224 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
ly after the economic system has developed into an objec- 
tive system of integrated reciprocities and factual func- 
tional relationships has man become dependent on the 
functions of all other men and completely independent of 
their personalities. 
Money is the ideal and most adequate bearer of such 
relationships. It creates relationships between individuals, 
but it leaves their individuality outside of these relation- 
ships. It is a perfect equivalent for factual services, but 
a very inadequate substitute for what is personal and indi- 
vidual, and the factual relationships which it creates form 
an excellent background from which to differentiate and 
distinguish the individuality and its liberty.! 
Possession as Activity 
The increased liberty which is brought to the individ- 
zal by the introduction of the money economy is also man- 
fest in the new form of property which it makes possible. 
The acquisition of objects and, in a wider sense, the la- 
bor involved in obtaining them, and also the enjoyment of 
objects, have often been thought of in terms of movement. 
In contrast to these two forms of activity, possession was 
then thought of as a situation of rest related to the former 
as being is to becoming. But a full understanding of the 
significance of possession can be reached only if it, too, be 
thought of in terms of movement and activity. 
It is a mistake to think of possession as a purely pas- 
sive relationship and of property as an object which, in so 
far as it is possessed, requires no further activity on the 
part of the possessor. This conception is the result of a 
fictitious abstraction which could be made only after prop- 
erty had reached a fairly high stage of development. Pos- 
session in its original form was something labile, not some- 
1 Phil. des Geldes, pp. 297-321.