ABSTRACT
Our lives are so dominated by credit cards, coins and banknotes that it is difficult to visualize how societies can function without conventional money. But all over the world alternative forms of currency were once widespread (Quiggin, 1949; Opitz, 2000). One of the most remarkable of these developed on the Pacific Islands of Santa Cruz, based on elaborate coils of red feathers taken from the Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela cardinalis (see Plate 4). This form of currency was the basis for a trading network between neighbouring islands (Davenport, 1962). It is the only case known where a whole currency system was based on the exploitation of a wild bird population and, to sustain this currency, must have required killing a considerable number of birds each year. This chapter considers the possible scale of the hunting pressure exerted on the bird population to support this money supply.
