220 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
natural economy and the money payment the factual obli- 
gation. The personality is then completely divorced from 
the product and at full liberty to obtain that money in 
whatever way it may choose. 
But the introduction of the money economy means not 
only an increased liberty in social life, but also an enrich- 
ment of social life, an increase in social values. What the 
objectivation of culture obtains in a substantial form, 
money obtains in a functional form. The objectivation of 
culture means the creation of objective values in which all 
can participate without depriving one another. The intro- 
duction of money means the mobilization of values, the 
possibility of transfer by exchange without loss to either 
party. 
This enrichment began with the invention of exchange 
as a substitute for gift or theft. Gift and theft meant only 
the satisfaction of subjective impulses. Exchange means 
an objective valuation and a reciprocity between subjects 
instead of a mere one-sided possession and a one-sided de- 
sire. It means an exchange of possessions under condi- 
tions of justice. But it means more than a were relative 
formal justice. It means also an increase in subjective en- 
joyment, an increase in subjective values. 
The substitution of buying and selling for primitive 
barter allows a more complete realization of these two prin- 
ciples implied in exchange. The fact that money can be 
subdivided into minute parts makes it possible to weigh 
the value of an object in terms of money more precisely 
than in terms of other objects. Again, the new form of ex- 
change gives to the one what he needs specifically and to 
the other what everybody needs in general and what he 
can therefore immediately exchange for what he needs 
specifically. Money creates a form of exchange which per- 
mits the realization of a maximum of subjective enjoyment.