22.1. 1. The Reason of the Use of Money.
People who have little merchandise, as savages, and among civilised nations those who have only
two or three species, trade by exchange. Thus the caravans of Moors that
go to Timbuctoo, in the heart of Africa, have no need of money, for they
exchange their salt for gold. The Moor puts his salt in a heap, and the
Negro his dust in another; if there is not gold enough, the Moor takes
away some of his salt, or the Negro adds more gold, till both parties
are agreed.
But when a nation traffics with a great variety of merchandise,
money becomes necessary; because a metal easily carried from place to
place saves the great expenses which people would be obliged to be at if
they always proceeded by exchange.
As all nations have reciprocal wants, it frequently happens that one
is desirous of a large quantity of the other's merchandise, when the
latter will have very little of theirs, though with respect to another
nation the case is directly opposite. But when nations have money, and
proceed by buying and selling, those who take most merchandise pay the
balance in specie. And there is this difference, that, in the case of
buying, the trade carried on is in proportion to the wants of the nation
that has the greatest demands; while in bartering, the trade is only
according to the wants of the nation whose demands are the fewest;
without which the latter would be under an impossibility of balancing
its accounts.
