Psychologists are forever experimenting with monkeys and apes because they regard these animals as simplified human beings. In the current issue of Natural History, Yale Professor (of psychology) Frank A. Beach tells how lower primates can learn to love money; some even turn into subhuman capitalists.
A cebus monkey in the San Diego zoo, says Beach, showed rational business aptitude by offering sticks or pebbles to visitors who were rich in peanuts or candy. The enterprise of this monkey named "Trader" was so successful that he nearly died of overeating. At last he was removed to the controlled economy of an experimental...