It is obvious
even to the most ordinary intelligence, that a
commodity should be given up by its owner in
exchange for another more useful to him. But
that every economic unit in a nation should be
ready to exchange his goods for little metal disks
apparently useless as such, or for documents
representing the latter, is a procedure so opposed
to the ordinary course of things, that we cannot
well wonder if even a distinguished thinker like
Savigny finds it downright “mysterious.”
It must not be supposed that the form of coin,
or document, employed as current-money, constitutes
the enigma in this phenomenon.