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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