FROM COWRIES SHELLS TO E-COMMERCE II
by Michele Pelossi
When the people of VRMAG asked me to write about my numismatic collection, I thought: nothing will be easier, I have a lot of things to muse over. But now, confronted with the practical part of this task, hundreds of questions perturb my mind. How can I portray this colossal topic without making it sound dull? Some episodes, such as the origin of the word “dollar” will sell like hot cakes, but others will be more difficult to digest. At the end of last month’s article, I stated that I would like to develop the subject in a chronological manner. Here I am now confronted with the thorny task to present you some old stones that were possibly used as some the first means to exchange goods between humans. However, before dealing with such issues as direct barter, commodity money and currency, I would like to make a brief excursive journey into the past of human kind.
Anthropologists agree that the earliest hominids lived in Africa. The first finding in support of this theory was made in October 1924 by Raymond Dart at Taung, in the Transvaal region of South Africa. He found the skull of a creature that lived 3.5 to 2.4 million years ago and belongs to the species Australopithecus africanus, or “African southern ape”. In the meantime hundreds of other remains have been found throughout Africa, and at least six other species of Australopithecines have been distinguished in the fossil record, all living in the period from 4.1 to 1 million years ago. Every one of them walked upright on two legs, as suggested by the footsteps left in the mud at Laetoli in east Africa. These Australopithecines were only about 1.3 to 1.5 meters in height, very agile, and lived almost exclusively on fruits, berries and nuts. But they were already marked with some of the characteristics that were to lead to the Homo sapiens sapiens (as we modern humans are identified in anthropological language). In fact, the bipedal posture freed the hands for other activities, in turn stimulating the development of a larger brain and diminishing the size of the jawbone and the snout, given that the hands could be used to break off food and bring it to the mouth.
A decisive step in the development of human kind was the appearance in East Africa of a new species, Homo habilis or “skilful man”, about 2.4 million years ago. These were the first hominids to craft and use stone tools and possibly the first to scavenge for meat as a regular ingredient of their diet. Approximately 1 million years later, Homo erectus, a larger and more intelligent creature, followed them. This was the first human ancestor to spread beyond the confines of Africa to Europe and Asia and also the first to use clothes, to hunt, to construct artificial shelters and – of great consequence – to master fire. As a result of these improvements, Homo erectus was able to survive north of the frost line at sites such as Dragon Bone Hill, near Beijing, where in the late 1920s the half million years old “Peking Man” has been found in the cave of Zhoukoudian. Homo erectus managed to survive for over a million years but finally was supplanted by new types of hominids that began to develop in Europe and Africa about half a million years ago. In Europe these changes led to the appearance of at least two species of archaic Homo sapiens: first the Homo heidelbergensis and later - approximately 250,000 years ago - the Homo neanderthalensis, named after a skull found in the Neander Valley in Germany in 1856. The line of evolution that would ultimately lead to modern humans originated however in Africa. Although it must be said that there are two polarizing opinions on the issue of the origin of our species: the multiregional (also named continuity theory), and the “Out of Africa two” (also named replacement theory), which refers to a second migration from Africa of a hominid population. Unfortunately this issue is far beyond the objective of this article. Anyone interested in the topic can refer to the Archaeology Info website.
According to this last theory, our own species, Homo sapiens sapiens, is the offspring of the African branch of archaic Homo sapiens. Roughly 100,000 years ago these modern, larger brained hunters and gatherers, equipped with sophisticated language and technology, spread throughout the entire territory previously occupied by Homo erectus and its descendants, and beyond into the until then unsettled regions of Oceania and America. In Europe the new species cohabitated for a relatively short time with the Neanderthals. But the days of their coexistence were numbered: by 30,000 years ago, of the numerous species of hominids that had inhabited the world during the last 4 million years of human evolution, only one, Homo sapiens sapiens, was left. It became the most successful species ever to set foot on this planet, colonising virtually every spot of the globe, increasing enormously in numbers and manipulating the earth’s resources in a way never endeavoured by any other known life form.
Now that we have paid a visit to our prehistoric environment, we can return to the main topic of the column: money! As a general rule, it can be said that early archaic society was unquestionably moneyless. In effect the whole economic life was concentrated inside small, self-sufficient social groups. Typically such a group was composed of just a few individuals which didn’t need to exchange anything, since one of them – the leader – decided how to share out among themselves the resources of the group. Thus the economic structure was totally self-contained. Furthermore we can say that these protolithic individuals did not have much time to think about exchanging goods, since most of their energy was focussed on surviving. In fact only the strongest and most ingenious survived.
As we have seen, it is quite complex to establish precise time boundaries in the analysis of prehistoric humans. All the more so, if we start examining human activity and the products generated by this activity. It is therefore extremely complicated to fix a precise point in time in which a specific utensil has been employed for the first time. Similarly it becomes almost impossible to determine when such utensil has been used for the first time as a “means of exchange”.
Hence, if we cannot disclose when it started, we should at least try to envision how it started. Whatever the case may be, at some point in time, men unquestionably started to exchange goods. It is not clear if this initially took place within the small, self-sufficient social group or between two such groups. But it can be said with a certain confidence that two crucial innovations allowed such an exchange: the discovery of fire and the finding of flint-stones. In effect, these were the source of a significant leap in evolution, which permitted individuals to spend less time worrying about survival. From the condition of probable preys, humans evolved into predators: the flint-stones were soon transformed into knives, spears, axes and later arrowheads, and the fire was used as a weapon to scare off intruders. But the two innovations had further essential functions: the flint-stones could be used to cut meat and other foodstuff into suitable dimensions and the fire could be used to roast the food, thus allowing the consumption of victuals in a considerably reduced amount of time, and consequently allowing humans to spend more time hunting or consecrating to other activities.
As humans gradually converted from gatherers to hunters, the social structure became more complex. It is at this point in time that probably the first forms of barter took place. Maybe someone swapped a sharper flint-stone against a blunter one in addition to a portion of meat, or perhaps someone simply traded an axe for a spear.
As we come to an end of this first episode, I hope that you will look at the exposed objects with a different perspective than you would have before reading this brief expose. I look forward to seeing you next month to show you some further intriguing items that I have gathered in my drawers.
Michele Pelossi is an Attorney at Law specialized in intellectual property, media and communication law. He is currently teaching media and communication law at the University of Lugano. Ancient objects have at all times fascinated him. In particular anything linked to the history of trade and commerce.
email: mpelossi@bluewin.ch
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