Three hundred and fifty years B.C., one of the greatest philosophers, and one of the wisest men that ever lived, described the development and evolution of money, and defined what money was better than any man ever has since, I think. That man was Aristotle. Aristotle's account of the origin and definition of money was as follows: "It is plain that in the first Society (that is in the household) there was no such thing as barter, but that it took place when the community became enlarged: for the former had all things in common, while the latter, being separated, must exchange with each other according to their needs, just as many barbarous tribes now subsist by barter; for these merely exchange one useful thing for another, as, for example, giving and receiving wine for grain and other things in like manner. This kind of trading is not contrary to nature, nor does it resemble a gainful occupation, being merely the complement of one's natural independence. From this, nevertheless, it came about logically that as the machinery for bringing in what was wanted, and of sending out a surplus was inconvenient, the use of money was devised as a matter of necessity. For not all the necessaries of life are easy of carriage; wherefore, to effect their exchanges, men contrived something to give and take among themselves, which being valuable in itself, had the advantage of being easily passed from hand to hand for the needs of life--such as iron, or silver, or something else of that kind, of which they first determined merely the size and weight, but eventually put a stamp on it in order to save the trouble of weighing, for the stamp was placed there as _the sign of its value_." Wilbur Aldrich says: "Gold, and no other thing, sustains all the functions of money. Gold is money as soon as it is taken from the earth, without smelting, without refining, without minting and without limitation." Horace White says: "Nobody would give that which has cost him labor in exchange for something which he could obtain without labor." MR. MERCHANT: Mr. Banker, you quoted a man there, Mr. Aldrich, I think it was, who said that gold alone possessed all the functions of money. Just what do you mean by the "functions of money"? MR. BANKER: I am glad that you asked that very question, because those functions have determined the place of gold in the world's business, and made it the standard of value of the world, and consequently the money of the world. Those functions are these: _First_: Gold is a measure of value; that is, all other things are measured in gold. _Second_: Gold is divided into units, such as our dollar, the English sovereign, the French franc, the German mark, and so determines prices. _Third_: Gold is a medium of exchange. _Fourth_: Gold is a storehouse of value; that is, the people of the world hold it as an absolutely safe form of property, varying less in value than anything else they can possess.