The many recent writers who claim for paper money the marks of irredeemableness and forced circulation, confound the unfortunately too frequent degeneration of an institution with its real nature. They contradict, too, usage of speech, which, in countries where silver is the standard, unhesitatingly calls gold coins money, although they cannot be forced on any one.(904) The paper money issued by the state deserves, indeed, the appellation in the fullest measure; but starting from this point we find a number of grades in a downward direction, which may still be called money;(905) and we shall see especially that the differences between state paper money and bank notes so widely asserted are, in great measure, differences not of kind but of degree. The idea of replacing the precious metals as a medium of circulation by a less costly material, even the ancients were acquainted with; but with the exception of the Carthaginians, they scarcely ever made any use of it except in cases of need and transitorily.(906) Similarly, the middle ages in Europe; as in general all greater development of the credit-system—and all paper money is credit-money—has a natural growth only in the higher stages of civilization.(907)(908) Section II. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Paper Money. Where it is at all possible to give paper money the same purchasing power as metallic money possesses, it is unquestionable that the former must have many advantages over the latter. True, paper money is very inconvenient for small amounts;(909) but all the more convenient for large amounts, as well for purposes of counting as for purposes of the storing up of values and for transmission from place to place; a matter of greater importance in proportion to the badness of a country’s means of transportation, and to the cheapness of the metal of its currency hitherto.(910) It seems a still more important matter to most people that paper money dispenses with the use of a great quantity of the precious metals for purposes of circulation, which can now either be turned into utensils, etc. in the country itself or used in foreign countries to make investments of capital there, or in the purchase of commodities.(911) In national economies whose commerce is a growing one, the same advantage finds a negative expression in this, that they are not compelled to satisfy the increasing demand for money by procuring costly metals.(912) Of the individual members of the nation, all these advantages of convenience will be experienced by those who employ the paper money. The economical or saving advantages of paper money are appropriated by the issuers to themselves, in the form of a non-interest bearing loan, which they make to those owners of money or to those who are entitled to a money-claim and to whom the paper money is acceptable instead of cash money.(913) A diminution for instance of the number of bank notes or of