4
A TREATISE ON MONEY
BE. 1
of-account is the description or title and the money isthe thing which answers to the description. Now ifthe same thing always answered to the same descrip-tion, the distinction would have no practical interest.But if the thing can change, whilst the descriptionremains the same, then the distinction can be highlysignificant. The difference is like that between theICing of England (whoever he may be) and KingGeorge. A contract to pay ten years hence a weightof gold equal to the weight of the King of Englandis not the same thing as a contract to pay a weightof gold equal to the weight of the individual who isnow King George . It is for the State to declare,when the time comes, who the King of England is.
Now by the mention of contracts and offers, wehave introduced Law or Custom, by which they areenforceable; that is to say, we have introduced theState or the Community. Furthermore it is a peculiarcharacteristic of money contracts that it is the Stateor Community not only which enforces delivery, butalso which decides what it is that must be deliveredas a lawful or customary discharge of a contractwhich has been concluded in terms of the money-of-account. The State, therefore, comes in first of allas the authority of law which enforces the paymentof the thing which corresponds to the name or de-scription in the contract. But it comes in doublywhen, in addition, it claims the right to determine anddeclare what thing corresponds to the name, and tovary its declaration from time to time—when, thatis to say, it claims the right to re-edit the dictionary.This right is claimed by all modern States and hasbeen so claimed for some four thousand years at least.It is when this stage in the evolution of Money hasbeen reached that Knapp’s Chartalism—the doctrinethat money is peculiarly a creation of the State—isfully realised.