NOTSS    TO    CHAPTBB    II.  98

"It  wonld  be  endless  to  bring  illustrations  of  our  meaning  from  the
moneys  of  account  of  Europe  and  Asia,  as  everj  country  where  industry
has  flourished,  or  commerce  been  active,  furnishes  proof  that  the  same
habit  of  converting  the  denominations  of  coins  into  a  mental  scale,  for  com-
paring and  expressing  yalues,  prevails  everywhere  —  in  China  and  Persia,
and  the  East  Indies  —  equally  as  in  the  more  civilized  nations  of  Europe.
China  has  no  coinage,  and  gold  and  silver  are  there  sold  constantly  at  theiT
market  value,  and  weighed  out  in  payments,  the  amounts  of  which  are
expressed  in  the  money  of  accoiint.
'*  But  we  need  not  continue  these  details  further,  at  this  stage  of  our  in-
quiry. It  is  proper  to  say  that  we  do  not  bring  forward  this  use  of  the
money  of  account  as  a  standard  of  value,  or  as  what  some  have  called  an
abstract  currency.  It  is  no  standard  of  value,  nor  is  it  a  standard  of  any
kind ;  nor  can  it,  without  an  abuse  of  terms,  be  called  a  currency.  Its  use
neither  dispenses  with  a  standard  of  coinage,  nor  with  devices  for  payment,
institutions  of  credit,  nor  a  paper  currency.  It  is  the  popular  expression
of  value.    Coinage  furnishes  the  legal  equivalent.
"  A  money  of  account,  well  established  in  the  habits  and  minds  of  the
people,  is  a  thing  of  slow  growth,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  created  by  law.
