The Book of Mormon monetary system is part of the setting of the Book of Mormon. It is the system of economic exchange used by the narrative's Nephites. Mormon, the internal narrator of the Book of Mormon, first introduces the system in the internal book of Alma. When Nephite missionaries Alma and Amulek preach in Ammonihah, the lawyer Zeezrom attempts to bribe Amulek, wanting him to deny the existence of God. Zeezrom offers Amulek six onties, worth about 42 days' of wages for a judge in Ammonihah. Uninfluenced, Amulek rejects the money. Setting forth the system as a background for this account, Mormon, the narrator, outlines the value relationship between precious metals and grains. This is an example of one of the many anachronisms in the Book of Mormon since there is no evidence for this sort of system in the Pre-Columbian era Americas.
| 1 Senine | 1 Senum | |
| 1 Seon, 2 Senines | 1 Amnor | |
| 1 Shum, 4 Senines | 1 Ezrom | |
| 1 Limnah, 7 Senines | 1 Onti |
| Shiblon | 1/2 Senine | 1/2 Senum | |
| Shiblum | 1/4 Senine | 1/4 Senum | |
| Leah | 1/8 Senine | 1/8 Senum |
| Antion | 3 Shiblons |
| Leah | 0.125 | |||
| Shiblum | 0.25 | |||
| Shiblon | 0.5 | |||
| Senine | Senum | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| Antion | 1.5 | |||
| Seon | Amnor | 2.0 | ||
| Shum | Ezrom | 4.0 | ||
| Limnah | Onti | 7.0 |
In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites are the descendants of diasporic Israelites who leave Jerusalem just prior to the Babylonian captivity, migrate to the ancient Americas, and establish a society of what literary critic Terryl Givens calls "pre-Christian Christians." Over time, the Nephites industrialize, build urban landscapes, and develop institutions to support a capitalist economy of market exchange. Susan Curtis, a historian of the United States, compares Book of Mormon statements about "exceeding industrious[ness]" among the people it describes to "assumptions about hard work, regularity, commerce, and accumulation sustained by a Victorian sensibility" prevalent in nineteenth-century America in the wake of the Second Great Awakening "ideology of individual responsibility" that comported with "emerging market capitalism in America."
Generations after the establishment of Nephite society, Mosiah, king of the Nephites, establishes a unified system for exchange.[2] This system is introduced by the in-setting narrator, Mormon, in the book of Alma when a lawyer in Ammonihah named Zeezrom attempts to bribe a missionary named Amulek.[3] Zeezrom says he will pay Amulek six onties if the latter will profess that God does not exist, which would have been worth about 42 days of wages for a judge in Ammonihah.[4] Amulek declines the bribe.[5]
Author Brant A. Gardner thinks the system could have been used in other cities as well. According to religious studies professor Grant Hardy, the system was the result of "trial and error".
No form of fiat currency, such as measures of gold for grain as described in the Book of Mormon, is known to have actually existed in any pre-Columbian culture. The vast majority of ancient Native American economies were gift economies, which do not use any form of currency and instead rely on reciprocal exchanges governed by social goodwill. Limited use of commodity currencies existed in large empires, such as in Mesoamerica where cacao beans were sometimes used.[6]
Multiple names of Book of Mormon people and lands such as Antionum resemble the names of Nephite currency.[7] Latter-day Saint author George Reynolds believes some currency is named after "well known or distinguished persons". Reynolds believes that the Shiblon, Shiblum, and Leah are made of silver.
Editions of the Book of Mormon published by the LDS Church before 1981 included a chapter heading (not part of the text originally dictated by Joseph Smith) describing this monetary system as "Nephite coinage." The narrative text of the Book of Mormon calls the currency "pieces." Since coinage was not used in pre-Columbian Americas, the LDS Church's 1981 and subsequent editions of the Book of Mormon removed the reference to "coinage" in its headings out of "a desire to preempt a potential accusation of anachronism," economist Shinji Takagi writes.
Each unit in the Book of Mormon's monetary system is linked in value to "a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain," implying that in the setting, the Nephites harvest barley and other grains and may pay their taxes in grain.[8] Within the Book of Mormon, grain is the Nephites' standard in determining monetary worth; the quantity of a measure is not given.
Sorenson explains that ancient peoples, such as those within Egypt, also connected currency to grain.[9] Others supplemented their commerce with cattle.
The narrator in the Book of Alma structures the list so that the money pieces progressively increase in value.
Lawyer and Latter-day Saint Corbin Volluz explores the Nephite monetary system in an essay discussing the significance of the number seven in the setting of the Book of Mormon. He explains that the monetary structure depends on iterations of seven, noting that many of the values added up to it.[10]
G. St. John Stott interprets the system of measures as meaning prices for grain were fixed and not allowed to fluctuate.[11] Takagi holds that the Book of Mormon narrative describes its setting as including private enterprises in which merchants have "free intercourse one with another, to buy and to sell."[12] As such, according to Takagi the narrative's description of grain-based fixed-value for currency describes a system of valuation for accounting purposes and calculating legal fines, rather than implying Nephite society in the Book of Alma uses fixed prices in a command economy. Takagi compares this to "monetary values assigned to wrongful acts by casuistic laws in the Covenant Code" found in the biblical Book of Exodus.
Though Mosiah institutes the system with beneficial intent, people in the narrative use money as a motive, leading to misconduct. In Ammonihah, judges and debtors are especially interested in money and its benefits. Latter-day Saint and assistant professor of finance at Williamette University for the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Robert Couch interprets Nephite currency in a social light. His interpretation involves an analysis of the wealthy using money to climb the social echelon and gain more power. The Book of Mormon refers to this as "getting gain." Couch deduces that Ammonihahites with authoritative positions seek to maintain and increase their power and money without any regard for others. In an effort to accumulate more money, judges in Ammonihah increase their caseload by provoking disagreements among the people.
Lawyers and judges in the Book of Mormon mostly deal with cases of debt. The narrative says that people who are unwilling to pay their debts are forced to pay, accused of theft, stripped of their clothing, or exiled.