Money as a Medium Exchange Barter Trading is too Clumsy Large-Scale Production requires a Medium of Exchange Recognition and measurement of changes in the value of money. Classification of Money Stabilization of the Price Level The Value of Money or General Level of Prices Where The Unit of Account is a Fixed Quantity of Bullion, Uncoined or Coined. The value of money or general level of prices where the unit of account is a coin of which the issue is limited. The value of money or general level of prices where the unit of account is a bank-note or currency note. Causes of Change in the General Price Level Possible Occasions of Inflation Ways of Dealing with Risk: Transfer To Specialists Choice Criteria Under Risk Hedging The origin and the functions of money Money, when its use has grown habitual The early history of money Currency in the hunting state Currency in the pastoral state Articles of ornament as currency Currency in the agriculture state Manufactured and miscellaneous articles as currency The invention of coining Qualities of the material of money Utility and value Protability Indestructibility Homogeneity Divisibility Stability of value Cognisability Legal Tender The Greenbacks - The Fluctuating Premium on Gold The Greenbacks - The Effects of Greenbacks Upon Wages Rent - Urban Rents Rent - Farm Rents Interest and Loan Capital Purchasing Power of the Principal of Loans The Rate of Interest Profits Profits in Agriculture Statistical Evidence Regarding Profits The Production and Consumption of Wealth Production Consumption Cost of the Civil War Greenbacks and Expenditures The Greenbacks and Receipts Contraction and Inflation of the Legal Tenders Passage of the Resumption Act The Struggle for Resumption The Purchasing Power of the Dollar Measurement of Changes in the Purchasing Power of Dollar Results of Changes in the General Price Level Buying Problems of the Consumer What is Good Buying? The Principles of Foreign Exchange The General Price Level Price Policies Price Flexibility Price Leadership Price Discrimination Special Pricing Practices Postage Stamp System Policy Implications

The money income of the family have been considered--its source, its control, its adequacy, its security. The welfare of the family is conditioned by all these factors, but there remains to be considered another set of forces equally important. The money income of the family is but a means to an end. It must be turned into real income by expenditure before the family has the satisfactions that are the end of its economic endeavors. It is to this complementary process of spending as opposed to earning to which we must now turn our attention. The conditions which determine the expenditure of money incomes and the satisfactions derived therefrom constitute the third major group of economic problems of the family, the first of which centered around the utilization of the time, energy and abilities of its members in direct production, and the second around the acquisition of a money income. The first hard fact to be taken into account after the money income is earned and is ready to be converted into desired goods and services is that each good and service has its price. The possession of each will necessitate giving up a certain proportion of the purchasing power available and thereby make impossible the possession of some other good. Some goods can only be had at a high price; others at a relatively low one. But all have their price tags or quotations which indicate to the buyer the terms upon which they can be acquired. The purchasing power of his dollar as measured by the market prices of the goods he desires is therefore of great significance to the buyer. He is better off both when his income in dollars goes up and when prices go down, that is to say, when he can get more of a given article for each dollar. It is obvious then that the family's real income is dependent not only upon the efficiency of its members in direct production and upon the amount of its money income but upon the purchasing power of the pecuniary unit, upon the level of prices at the time and in the place where it lives. In the analysis of the factors affecting the purchasing power of the "dollar of the home" it is highly important to differentiate between "general" and "specific" purchasing power. They present altogether different economic problems. By the "general purchasing power" of the dollar is meant its command over consumers' goods and services in general as compared with an earlier time or another place. The family may find its command over goods of practically every kind shrinking. The general price level in other words may be rising. Food, clothing, shelter, incidentals--all may cost more. By "specific purchasing power" of the dollar is meant its command over particular goods, over oranges, milk, infants' shoes, men's hats, services of a laundress, books, or trolley rides. Prices of particular goods change, giving the consumer more or less for a dollar. Here is a problem entirely different from that of shifts in the prices of goods in general.