tate, and nation), some of the
irrigation plants, part of the canals, and that part of the gold and
silver which is in the public treasury.]

[Footnote 2: See Vol. I, pp. 264-267. The law makes between property
rights and equitable rights some subtle distinctions, which have their
reason in the history, if not in the logic, of the law but which are
not essential to economic discussion. In some states this distinction
has been in large measure abolished. What interests us are the rights
(claims) that men have to the control of wealth and services, whether
by technical law these are called legal or equitable, and this right
is what is meant by "property" in our discussion of it.]

[Footnote: 3 This confusion has had important practical consequences
in the field of taxation. See Vol. I, pp. 265-267, and below, ch. 17.]

[Footnote 4: These claims mutually delimit each other (whether they be
called equitable claims, or liens, or property rights), and wealth
is not multiplied by multiplying the claims, as is unfortunately
sometimes assumed to be the case. See above, sec. 3.]

[Footnote 5: See Vol. I, p. 51.]

[Footnote 6: See Vol. I, p. 73.]

[Footnote 7: This will appear in comparing the competitive method of
distribution with other methods in ch. 31.]

[Footnote 8: See Vol. I, p. 143, on medieval land tenures; p. 158, on
customary rents; p. 190, on the effect of caste.]

[Footnote 9: See Vol. I, p. 227.]

PART II

MONEY AND PRICES

CHAPTER 3

NATURE, USE, AND COINAGE OF MONEY

Sec. 1. Origin of money. Sec. 2. Qualities of the original money-goods.
Sec. 3. Industrial changes and the forms of money. Sec. 4. The precious
metals as money. Sec. 5. Gold-using countries. Sec. 6. Varying extent of
the use of money. Sec. 7. Money defined and reviewed. Sec. 8. Metal money
without or with coinage. Sec. 9. Technical features of coinage. Sec. 10.
Seigniorage defined.

Sec. 1. #Origin of money#. Everywhere in the world where the beginnings
of regular trade have appeared, some one of the articles of trade soon
has come to be taken by many traders who did not expect to keep or use
it themselves, but to pass it along in another trade.[1] This made it
money, for money is whatever comes to be used as a general price-good.
The character of a _general_ price good clearly distinguishes money
from goods bought and sold by a particular class of merchants, such
as grain, cattle, etc., to be sold again.