"Peag," or "wampum," or "wampumpeag," simply means stringed shells of a
peculiar kind, or Indian money; and this, it seems, came early into use,
as Hubbard says, "The people of New Plymouth, in the year 1627, began
trade with the Dutch at Manhados, and there they had the first knowledge
of Wampumpeag, and their acquaintance therewith occasioned the Indians of
those parts to learn to make it." Hutchinson thinks the New England
Indians, prior to this time, had not "any instrument of commerce;" and
speaks of the Narragansetts as coining money, making pendants and
bracelets, and also tobacco pipes. There seems, however, to have been
among the Massachusetts settlers some other kinds of money in use, as, in
1635, the court ordered that brass farthings shall be discontinued, and
that musket-balls shall pass for farthings.