"Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.

The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible."

http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspa...


"For as Bills issued upon Money Security are Money, so Bills issued upon Land, are in Effect Coined Land."


"Money as Bullion, or as Land, is valuable by so much Labour as it costs to procure that Bullion or Land.

Money, as a Currency, has an Additional Value by so much Time and Labour as it saves in the Exchange of Commodities.

If, as a Currency, it saves one Fourth Part of the Time and Labour of a Country; it has, on that Account, one Fourth added to its original Value."


http://www.phil.frb.org/publications/eco...