The Theory of Practice (Volume 2); An Ethical Inquiry in Two Books (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870. Excerpt: ... Book II. Ch. IV. All' idea di quel metallo, 96 Portentoso, onnipossente, Statical logic. of money. Un volcano la mia mente Gia comincia a diventar. II barbiere. I. 1. We now come to the second great branch of the statical logic of political economy, Money as the means and measure of exchange. This branch is not only one half, but also one entire aspect, of the whole science, so that the whole of it might be treated as a question of money, without omitting any of its essential features. Money stands to exchanges as language to thought; it is the measure and the expression of value in all its possible analyses, and it is also the means of communicating values, as words are of communicating thoughts, in precisely measured portions and shapes. The mode of origin and adoption of money is besides an instance of the same process of consciousness as the mode of origin and adoption of language; each is a case of the volitional and conventional adoption, for a definite purpose, of objects and of modes of action offered in the first instance by spontaneously arising processes, such as, in the case of money, the use of tallies and other simple records of barter; and each grows in minuteness and complexity of device with the growth of that which it ascertains and communicates, namely, wealth in the one case, thought in the other. The comparison of words to coin has, then, a greater aptness of analogy than was probably contemplated by those who first drew it. Money is the causa cogno Book Il scendi, the evidence, of the values of exchanged com--' modities, as fixed by the exchange itself; and it is staticaliogic also the means of reckoning the U and D elements of money., '.. of that value, by each party to the bargain before he concludes it. It is a p...