Wealth, Capital and Credit. 55 



ise and the receiver of it. In the one case the promise is made 

 directly to a particular person, in the other it is made to bearer. 

 In the one case the maker is an individual, in the other, a collec- 

 tion of individuals or corporation. In each case the maker of the 

 promise is held under the law, more or less perfectly, to its fulfill- 

 ment. According to one distinction made by Professor Walker, 

 neither the bank bill nor the promissory note is money, as between 

 the bank or the individual maker and the holder of the bill or 

 note. But between other parties and according to the other dis- 

 tinction, which turns upon the degree of currency, he holds that 

 the bank bill is money, and the individual note not money. But 

 a man may be so widely known, his integrity be of so high a 

 character, and his means so ample, that his promise may be just 

 as good and just as current as an ordinary bank note. The one 

 may be called money and the other not. The law may determine 

 that an acceptance of the one shall be a bar to any further re- 

 course upon the party from whom it is received, and that an ac- 

 ceptance of the other shall not be such a bar. All this lies close 

 to the surface. It does not reach to the root of the matter. The 

 question, money or not money, can never turn solely upon the 

 "degree of currency "of the thing in use. This depends upon 

 time and place and other circumstances, and attaches even to gold 

 and silver as well as to the different substitutes. The distinction 

 lies deeper. Money pays, but every paper substitute bears upon 

 its face the evidence that it does not pay in the full and complete 

 sense of the term. 



But, says Professor Walker, "to say that a bank note is a 

 promise to pay money is to beg the question. A bank note is a 

 promise to pay gold or silver, and therefore, if you please, is 

 neither gold nor silver; but wherefore not money? Money is 

 that money does; and the bank note performs the money func- 

 tion in every particular." In this last sentence he himself begs 

 the question, and, although unintentionally, gives aid and com- 

 fort to the advocates of " fiat " money. The bank note promises 

 to pay francs or pounds or dollars, and these have a definite and 

 well understood meaning. They are a " material recompense or 

 equivalent" — are wealth and really pay for wealth. Money 



