ABSTRACT
Money is the mirror image of a modern economy and many people instinctively point to financiers as the source of society's problems. Yet one has to research deeply to get beneath the Social Control belief systems which protect the subtle monopolization of money and finance capital. Before the widespread use of money, trading involved the simplest form of commercial transaction, barter. Barter is the exchange of two or more products of roughly equal value. Only highly desirable, useful items could become money. No one would accept a piece of paper, brass, or copper in trade for what he or she had worked so hard to produce. Such a trade would effectively rob one of hard-earned wealth. The use of gold as money was handicapped by its weight, bulk, and the need for protection against debasement. Paper money and checks are familiar to everybody. Even a child learns quickly what they are and how to use them.
