XV. The Rights of Free Exchange

CHAPTER XV. THE RIGHTS OF ·FREE EXCHANGE AND FREE CONTRAOT. §314. What was said at the outset of the last chapter concerning the right of gift, may be said here, with change of terms, concerning the right of exchange; for exchange may not unfitly be regarded as. a mutual cancelling of gifts. Probably most readers will think this a fanciful interpreta tion of it; but, contrariwise, it is an interpretation forced on us by inspection of the facts. For whereas barter is not. universally understood among the lowest tribes, the making of presents is universally understood j and where the making of presents becomes habitual, there grows up the conception that equivalent presents should be made in return. Numerous books of travel exemplify this con ception. Evidently, then, from the exchange of equivalent presents, there may readily grow up a constant practice of exchange from which the idea of presents has dropped out.