CHAPTER 30 - Livestock Standard of the Mongols

Abstract

This chapter describes the livestock standard of the Mongols. Livestock constituted the store of value of the Mongols. As they were an almost entirely pastoral community, their possessions consisted almost entirely of their flocks and herds. Livestock was also used as a medium of exchange though in this respect this claim would require factual support. To a much large extent it was used as a standard of value. The monetary use of livestock necessarily resulted in overstocking. The Mongols, like other nomadic races, hardly ever slaughtered cattle. The result was that the grazing lands of Central Asia proved to be inadequate eventually to meet the requirements of the Mongols' livestock. Consequently, there was a hard struggle between Mongols and other nomadic races, in particular for the winter pastures, as a result of which the relatively weakest horde was pushed out of the steppe and had to conquer a new home.