Money

(mün'e.) [L. moneta.] (Pol. Econ.) The portable and standard equivalent for commodities, labor, and values transferred. It derives its name from having been coined in ancient Rome, at the temple of Juno Moneta; and consists either of coins, paper money, or moneys of account. Among modern commercial nations, gold, silver, and copper are almost the only metals used for this purpose. Paper money is called paper currency, to distinguish it from specie, metallic currency, or cash; it comprehends notes of hand, bills of exchange, checks, . Moneys of account are imaginary moneys, used only in keeping accounts. When M. is plentiful, with reference to commodities and labor, they are said to be dear; but when commodities and labor are plentiful in reference to M., they are said to be cheap: dearne and cheapne being merely relative terms. M. is profitable to a country only by its circulation; for circulation causes it constantly to produce new portions of property; and, on this account, a small sum, in constant circulation, is of far more benefit to a country than the po e ion of the largest sums which remain locked up and do not change owners. ' The only true means of permanently preventing a scarcity of M. is to improve the state of internal and domestic industry; and their opinion is wholly destitute of foundation, who believe that a mere abundance of M. is sufficient to develop a healthy state of domestic industry; for M. does not produce the goods, but follows their production. In the most ancient times it is certain that all commerce was managed by way of barter. There was always a nece ity, however, for a sort of common standard, by which to estimate the value of commodities. The first inhabitants of the earth were almost all shepherds and husbandmen: they therefore made that common standard to consist in a certain portion of their flocks, and any commodity was said to be worth so many sheep, oxen, . It was afterwards found more convenient to expre the value of most commodities by bits of leather, which by their marks showed the number of beasts they were worth. This was the first M., and the origin of all coins. Silver money was not used at Rome till the 485th year after the building of the city; and gold was first coined in the year 547. Julius Cæsar was the first whose head was stamped upon M., by order of the senate. The first coined money regularly minted, and properly so called, among the Jews, was i ued in the time of Judas Maccabæus, who had leave given him by Antiochus Sidetes to coin money of his own in Judæa. Payments, before this, had always been made by weight: hence the correspondence between sums of money, with them, and weights. Paper, as the representative of money, became, after some time, a nece ity. If the metals were used exclusively, the sum required, even for a moderate payment, could be carried only in a cart or wagon. See COIN, DOLLAR, LEGAL TENDER, MINT, . (-ördür,) or POST-OFFICE ORDER. (Pol. Econ.) An order for money i ued by one post-office, and made payable at another more or le distant, thus insuring the safe and speedy transmi ion of small sums of money from one place to another throughout the state or country. GASPARD, COMTE DE PÉLUSE, (mõnzh,) a French geometer and natural philosopher, B. at Beaune, 1746, became at the age of 20 profe or of mathematics and of natural philosophy at Mézières, a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1780, and in 1792 minister of marine. He helped to found the Polytechnic School, and in 1798 accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt, as one of the directors of the scientific commi ion appointed to investigate the geodesy and archæology of that country. D. 1818. M. is credited with having done more for geometric science than any one of modern scientists; and he has left us a work on Descriptive Geometry; the Application of Analysis to the Geometry of Surfaces; and a Treatise on Statics. [s. 611]