Note 191 — Chapter XXII · CURRENCY, BANKING, AND CREDIT

Many sorts of merchandise have been used as money at one time or another. In early times cattle often served as the standard of value. This was undoubtedly the case among our Indo-European ancestors, as is shown by the survival of certain words in the English language at the present time. The word “pecuniary,” for example, comes from the Latin “pecunia,” meaning money, which is in turn from “pecus,” cattle. The word “fee” is merely a rendition of the old German word “Vieh,” which also means cattle.