This standard, or unit of value, is called in Great Britain a sovereign. It was decreed that this coin should consist of an arbitrary quantity of gold, mixed with alloy, and that it should be stamped with certain designs. These designs alone make it legal money, or legal tender. If I had a coin, containing exactly as much gold as a sovereign, and worth exactly as much, but plain, with no design, it would not be a legal coin. It would not be accepted in discharge of debt, in payment of taxes, in exchange for wealth. I could, perhaps, sell it to the jeweller for something below its real value, because he could make use of the metal to advantage; but it would be useless to buy meat and bread with. The law, therefore, has decreed that a coin composed of gold, of a certain weight, and with certain designs upon it shall be a legal unit of value, and that so much silver and so much bronze shall be equal in value to this unit. It has decreed that sovereigns shall be legal tender for liabilities to an illimitable amount, that silver shall be legal tender to the maximum equality of £2, and bronze to the maximum equality of one shilling. That is to say, a creditor, if he chooses, can demand gold in redemption of his debt beyond £2, but whether he will put the demand into execution or not depends upon his will or circumstances. It is necessary, therefore, to lay emphasis upon this distinction between money and legal tender currency. Money is relative wealth, because it represents relative, temporary claims; but legal tender currency is absolute wealth because it represents absolute, permanent claims. If Germany conquered this country and enacted that the sovereign should no longer be legal currency, and that the mark should be substituted for it, the sovereign would then become a commodity, worth only its value in gold. Sovereigns are commodities abroad, just as continental gold units are commodities here. Sovereigns have no legal value on the Continent. Francs, marks, and dollars have no legal value in this country. What, in each country, confers upon the commodity gold its legal function as money is legislative enactment. Legislative enactment can also make a comparatively worthless product like paper of much greater value than gold. The paper value of a note for £100 is trifling. But because the Government has decreed it shall be worth one hundred sovereigns, then the individual members of the community take it at its face value. What is its value in Germany, especially when we are at war with Germany? This shows the great and arbitrary power the Government of a nation possesses. It can make stones legal tender if it chooses. Or it can make diamonds legal tender. Many nations have made silver and not gold legal tender.