ABSTRACT
The nature and role of money and credit never cease to fascinate economists. In fact, a number of other scientists have also been attracted by the study of money, and of its essence in particular, as Ingham (2004) shows in painstaking detail with respect to sociology. Indeed, since the writings of Plato and Aristotle, money has been at centre stage of economic debate, and several controversies on its origins and functions have been animating the history of monetary thought (see e.g. Realfonzo 1998; also Smithin 2003). The principal questions that are still debated today go to the roots of money’s nature in modern economic systems (see Smithin (2000) for a survey). They ask notably: What is money? How is money created? Where does the value of money come from? The list of questions seems to be endless in this domain, if one merely browses the enormous monetary economics literature, just to remain within our profession.
