Copyright, 1901,

by

ARTHUR CHESHIRE_NEELY

in

the

United States

and

Great Britain.

All Rights Reserved.

TO ALL ADMIRERS OF

ANDREW LANG

AND TO

ALL HONEST STUDENTS OF FINANCIAL FOLKLORE

THIS MODEST PAMPHLET IS

FRATERNALLY DEDICATED.

73ཏུ་ཞུ་དག{་6ག་ཟ

LABADIE COLLECTION

9-17-52

In Yellowest Jaunia.

WHAT IS MONEY?—THE POPULAR IDEA AND THE OLIGARCHICAL IDEA.

THE unreflecting popular mind usually conceives money to consist of broad, rectangular pieces of silk-shot paper, handsomely engraved on both sides in variously colored inks, and of flat, round pieces of yellow white and brown metal stamped with certain emblems, letters, and figures on both sides, the use of which objects in mercantile exchanges, between employer and laborer, and from borrower to lender, is sanctioned and enforced by law. Elementary as this conception of money may be, and little as it fully covers the case, the popular answer to our question, What is Money? comes a great deal nearer the truth in its rough way than the subtler doctrines of many latter-day theorists do. Very few, even among the best-informed persons and writers on public economy, have yet learned to distinguish between mere numerary currency, token money, and self money, or between