Page "Commodity money" Paragraph 11

In the sparsely settled American colonies, money, as it always does, arose in the market as a useful and scarce commodity and began to serve as a general medium of exchange.

Thus, beaver fur and wampum were used as money in the north for exchanges with the Indians, and fish and corn also served as money.

Rice was used as money in South Carolina, and the most widespread use of commodity money was tobacco, which served as money in Virginia.

The pound-of-tobacco was the currency unit in Virginia, with warehouse receipts in tobacco circulating as money backed 100 percent by the tobacco in the warehouse.