Points to take from them is that (a) you don't have to be literate at all to be functionally numerate, (b) you don't have to know about the number zero, and (c) peasants can count units of units (e.g., ones, then tens, then ten tens, then ten tens of tens, etc.) as effectively as needed. This is also a caution against modern prejudices. Medieval people were just as sophisticated and clever as we moderns; they just couldn't read or do higher math. So, don't think of this as a "work-around" for an illiterate and innumerate population; illiteracy and higher innumeracy is the norm for human history. Until recently, it can't have been a very significant disadvantage or we wouldn't be where we are now.
Chris
It is a mechanism for providing a receipt for money advanced that is very difficult to fake. It was used in England for about 700 years. There were three main uses, all of which amounted to an acknowledgement of money paid in respect of a future payment.
The first example is as a tax receipt. At Easter, each sheriff (i.e. tax collector) would come to court with about half of the taxes for the year. A complete accounting of all taxes and expenses charged back to the treasury would be due at Michaelmas in the fall. The sheriff and the King’s Exchequer needed a way for each side to show how much of a payment the sheriff had made – because the sheriff was personally liable for all of the taxes that had to be paid. A paper receipt would be useless because most people (even nobles) could not read; pretty much only the priests could read.
So here is what they did. The Exchequer would have these hard, polished, straight sticks that had been squared off. The stick is called a tally. On one side, they would cut notches representing the amount paid. A big notch for 1000 pounds, a middle-sized notch for 100, etc. Then they would rotate the tally stick 90 degrees and cut halfway through it near one end. Then they would stand the tally stick on its end and split it lengthwise, so that the split ran through the notches and met up with the halfway cut. The means that half of each notch would be on each of the two resulting half-sticks. But one tally would be longer than the other, because the split stops where it was halfway cut through. The creditor (here, the sheriff) held the longer stick, which was called the stock. Hence the word “stock-holder” in later usage. The debtor held the shorter stick, which was called the foil. This is where we get the phrase, “the short end of the stick.”
The split between the two tallies would not be polished or planed afterwards. The means that, when the two parties later meet up, they can readily match the two pieces to each other. Any falsification of the “data” will be readily evident, because the notch will only be on one of the two tallies. (By the 1200’s, a clerk would write something in ink on the two pieces, so that they were readily identifiable for the clerks. But that was kind of unnecessary; it just made the clerk’s job’s easier. It is like labeling keys.)
This is also probably where the whole “party of the first part” and “party of the second part” thing came from. Some lawyer (ok, technically probably a priest) was trying to represent on paper what would have been the case with a tally stick.
This system had two other big uses.
First, private creditors used the same system, probably well before the king did. It is ideal for illiterates, which almost everyone was. It also worked really well in a culture where interest was illegal and everyone pays their debts (or runs away) after the harvest. So, lenders would usually lend some quantity of money plus other stuff around planting season. There usually had to be other stuff involved, because money now for more money later obviously involves interest. Putting the other stuff in means it was just really expensive to use the plow or whatever. So, they would put the amount owed on the tally stick, then split it. When the debtor paid off, the credit would hand over the stick to the debtor, who would usually just burn it.
Second, the king also issued tally sticks as payment to suppliers, soldiers, and the like, especially since this meant he did not actually have to collect all the taxes before spending them. All he had to do was accept the tallies as payment when someone showed up to pay taxes using the tally he issued. So he would issue tally sticks in standardized amounts and sell them at a discount. For example, he might make a tally stick for 100 pounds and sell it for 75. (Yes, that’s about 66% interest at an annual rate.) People would buy these and they actually acted something like treasury bills do now. They were both a little like cash, in that they were transferable, and a little like an investment, since they effectively paid interest. During periods when Britain was short on circulating money, these tally sticks were in common circulation. So much so that some were not ever turned in, because they were easier to use than the equivalent gold.
Ultimately, tally sticks went out of use (though there is some debate about whether the Bank of England went out of its way to have them suppressed). Because they were turned in, they had to get stored somewhere, which turned out to be the Houses of Parliament. Later on, Parliament decided to burn them, apparently just to get rid of them. The fire got out of control and the entire Houses of Parliament burned down. Which is lovely symbolism.
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