r. Having come so near enchanted ground
we will not retire in awe, but plant a firm foot here, persuaded of many
truths that should be spoken. They are not new, but how they are
forgotten!

I see no possible way of doing without money. The only thing that
theorists or legislators who accuse it of all our ills have hitherto
achieved, has been to change its name or form. But they have never been
able to dispense with a symbol representative of the commercial value of
things. One might as well wish to do away with written language as to do
away with money. Nevertheless, this question of a circulating medium is
very troublesome. It forms one of the chief elements of complication in
our life. The economic difficulties amid which we still flounder, social
conventionalities, and the entire organization of modern life, have
carried gold to a rank so eminent that it is not astonishing to find the
imagination of man attributing to it a sort of royalty. And it is on
this side that we shall attack the problem.

The term money has for appendage that of merchandise. If there were no
merchandise there would be no money; but as long as there is merchandise
there will be money, little matter under what form. The source of all
the abuses which centre around money lies in a lack of discrimination.
People have confused under the term and idea of merchandise, things
which have no relation with one another. They have attempted to give a
venal value to things which neither could have it nor ought to. The idea
of purchase and sale has invaded ground where it may justly be
considered an enemy and a usurper. It is reasonable that wheat,
potatoes, wine, fabrics, should be bought and sold, and it is perfectly
natural that a man's labor procure him rights to life, and that there be
put into his hands something whose value represents them; but here
already the analogy ceases to be complete. A man's labor is not
merchandise in the same sense as a sack of flour or a ton of coal. Into
this labor enter elements which cannot be valued in money. In short,
there are things which can in no wise be bought: sleep, for instance,
knowledge of the future, talent. He who offers them for sale must be
considered a fool or an impostor. And yet there are gentlemen who coin
money by such traffic. They sell what does not belong to them, and
their dupes pay fictitious values in veritable coin. So, too, there are
dealers in pleasure, dealers in love, dealers in miracles