[unixfox]

Forget the gold and silver, I'm gonna use alcohol and tobacco as a bartering tool. When all is said and done, a piece of metal won't do jack squat, but alcolhol...now you have something.

[Publius]

Before Treasury Secretary Hamilton minted our first coins in 1792, this country used coins of foreign or state manufacture.

On the frontier, which in those days was western Pennsylvania and New York, barter was the rule, and the frontier functioned on the alcohol standard. A barrel of beer, ale, porter, stout or cider had a fixed value in terms of flour, salt beef or a side of bacon. So did a cask of brandy or whisky.

This is why the federal excise tax on whisky and the resulting Whiskey Rebellion was such a big deal.

But in a pinch, that gold you spurn will buy you a well-defined quantity of spirits. Some things never change.