ABSTRACT
This chapter explores each of the recognised functions of money in turn and posit that their universality and persistence in the external economy can be understood in terms of the corresponding internal economy on which the external functions map and in which they are anchored. Money's ability to represent and measure value makes it a suitable device for separating the constraints of barter, where both parties must want the goods of the other and be prepared to exchange theirs for it. Before moving deeper into the internal economy, a quick return to money in its old-fashioned, material manifestations. The right to issue money is a highly privileged one, the entitlement of kings and, the state. The promise of money generates more money, and credit is entirely dependent on the strength of the shared belief and convention. As a standard of deferred payment, money is the accepted way of settling a debt and the unit in which this debt is denominated.
