CHAP. 3.—WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECOMMENDATION OF GOLD.
Would that gold could have been banished for ever from
the earth, accursed by universal report, [Note]
as some of the most
celebrated writers have expressed themselves, reviled by the
reproaches of the best of men, and looked upon as discovered
only for the ruin of mankind. How much more happy the
age when things themselves were bartered for one another; as
was the case in the times of the Trojan war, if we are to believe
what Homer says. For, in this way, in my opinion, was
commerce then carried on for the supply of the necessaries of
life. Some, he tells us, would make their purchases by bartering
ox-hides, and others by bartering iron or the spoil which they
had taken from the enemy: [Note] and yet he himself, already an
admirer of gold, was so far aware of the relative value of things,
that Glaucus, he informs us, exchanged his arms of gold, valued
at one hundred oxen, for those of Diomedes, which were worth
but nine. [Note] Proceeding upon the same system of barter, many
of the fines imposed by ancient laws, at Rome even, were
levied in cattle, [Note] [and not in money].