Commodity market in Sumer between 4500 BC and 4000 BC. Sumerians first used clay tokens sealed in a clay vessel, then clay writing tablets to represent the amount—for example, the number of goats, to be delivered. These promises of time and date of delivery resemble futures contract. Early civilizations variously used pigs, rare seashells, or other items as commodity money. Since that time traders have sought ways to simplify and standardize trade contracts. Gold and silver markets evolved in classical civilizations. At first the precious metals were valued for their beauty and intrinsic worth and were associated with royalty. In time, they
Ordo Aurum Solis George Stanton. In the changing religious and political environment of the late 19th century, they decided to take the core philosophy of the Societas Rotae Fulgentis and constitute it into a living magical and initiatory order, establishing Ordo Aurum Solis in 1897 and reawakening the Golden Chain of the Greek and Egyptian initiatic heritage. Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips are the pen-names of Vivian Godfrey and Leon Barcynski, who together authored many books in the early days of Llewellyn Publications. Chief among these was the formal presentation of the Order Aurum Solis' philosophy and praxis: "The Magical Philosophy". Melita Denning,