Goods Exchanged.

Deerskins and the pelts of other animals were the first lucrative commodity in New England, New York, and South Carolina. There was a demand in Europe for the skins, and there was a ready supply in the colonies. Traders exchanged manufactured goods for bear, buffalo, deer, elk, beaver, fox, mink, muskrat, and raccoon furs from many Indian tribes. In return the Indians received awls, axes, beads, blankets, buttons, cloth, clothing, combs, guns, gunpowder and shot, hoes, mirrors, ribbon, rum, scissors, and thread. As early as 1717 the Superior Council of Louisiana prohibited the unauthorized sale of liquor to Indians. By 1721 the same Council established rates of exchange for trade on the lower Mississippi. One meter of cloth or one ax was worth four dressed skins. Two dressed skins would fetch one blanket or tomahawk. One dressed skin was worth two-thirds of a pound...