Beaver, Wampum, Wheel

Lyrics

[Intro]A taxonomy of value, from a world called New.Three offerings, laid at the feet of the Old.Each a promise. Each a currency.Each undone by the same terrible engine.First, the pelt.[Verse 1]The wet, dark fur of the beaver.Greasy and warm in a Cree trapper's hands.Traded for brass at a Hudson's Bay post, cold as the James Bay wind.One prime pelt, one "Made Beaver" token stamped HBC.A continent's worth of soft gold, sewn into hats for London streets.Until the fashion turned, and the rivers ran quiet.The trap springs on an empty lodge.[Verse 2]The purple heart of the Quahog shell.Roger Williams wrote it down in '43: Wampumpeage.Money that grew in the sea, drilled by hand, slow as a treaty.Then the sound from New Netherland.The screech of an iron drill on shell.Faster. Cheaper. Perfect.A flood of white and purple dust, a currency drowned in its own reflection.[Chorus]Pelt, and Shell, and Stone.The body, the story, the bone.Each one a world, each one a way.Broken on the wheel of yesterday's today.The engine of More, that only knows how to grind.Leaving the ghost of a value behind.[Verse 3]The stone. Or rather, the mountain of it.Potosí, 1545. The Cerro Rico.The silver vein, wide as a man's body.The mercury fumes from the amalgamation vats.The Spanish mints, wheels turning, stamping out empires one coin at a time.An industrial river of metal, flooding the globe.The mountain gave its silver, and took the men in turn.[Chorus]Pelt, and Shell, and Stone.The body, the story, the bone.Each one a world, each one a way.Broken on the wheel of yesterday's today.The engine of More, that only knows how to grind.Leaving the ghost of a value behind.[Bridge]The steel-toothed trap.The iron drill bit.The water-wheel at the royal mint.Three different tools, one single mind.The logic of scale, leaving worth behind.It is the oldest story.The longue durée of price versus cost.[Outro]The pelt rots.The shells scatter on the shore, worthless.The mountain is a hollowed-out honeycomb of ghosts.The engine moves on.It always finds something new to reproduce.Always.