until about 1815 or so. Having no currency of their own the colonial government owned the only distillery in the new settlement and used their product to settle domestic debts. When governor Bligh (mutiny on the bounty fame) tried to end the graft the rum corps stormed gov. house, arrested him and sent him back to England.
about 1 month ago
I actually have heard about this. I believe this rum corp unde a guy named McArthur in New South Wales was able to yake over the Government of Austrlia until the next brish man of war entered the harbor. the corp as usual made up of that neat australian demographic drinkers, farmers, and convicts.
about 1 month ago
Yeah...McArthur (MacArthur..can't remember) was a colonel in the Rum Corps. He also held extensive tracts of land around Parramatta where he raised sheep. He went to England and brought back some Merinos which formed the staple type of sheep raised down here. The history books tell ya what a good guy he was but he wasn't. His wife ran the sheep business while he busied himself with graft and corruption in the colonial government.
about 1 month ago
Merino wool what makes up "smart wool" the best stuff in winter. sorry i digress
about 1 month ago
Yeah .. apparently different currencies were used all over the world. Clamshells in Polynesia, oxen in early Greece, human skulls in Borneo and in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) elephants. The upper Nile used hoes, red feathers on bands in Santa Cruz, whale teeth in Fiji and axe blades in New Guinea. Iron rods were used in Sierra Leone and pigs and palm nuts were used in the Indonesian islands. Coins usually had holes in them so they could be worn on a necklace.
Sorry...got a little carried away there.
Sorry...got a little carried away there.
about 1 month ago
Yap Island had to be the all-time champion of strange money . The used huge stones which weighed hundreds of pounds and were prominently displayed outside one's hut as the ultimate "showing off " of wealth .
about 1 month ago
In the upper reaches of Nepal as one approaches the Tibetan Plateau stacks of firewood is an indication of ones' wealth. They stack it up on the roof of their flat roofed houses. Funny how in a land bereft of almost all vegetation they use the most scarce of resources to signify wealth. I'll post some pictures if I can ever figure out how.
about 1 month ago
