ny product or service to dispose of will
freely, gladly, and of preference, take this thing money, instead
of the particular products or service which he may individually
require from others, being well assured that with money he will
unfailingly obtain whatever he shall desire, in form and amount,
and at times to suit his wants.

It appears from the accepted definitions that bank checks and bills of
exchange are not money. They may to some extent, as other forms of
credit may to some extent, add to or increase the rapidity of
circulation; but, certainly, credit is not money nor does it possess
the essential elements of money. I think it is an essential element of
money that when used it closes the transaction between the parties to
the transaction. In other words, money, when paid in the purchase of a
commodity, closes the transaction, and neither party to the
transaction has any further claim or demand against the other.
Anything which does this (barter, of course, excluded) is money, and
anything which fails to do this is not money. If a credit is given or
a check received the transaction is not closed until the debt is paid
or the check cashed. I do not find that any economist has made this
distinction, in so many words, between money and credit, but I am
satisfied that it exists.

Does all the money available for use act on prices? It is contended by
a certain class of economists that only money of ultimate and final
redemption--in other words, gold and silver, in countries where gold
and silver are the standard money, and gold only, in countries where
gold is the standard money--can act directly on prices, and that other
forms of money can only act on prices in an indirect manner, and to
the extent only that they may increase the rapidity of the circulation
of redemption or standard money; that paper money, whether convertible
or inconvertible, covered or uncovered, and token money, can have no
direct influence on the general level of prices.

Is this contention true? We have already seen that money is a medium
of exchange, a counter for reckoning, an order for goods, and that its
value does not depend upon the intrinsic qualities which the material
out of which it is made may possess, but depends entirely upon
extrinsic qualities which law or common consent may confer, and that
anything (barter, of course, excluded) that closes transactions
between the parties to the transactions, is m