THE NOTION OF MONEY 163 
and more among durable objects—easy to preserve and 
easy to transport, it also served as an instrument for 
saving the proceeds of previous transactions and thus 
came to be used more or less successfully as a standard 
of values, not only at any given moment but over certain 
periods (standard of deferred payments). Fiduciary 
currency or token money, although in certain countries 1 
it has been known since ancient times, does not seem 
to have been created deliberately; it made its first 
appearance as token of a previous currency commodity. 
Even nowadays a bank-note is considered, at least by 
lawyers and theoretical writers, as a mere promise to pay 
in coin and is deemed to derive its exchange value from 
the metal currency which it represents. 
It should be observed, however, that the idea of money 
is distinct from that of a commodity in that, as money is 
accepted solely with a view to subsequent exchange, it 
need not necessarily answer a given need or a given series 
of needs. In this respect the conception of money is 
opposed to the usual conception of commodities and 
merely from this it may be WA that an instrument of 
exchange need not always be a commodity. 
Finally, it should be added that with a system of coinage 
a new element arises. Although each coin corre- 
sponds to a given weight of fine metal, it became custom- 
ary to give certain coins a name, e.g., drachme, pound 
sterling, franc, etc., and to denominate other coins in 
terms of multiples or sub-multiples of this unit of account. 
Commodities are valued in these units of account even 
when they are not actually being exchanged. On the 
other hand, units of account may be applied by legislative 
enactments to currencies of different metals or to token 
money or fiduciary currency such as notes. They even 
1 According to M. Revillout (“Les Obligations en droit égyptien 
comparé”) there were banks and bank-notes in Babylon six centuries 
before the time of Jesus Christ. Again it is said that paper money existed 
in China from the 11th to the I 5th centuries of our era. Modern paper 
money originated in bank-notes which themselves appear to have arisen 
from the receipts for coin and gold and silver deposits given since the 12th 
century by banks in Italy.