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What Is Money? by Frédéric Bastiat

What Is Money?

Frédéric Bastiat

Economics

The Thesis

“I cry out against it because its function in society is not understood, and very difficult to explain. I cry out against it, because it jumbles all ideas, causes the means to be taken for the end, the obstacle for the cause, the alpha for the omega; because its presence in the world, though in itself beneficial, has, nevertheless, introduced a fatal notion, a perversion of principles, a contradictory theory, which, in a multitude of forms, has impoverished mankind and deluged the earth with blood.”

— Frédéric Bastiat

Why no Essential Cut?

We don't abridge this one — it's already essential. Some books can't be honestly shortened without losing what makes them worth reading, so we leave them whole.

Contents

  1. 1What Is Money?9,401 w

What Is Money? — Frédéric Bastiat

Translated by Patrick James Stirling

Source edition: G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1874 [Third (People's) Edition]

Public-domain text · ref #15962-money