Page 209 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

exchanged the excess of their products for other products necessary for their econo-
my and life. It was possible because at the initial stages everything necessary for the
life of a community was produced within this community. The division of labour was
minimal; the tools produced were relatively primitive and did not require special
knowledge and skills which gradually accumulated from generation to generation un-
til they converted into professional secrets which were passed on only within a mas-
ter’s family or to selected apprentices when there were no proper candidates in the
family. But this will happen much later... Whilst there was barter, there was no trade
as such. Producers just directly exchanged their goods between themselves without
any mediators. There was no money, because there was no necessity for it.

It does not mean that people were unaware of the existence of precious metals
and stones. Then they used them to make jewelry for women and sometimes to deco-
rate men’s “toys” — weapons. People managed to live without money for a pretty
long time. Sometimes they used a product of labour as a “standard”; usually it was
something non-perishable and quite widespread. Our ancestors often used the hides
of the squirrel or sable. Squirrels were “kopecks” and sables were “roubles”. All oth-
er commodities were valued in squirrels or sables. Undoubtedly, food could not serve
as this kind of a standard, because of its relatively short durability. It is difficult to
imagine, for example, fish as an exchange unit: this kind of “money” would become
unusable pretty quickly. Also, there are a lot of varieties of fish and the size of a re-
cently caught fish may vary within pretty wide limits. Our ancestors chose the hides
of sable and squirrel as an exchange unit because they could be stored pretty long
term without loosing their initial form and appearance. There was one more reason —
these wild animals were hunted only in winter, when their hides had the most value
and the size of adult species was almost identical…

However, as the social organism developed, the activities of people who created
it varied more and more; different clans began to unite and form larger social organ-
isms of tribes, nationalities, people and nations. Apart from squirrel and sables the
money equivalent appeared as a universal commodity standard and over the course of
time it began to play a more important role in the trade relationship of our ancestors.
At the beginning these were silver bars from which pieces of the necessary size were
cut to pay for necessary goods, therefore silver pieces of a certain size began to be
called roubles (to cut – roubit in Russian). At that time people did not know yet how
to mine gold in production quantities; it was pretty rare and usually was found only as
nuggets on the shore of brooks and rivers.

As the social organism grew, the specialization of labour became greater. The
producers found it more difficult to change the products of their labour to what they
and their families needed. Gradually, the quality of tools and other goods began dra-
matically differ depending on the producer. Certainly, people were eager to make an
exchange of their product with the best master they could find, because the quality of
the tools and articles of everyday life influenced greatly the result of their work.
Thus, the quality of commodities gradually became a determining factor.

But tools and other goods of high quality with the master’s personal brand were
located where this master lived. Therefore, in order to get the goods of a particular

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