ABSTRACT
The idea that money is basically a form of trust – or, more precisely, abstract trust – has become common in economics and sociology. But, conceptually, it took a long time to bring trust and money together. This shift is retraced, from John Locke to Georg Simmel and beyond, while also taking account of an alternative Marxist opinion that money is inimical to trust. The example of money allows us to consider ‘trust in action,’ but also to observe how trust itself is transformed historically along with the development of complex socio-economic systems, including the digital-age phenomena of electronic payment systems and cryptocurrencies. The appeal to trust as an explanatory factor for money’s acceptability in an economic community is found to be conceptually weak, however. The logic of ‘forced choice’ helps us to comprehend money’s ‘grip’ on us, and this raises further questions about how trust overlaps with obedience.
