The Book of Mormon monetary system is part of the setting of the Book of Mormon. It is the system of economic exchange used by the narrative's Nephites, a pre-Advent society of Christians descended from diasporic Israelites who leave Jerusalem shortly before the Babylonian captivity. After arriving in the Americas, the Nephites industrialize, build cities, and develop institutions for a market economy, including their monetary system.

Mormon, the internal narrator of the Book of Mormon, first introduces the system in the internal book of Alma. When Nephite missionaries Alma and Amulek preach in Ammonihah, the lawyer Zeezrom attempts to bribe Amulek, wanting him to deny the existence of God. Zeezrom offers Amulek six onties, which would have been worth about 42 days' of wages for a judge in Ammonihah. Uninfluenced, Amulek rejects the money. Setting forth the system as a background for this account, Mormon, the narrator, outlines the value relationship between precious metals and grains.

Book of Mormon explanation

High-Value Pieces[1]
Gold Silver
1 Senine 1 Senum
1 Seon, 2 Senines 1 Amnor
1 Shum, 4 Senines 1 Ezrom
1 Limnah, 7 Senines 1 Onti
Low-Value Pieces[1]
Piece Gold Silver
Shiblon 1/2 Senine 1/2 Senum
Shiblum 1/4 Senine 1/4 Senum
Leah 1/8 Senine 1/8 Senum
Other[1]
Gold Value in Pieces
Antion 3 Shublons
Weights and Measures[2]: 41 
Gold Silver Measure Day's Wages
Leah 0.125
Shiblum 0.25
Shiblon 0.5
Senine Senum 1.0 1.0
Antion 1.5
Seon Amnor 2.0
Shum Ezrom 4.0
Limnah Onti 7.0

Background

In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites are the descendants of diasporic Israelites who leave Jerusalem just prior to the Babylonian captivity, migrate to the ancient Americas, and establish a society[3] of what literary critic Terryl Givens calls "pre-Christian Christians."[4] Over time, the Nephites industrialize, build urban landscapes, and develop institutions to support a capitalist economy of market exchange.[5] Susan Curtis, a historian of the United States, compares Book of Mormon statements about "exceeding industrious[ness]" among the people it describes to "assumptions about hard work, regularity, commerce, and accumulation sustained by a Victorian sensibility" prevalent in nineteenth-century America in the wake of the Second Great Awakening "ideology of individual responsibility" that comported with "emerging market capitalism in America."[6]

Generations after the establishment of Nephite society, a figure named Mosiah becomes king of the Nephites, and during his reign he codifies the national law, reforms the government to be ruled by a system of paid judges instead of a king, and establishes a unified system for exchange.[7]

This system is introduced by the in-setting narrator, Mormon, in the internal book of Alma, during a recounting of Alma and Amulek's preaching mission to Ammonihah as context for an attempt by Zeezrom, a lawyer in Ammonihah, to bribe Amulek.[8] Zeezrom says he will pay Amulek six onties if the latter will profess that God does not exist, which would have been worth about 42 days of wages for a judge in Ammonihah.[9] Amulek declines the bribe.[10]

Author Brant A. Gardner argues that the appearance of the monetary system during the Ammonihah narrative does not mean the currency system is meant to be understood as only being used within Ammonihah; he proposes that its use may apply to the narrative's other cities during the judges' rule.[11] Within the narrative, the Nephites' monetary system comes about as a result of "trial and error," in the words of religious studies professor Grant Hardy.[12]

Latter-day Saint interpretation of structure

Pieces versus coins

Multiple names of Book of Mormon people and lands such as Antionum resemble the names of Nephite currency.[13]: 20  Latter-day Saint author George Reynolds posits that within the narrative, some currency is named after "well known or distinguished persons" in the setting.[14]

Reynolds notes that the Book of Mormon does not explicitly state what the Shiblon, Shiblum, and Leah are made of but presumes they are silver.[14]

Editions of the Book of Mormon published by the LDS Church before 1981 included a chapter heading (not part of the text originally dictated by Joseph Smith) describing this monetary system as "Nephite coinage."[15] The narrative text of the Book of Mormon calls the currency "pieces."[16] The LDS Church's 1981 and subsequent editions of the Book of Mormon removed the reference to "coinage" in its headings out of "a desire to preempt a potential accusation of anachronism," economist Shinji Takagi writes.[15] The numismatically defined coin—a standardized, state-authenticated, typically inscribed metal object produced by striking or hammering—was invented in western Asia Minor in the mid-to-late 600s BC and spread by the Persian Empire in the 500s BC, and this postdates the chronological narrative depicted in the Book of Mormon.[17] Under an economic definition, state-authenticated metal objects made by casting and without inscriptions can also be considered coins; these may have been invented in China as early as the twelfth century BC.[18]

A pile of fruit above a caption reading "Agriculture among the Nephites"
Agriculture Among the Nephites by John Held Sr. (1888)

Role of grain

Each unit in the Book of Mormon's monetary system is linked in value to "a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain," implying that in the setting, the Nephites harvest barley and other grains and may pay their taxes in grain.[19] Within the Book of Mormon, grain is the Nephites' standard in determining monetary worth; the quantity of a measure is not given.[20]

Sorenson explains that ancient peoples, such as those within Egypt, also connected currency to grain.[21] Others supplemented their commerce with cattle.[22]

Numerical values

The narrator in the Book of Alma structures the list so that the money pieces progressively increase in value.[12]

Lawyer and Latter-day Saint Corbin Volluz explores the Nephite monetary system in an essay discussing the significance of the number seven in the setting of the Book of Mormon. He explains that the monetary structure depends on iterations of seven, noting that many of the values added up to it.[23]

Use among Nephite peoples

The Book of Mormon narrative describes its setting as including private enterprises in which merchants have "free intercourse one with another, to buy and to sell."[24] As such, the narrative's description of grain-based fixed-value for currency describes a system of valuation for accounting purposes and calculating legal fines, rather than implying Nephite society in the Book of Alma uses fixed prices in a command economy.[25] Takagi compares this to "monetary values assigned to wrongful acts by casuistic laws in the Covenant Code" found in the biblical Book of Exodus.[26]

Though Mosiah institutes the system with beneficial intent, people in the narrative use money as a motive, leading to misconduct.[2]: 45  In Ammonihah, judges and debtors are especially interested in money and its benefits. Latter-day Saint and assistant professor of finance at Williamette University for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Robert Couch interprets Nephite currency in a social light. His interpretation involves an analysis of the wealthy using money to climb the social echelon and gain more power.[27] The Book of Mormon refers to this as "getting gain."[28] Couch deduces that Ammonihahites with authoritative positions seek to maintain and increase their power and money without any regard for others.[29] In an effort to accumulate more money, judges in Ammonihah increase their caseload by provoking disagreements among the people.[30]

Zoramites also appear in the narrative as avaricious.[31] They obsess about possessions[32] such as "gold, silver, fine goods, costly apparel, ringlets, [and] bracelets."[33] Caught up in pride, they deny those with less money the opportunity to worship in local holy places.[34]

Debt in the Book of Mormon

Lawyers and judges in the Book of Mormon mostly deal with cases of debt.[35] The narrative says that people who are unwilling to pay their debts are forced to pay, accused of theft, stripped of their clothing, or exiled.[36]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Reynolds 1888, p. 362.
  2. 1 2 Welch, John W. (1999). "Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. 8 (2): 36–86. doi:10.2307/44747520. JSTOR 44747520. S2CID 254333868.
  3. ↑ Howe 2007, p. 314.
  4. ↑ Givens 2002, p. 47.
  5. ↑ Curtis 1990, pp. 87–88.
  6. ↑ Curtis 1990, pp. 84–87.
  7. ↑ Rytting 1992, p. 960.
  8. ↑ Gardner 2007; Couch 2020, pp. 140–147.
  9. ↑ Largey 2003, p. 800; Hardy 2003, p. 282nA.
  10. ↑ Couch 2020, p. 147.
  11. ↑ Gardner 2007.
  12. 1 2 Hardy 2023, p. 341.
  13. ↑ Smith, Robert F. (2020). Egyptianisms in the Book of Mormon and Other Studies. Provo, Utah, USA: Deep Forest Green Books. ISBN 978-1-7361761-1-5.
  14. 1 2 Reynolds 1888, pp. 360–61.
  15. 1 2 Takagi 2022, p. 6.
  16. ↑ Skousen 2004, p. 1812.
  17. ↑ The Book of Mormon begins its narrative with a family (that in the story goes on to found the Nephite people) departing from Jerusalem (and from the setting of the Bible and the known ancient world) around 600 BC, therefore prior to the proliferation of minted coinage in the 500s. For the Book of Mormon narrative placing its start around 600 BC, see Townsend 2022, p. 76 For the history of minted coinage and its perceived implications for the Book of Mormon, see Takagi 2022, p. 8.
  18. ↑ Takagi 2022, pp. 8–9.
  19. ↑ Takagi 2022, p. 18–19. Quotation is Alma 11:7.
  20. ↑ Reynolds 1888, p. 363.
  21. ↑ Sorenson, John L. (1985). An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: Deseret Book. p. 233. ISBN 0-87747-608-X.
  22. ↑ Takagi 2022, p. 18.
  23. ↑ Volluz, Corbin (2014). "A Study in Seven: Hebrew Numerology in the Book of Mormon". BYU Studies Quarterly. 53 (2): 69–70. Archived from the original on 2023-11-08. Retrieved 2023-10-04 – via ScholarsArchive.
  24. ↑ Takagi (2022, p. 20). The quotation is Helaman 6:8.
  25. ↑ Takagi 2022, pp. 21–22.
  26. ↑ Takagi 2022, p. 21.
  27. ↑ Couch 2020, pp. 142–144, 146.
  28. ↑ Alma 11:20
  29. ↑ Couch 2020, p. 146.
  30. ↑ Salleh & Hemming 2022, p. 173.
  31. ↑ Couch 2020, pp. 144–146.
  32. ↑ Largey 2003, p. 810.
  33. ↑ Thomas 2016, p. 101.
  34. ↑ Bingman 1978, p. 403.
  35. ↑ Alma 11:1
  36. ↑ Couch 2020, p. 141.

Works cited

Further reading

  • Al-Nasarat, Mohammed (2018). "Weights and Measures Units in Petra Papyri". Canadian Social Science. 14 (5) – via ResearchGate. (Context on how ancient civilizations such as Petra structured weights and measures)
  • Welch, John W. (December 1998). "The Laws of Eshunna and Nephite Economics". Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. 18 (6) – via ScholarsArchive. (Mosiah's changes in light of an ancient Babylonian civilization called Eshnunna)
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