248 Mr. Faraday on 



to be sold against international legal tender money, or 

 effectively, gold, under conditions analogous to a contraction 

 of the currency as regards the prices realised. 



It will not be supposed that, in pointing out these differ- 

 ences between credit-money and a permanently monetised 

 commodity like gold, with the attribute of international legal 

 tender, I am condemning credit money. Circulating credit 

 fulfils a very important function in the movement of com- 

 modities, and its growth and use are not merely a demon- 

 stration of a true economic origin, but also, incidentally, imply 

 the recognition by mankind of the necessity for an extension 

 of monetisation beyond one rare commodity, such as gold. 



When, however, credit-money is put forward as being 

 practically efficient in remedying the defects of an in-elastic 

 supply of real money, which is at once a standard of value 

 and currency, it becomes important to define the differences,. 

 in order that we may arrived at a truly scientific remedy. 

 Now, in pursuing the comparison between credit-money 

 and real money, and more especially with reference 

 to the influence of monetary law on the distribution of 

 wealth, I have found it more and more necessary to define 

 some ideal form of money, or at least to adopt some 

 abstract term which shall be held to be representative of 

 those powers which a perfect money, or, if I may so 

 express it, distributor of wealth, should possess. In 

 connection with the currency controversy, and particularly 

 in pursuing the present series of thoughts, I have felt a diffi- 

 culty similar to that which Professor Faraday experienced 

 in constructing his theory of electro-chemical decomposition, 

 that of using terms which were already current with a 

 certain accepted meaning. In order to avoid "confusion 

 and circumlocution," and " for the sake of greater precision 

 of expression," the great physicist invented a new termi- 

 nology. Some of the terms of electrical science previously 

 employed were, he said, " much too significant " for the use 



