ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that monetary plurality can exist without exchange institutions that bridge currency circuits as long as a stable division of labour between currencies emerges. It seeks to understand in what ways agents combine currencies to use them for accountancy, exchange, payments and savings. The concept of monetary plurality addresses the existence of more than one kind of money – defined in the widest sense as a unit of account – in a territory, which implies that there are separate monetary spheres. For simplicity, monetary uses are grouped into the four main functions that money performs: definition of value for accountancy purposes, intermediation of exchanges, payments for debts and credits, and storage of wealth. In contrast to most countries, in Argentina the concept of money is seen as a social construction that governments mould to their policy objectives. The Convertibility Plan formalised a monetary system composed of currency circuits with significant overlap, which was termed bimonetarism.
