Definitions HQ

Money (n.) can ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠represent more kinds of wealth only by circulating faster — as a common noun covers more things only by growing simpler.

Money (n.) too ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠has its price: the movement of prices revealed it not as an absolute standard but as a commodity like any other, worth more or less as it is scarce or abundant.

Money (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a material memory, a self-duplicating representation, a deferred exchange: it can always bring back into its owner's hands what was just exchanged for it.

Money (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the sixteenth century could signify wealth only by being wealth: to represent prices, coins had themselves to be precious — rare, useful, desirable — as words then had the same reality as what they said.

Money (n.) changed ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠slowly through historic viscosity: tied to praxis and institutions, it needed the long mercantilist process to enter representation, where language and nature switched almost overnight.

Money (n.) and ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠wealth are twin masses: if there were only one commodity in the world, all the gold on earth would represent it; if men had only one coin, all their wealth would have to share in its subdivisions.