ABSTRACT
The evolution of money and the systems of exchange and barter in which it expands, are so intimately bound up with culture, and culture is so dependent on environment, that a geographical and cultural grouping of the American Indians provides a convenient framework for the consideration of the scanty evidence of their currency. After the Discovery the coming of the colonists opens a new page and the West Indies are linked on to the mainland of America. The area of intensive agriculture, stretching for 5,000 miles from the South of California across Central America and down the coast of Chile in South America, including both Mexico and Peru. In North-Western California, the Yurok, Karuk and other tribes decorated the shells by scratching patterns on them. Dentalium and Arenicola shells are transmitted from the West Coast in traffic and are greatly valued.
