Basic
Unit of Trade - the Blanket: The basic unit
of trade between native people was the blanket. The value of everything was
expressed in blankets. Trades between clans were arranged in advance. Once
they were arranged, they were conducted like live performance plays. Everyone
knew their role. First, a lavish display of blankets would be brought to
the trading place. A ridiculously low offer would be made, much lower than
that agreed on in advance. The seller would accept it, to show how little
he cared about money. Then all the seller's friends would quickly say, "No,
you can't accept that. It's too low. Tell them to go home." Then the buyers
would add a blanket or two. This continued until they reached the agreed
upon price. Everyone had a great time.
Coppers:
With the coming of new wealth from the fur trade,
these early native people were able to add a new form of money, the
copper. A copper was a large shield-like piece of copper, painted in bright
colors. In 1893, a copper was worth 5000 blankets. This copper's nickname
was "Making the House Empty of Blankets." Soon, they added a bigger and better
copper worth 6000 blankets - The Steelhead Salmon Copper ("It glides out of
ones hands like a salmon.") Soon, they introduced a third copper worth 7000
blankets called "All Other Coppers Are Ashamed to Look at It."
If someone offered you a 7000 blanket copper, and you said no, you would
lose face. That would imply you could not afford to buy it. If you said yes,
your entire clan would have to come up with the equivalent of 7000 blankets.
If you could not come up with 7000 blankets, you would have to sell
some of your clan into slavery to pay the debt. If you could not afford it,
you had to lose face and slide down the social scale or become a slave.
The
Fur Trade
The
Potlatch
