ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters an attempt has been made to deal separately with the main problems of monetary administration in the ancient world. Who was allowed to issue money? What metal or metals were used for money? How pure was the currency metal? What was the weight of the currency unit from time to time? Did the value of money depend on the value of the material of which it was made, or did the state limit the amount of currency so as to give the coins a value above that of their metallic content? Taking such answers as we have been able to give to these questions, we must now attempt to weave them together and obtain some general view of the aims of states in relation to currency, of their conception of their duty in this most important province of government. Contemporary pronouncements on monetary administration are almost entirely wanting. The Greek philosophers made passing references to money in their treatises on politics and ethics, to which the Romans added little or nothing. Apart from these, we are limited to the evidence of the coins themselves, and a few references by historians to important currency changes. In the main, we must rely for an understanding of early policy upon monetary changes. By reference partly to the probable consequences of such changes, and partly to other available material, some sketch of the reasons for reform can be attempted. But there is, of course, much room for error. Our estimate of the consequences of a reform may be altogether different from that made by those introducing the reform. The latter may have been more or less correct than we, but to give a true account of monetary policy we should require to know what was the contemporary reading of the facts, and the remedy at which the reformers aimed (whether they attained it or not). But we can only make the best of the material to hand, and out of the conclusions arrived at by this method attempt to see the currency policy of each state changing with changing times. So far as material will permit, differences in policy from place to place and time to time must be correlated with economic and political conditions.
