bers; but it is not true of money when money means quantity. The proof of this appears in a previous paragraph of Mr. Mill's work, where he holds that the total sum of money—no matter howsoever great or small it may be—will always have the same value.1 This rule, so contradictory of the other, is true of money when money means quantity; but it is not true of money when money means numbers.

Bearing in mind Mr. Mill's great penetration and logical faculty, it is evident that he has fallen into this contradiction through the subtle error of employing the term money in two different senses. It is quite plain that in the first example he means by money the total numbers of money; and in the second, the total quantity.

To avoid a similar mistake, and until a rightful meaning of the term is acquired by familiarity with the nature and function of money, the sense in which it is used in this treatise will be plainly expressed or implied in each instance.

When its nature is well understood it will be perceived that money is a Collective Unit or Thing; and that it is impossible to give it a precise or specific name unless such name has the meaning that it is believed belonged to nomisma—namely, all money, or the whole sum of numbers of money in a given country, or within a given legal jurisdiction.

When used with reference to all the world, money means

1 Mill's "Political Economy," iii.-viii. 2, p. 299—from Adam Smith, Book I., chap. ii. p. 178.

-and must of necessity mean-all the money in the world. Therefore, teleologically, money, or, what is the same thing, the unit of money, is all money; and the term should not be used in any other sense. Nevertheless, so long as the various countries of the world employ different monetary systems, and each system consists of different kinds of moneys-that is to say, moneys having different legal attributes, as is the case now-it becomes necessary, unless new and strange terms are introduced, to employ the word money to mean sometimes all the money in the world, sometimes all the money of a given country and sometimes all the money of one class-as commodity money, numerical money, etc.; whilst the word moneys will have to be used to mean sometimes two or more systems of money, at others two or more classes of money. The intelligence of the reader will doubtless guide him to the sense in which this, at present, ambiguous term is employed in the various parts of this work.1

1

The use of the word money in the sense of a single piece or fraction of money has been avoided as far as possible; but in some places it was found inconvenient to do so without resort to tedious circumlocution. One striking fact asserts itself at the outset of this inquiry into the principles of money: if the unit of money is all money—and there can be no doubt that this is true-it follows that our knowledge of money, its composition, dimensions, distribution, operation, etc., must be derived from other sources than visual knowledge. We may, indeed, perceive a fraction of money, as a coin, a note, etc., but we cannot see all money. We must, therefore, consult the laws and customs of money for a knowledge of it; and since these laws and customs are exceedingly numerous and intricate, and are entwined with other laws and customs, and much affected by their operation, we find that money

is something more than a mere instrument-it is an institution. No individual can make it, or a duplicate of it, as one can a pint pot or a yard stick. It has to be established and maintained by society at large. Nor may this establishment be arbitrary. It must be designed with respect to the other social and commercial arrangements already in existence, and liable to be affected by its operation.

CHAPTER II.

CLASSIFICATION OF MONEYS.

Moneys are of great variety, needing classification-Moneys are legal institutions-Moneys of unlimited and limited volumes-Commodity, convertible, inconvertible, and composite moneys-Various classes of commodity moneys-Living moneys-Merchandise moneys— Metallic moneys-Their variety chiefly due to limitation of coinage, to seignorage, and to legal-tender efficiency-Coins and bullion-Unlimited paper moneys—Their varieties-Composite moneys-These are the kind employed by the leading nations of the modern world-Limited moneys. These were the kind employed in various countries of the ancient world.

N°
No single work nor class of works exist in which the

principal different kinds of money adopted at various times by the nations of the world are mentioned, and in which their peculiarities and functions are accurately determined and described. The numismatic works are limited chiefly to the description and classification of coins; whilst the essays and treatises relating to moneys and "currencies" are usually theoretical works, in which a few facts, isolated from their congeners, are made to sustain a tottering burden of conclusions.

As yet the history of money lies scattered and hidden in the chronicles of law, religion, slavery, wars, natural philosophy, mining, metallurgy and archæology. If these be investigated with attention, it will appear that several

hundred distinct classes of moneys have been used from time to time by various peoples and nations; while to speak of money is usually to speak of only one of these numerous classes.

In order to avoid the use of a terminology whose looseness and vagueness would destroy the claims of this work to practical value, it becomes necessary at the outset to classify moneys.

The palpable characteristic which distinguishes money from the numerous objects that resemble it, but which are not money, is its Mark of Authority, signifying that it is issued, circulated, and made payable for debts, services, fines, taxes, and commodities, by virtue of Law, or, as in some instances, general custom having the force of law.

There is also connected with this distinguishing mark the question of Artistic Design, and the bearing of the latter upon Counterfeiting and surreptitious issues.

The Mark of Authority has not always been affixed to money. Cattle, corn, cocoa-beans, metallic slugs and rings, and many other objects having no mark of authority whatever upon them, have served at various times, and amongst various peoples, for that measure of the exchangeable relations of other objects which is called money. Such instances, however, belong rather to undeveloped or decayed communities and to the earlier history of commercial intercourse than to peoples and a state of trade in which money plays an important part and becomes an institution of law.

From the earliest historical periods, money, amongst highly civilized and commercial communities, has had its