What Is Money

FIRST we have the "Mixt Moneys Case of 1604" as quoted from The Science of Money by Alexander Del Mar:

. . .The Mixt Moneys case [of 1604] decided that Money was a Public Measure, a measure of value, and that, like other measures, it was necessary in the public welfare that its dimensions of volume should be limited, defined and regulated by the State. The whole body of learning left us by the ancient and renascent world was invoked in this celebrated dictum: Aristotle, Paulus, Bodin and Budelius were summoned to its support; the Roman law, the common law and the statutes all upheld it; "the State alone had the right to issue money and to decide of what substances its symbols should be made, whether of gold, silver, brass, or paper. Whatever the State declared to be money, was money” . . .

And this scholarly article descriptively titled Paper Money and the Original Understanding of the Coinage Clause by Robert G. Natelson, University of Montana, 31 Harvard J.L. & Pub. Policy 1017, 2008.

CRUCIAL QUOTE made by Alexander Hamilton about money, taken from Hamilton's Works, published by order of the Joint Library Committee of Congress, ed by John C. Hamilton, author of The Life of Hamilton, vol 3, page 18, " It is immaterial what serves the purpose of money, whether paper or gold and silver; that the effect of both upon industry is the same; and that the intrinsic wealth of a nation is to be measured, not by the abundance of the precious metals contained in it, but by the quantity of the productions of its labor and industry."

And Thomas Jefferson: from The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, edited by John P. Foley, p 605, quoting a letter to W.H. Crawford, Feb., 1815: "National currency. Redemption. Treasury Notes [money] of small as well as high denomination, bottomed on a tax which would redeem them . . .would place at our disposal the whole circulating medium of the United States . . ."

"It is not so important WHAT we use for money, as it is HOW that money is brought into circulation." Byron Dale, Bashed By the Bankers.

NOW a definition, from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary:

Money 1) Something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.

Let's read that again. Money 1) SOMETHING generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment.

Next, this explanation from the 1917 book The True Function of Money and the False Foundation of Our Banking System by Frederick Raphael Burch, beginning on page 117, items in parenthesis ours not Burch's:

''Money is not a commodity — that is, wealth produced by individuals for the purpose of barter and trade; but it is, however, a governmental factor of commerce which, in common with true commodities, is subject to the law of supply and demand.
''No one can successfully deny that a supply of money in excess of the requirements of exchange [i.e. the production/consumption of real wealth as most accurately measured in goods and services] means a money of lesser value, while requirements of exchange [production/consumption of goods and services] in excess of the supply of money mean money of greater value.
''Money is, therefore, directly amenable to the law of supply and demand; and whoever regulates the supply of money, that is - the amount permitted to circulate at any given time, will be the party who regulates the value thereof.
''That money has a very fluctuating value after coinage [whether coin or paper] is patent; and that Congress should regulate this value is evident. This it has failed to do. Contrary thereto, it delegates this important Constitutional function to the bankers and money-lenders, and they regulate the value of money at will, and always to their own best interests, and with a total disregard of the rights and interests of the people.
''They, the bankers and money-lenders, have thus become a co-ordinate branch of the government, self-constituted and answerable to naught but their own interests.
''The value of money can be, and is, regulated solely by control of the volume in circulation; and this control is, and rightly so, placed in Congress by the Constitution.
''To enforce this right, the government must retain control of the volume of money in circulation; and the method for accomplishing this is by the establishment of government banks [or more clearly termed a properly structured Monetary Authority], thereby taking that control out of the hands of private individuals.
''This change would cause no confusion whatever. Business would be conducted in the same manner as at present. The government would make a charge for the use of the money, just as the bankers do today [or rather, government expenditures, duly authorized by the public would be extinguished by such charge, as in the Public Credit Money System]; but this charge would not be interest as now understood.
''It would be an indirect tax [excise or consumption tax on all new, non-essential items, perhaps?] upon the people for the purpose of defraying governmental expenses [or rather said tax would be needed for the purpose of extinguishing federal expenditure money which has served its purpose as explained in The Two Faces of Money and by Thoren and Warner in Appendix 12 of their book The Truth in Money Book].
''This would do away with the present army of tax-gatherers and provide an even and just levy of taxes in proportion to the amount of consumption; the rich, being larger consumers, would justly pay a larger tax than their poorer neighbors.
''This tax, levied by the government, would be paid back to the people; while under the present system the tax is levied by private individuals and is to be loaned back only, thus to become a constant and consuming debt, and for no value received by the people.
We are now paying this tax to the banks and money-lenders for the privilege of using our credit, and we must then pay to the government a tax upon the commodity for which we exchanged our credit ; thus paying a double tax. The tax thus collected by the bankers and money-lenders is far in excess of that collected by the government.

So, we can say that:

FIRST, money is a medium of exchange - nothing more nothing less. An item becomes money when involved parties decide to accept the medium. So in the past everything from beads and shells to wheat and cattle to iron and gold to paper - and even, as in Federal Reserve Notes, "promises to pay" - have been used as money. Today about 1900 communities world wide are partially operating with a version of "hour dollars." So time is money in these communities.

SECOND, fiat money is something that is authorized or sanctioned (by the state) to be money. Thus, cow dung could be money if the state declared it to be.

THIRD: A monetary system is a method of keeping track of the flow in and out of the system of the chosen medium of exchange. Our monetary authority is the Federal Reserve System, which in turn is coordinated - along with central banks around the world by the BIS. There are several problems with this beginning with the fact that Constitutionally the Congress is charged with the responsibility and authority to act as the monetary authority through the phrase "The Congress shall have the Power . . . To coin - as in create - money and regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin." Conversely, the states are limited by the Constitution in terms of what they can use as money by the phrase "No state shall MAKE any Thing but gold and silver Coin a tender in Payments of debts." Thus the states are and always have been free to use any money the Congress creates, although they can if they like MAKE gold or silver coin as money (not a good thing when you realize that precious metals, like many commodities, are controlled by the globalists.)

We also can obtain insight into "money" and its true function as a medium of exchange from John Kenneth Galbraith in his classic book Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went when he details how it is that Gresham's Law applies to more than just gold or silver (with surprising results). Thus,

In both Britain and Germany as [World War II] proceeded, the ration coupons became the decisive currency. Everyone or almost everyone could obtain the requisite pounds or marks; it was the availability of a ration ticket that determined whether or not a purchase, almost any purchase, could be made. In contrast with the more traditional means of exchange, the ration ticket is, with privileged exceptions, available to all in equal amounts. (p254) . . .What was used as money and how much there was of it made a difference; the instinct of the men who followed [William Jennings] Bryan (and of those who opposed him) was not wrong. p311

Let's conclude with Some Definitions from The Truth in Money Book by Theodore R. Thoren and Richard F. Warner:

MONEY: anything which is universally acceptable in terms of payment of debt and taxes. (It is not necessary for the item to be used as money to have any intrinsic value or indeed to be physically tangible. Today, money exists in the form of notes, coins, checkbook credits, electronic blips in computers.)

MONEY (or MONETARY) SYSTEM: An arrangement of closely related functions, authorities and responsibilities within a country which regulate the creation, flow and extinguishment of money for the purpose of making possible the orderly creation and distribution of goods and services.)

NOTE: A document signifying the existence of a debt or "promise to pay"; a note serves the same purpose as a bond but it usually represents a debt held for a shorter period of time.

BANK NOTE: Cash printed by authority of a bank.

FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE: Cash representing a portion of the monetary base; Federal Reserve notes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing upon receipt of orders from the regional Federal Reserve banks in response to the needs of commercial banks within given regions.

TREASURY NOTE: Cash printed by authority of the Treasury; also a short-term Treasury debt.

PRIMARY DEBT: Money which is created by the lender as a debt.

SECONDARY DEBT: Debt generated by the lending of money which does not affect the money supply. [Money created by the lender as debt WILL affect the money supply. See the "DUM" equation ]