Money Wisdom #70

"When an African gives coins in exchange for goods he thinks he is selling the coin against payment in grain, or cotton cloth. He does not ask the merchant how many francs (or shillings) the goods cost. He asks how much rice or calico or sugar he is prepared to give for his coin. And the price of the unit of measure remains always the same; it is the size of the measure that fluctuates."

Paul Einzig Primitive Money (1948) p.156