Excerpt from Money: A Study of the Theory of the Medium of Exchange The present book is an attempt to present a systematic exposition of the theory, or scientific principles, of money. The historical and descriptive literature of the subject is already so voluminous and rich that I have not thought it best to enter that field, excepting where necessary for purposes of illustration, and in those cases I have made my references as brief as possible. I began the work at the time when Walker's "Money" and Jevons's "Money and the Mechanism of Exchange" were the only books we had in English which purported to do what I had in mind, and I expected to have my task completed long ago. Many things have postponed this completion until now. The field which I attempt to cover has recently been occupied by Professor Laughlin's "Principles of Money" and, in part, by Professor Scott's "Money and Banking." If my own book had not been practically all written at the time of the appearance...