Theory of Money and Banks Investigated Author:George Tucker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE UTILITY OF MONEY IN SAVING LABOR. A Money or medium of exchange, which unites so many advantages as are furnished by gold and silver, is of... more » immense benefit in every civilized community ; and the benefit increases with the increasing wealth and commerce of civilization. Every individual is thereby able to buy the precise article he wants, and nothing else,—and just as much as he wants, and no more. He thus obtains a greater value for the products of his own industry, and imparts a greater value to that of others. Before the introduction of such a general medium of exchange, when men could obtain the products of others only by barter, it would rarely happen that of two persons who casually met, each one wanted what the other wished to part with, and when each was prepared to give the precise equivalent and nothing beyond it. If a shoemaker, for instance, wished to turn his shoes into bread, the baker might not want shoes, or he might not want as many as the shoemaker had to sell. In this case, either the shoemaker would be compelled to exchange his shoes for something that the baker wanted, and would be willing to take in exchange for bread ; or the baker mightagree to take the shoes, which he did not want, in the expectation of exchanging them for something that he did. The difficulty would be yet greater, if the article which one wished to barter for several other commodities, would not admit of division,—as a horse, a wagon, a boat, or a house. To convert its value into bread, meat, and clothing, to suit the necessities of his family, might require a dozen subsequent exchanges, even should he be so fortunate as to meet with an individual who wanted his property, had commodities sufficient to purchase it, and was willing to give the value of it. Where, ...« less
ISBN-13: 9780678000328 ISBN-10: 0678000328 Publication Date: 2/27/1970 Pages:470 Edition:New issue of 1839 ed Rating: