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

In general it may be said that good buying is the selection of the best article available for the purpose with a minimum expenditure of time, energy and money. Good buying so defined is the resultant of two factors, one, the methods and information of the buyer, the other, the devices and arrangements of the market. Frequently it is assumed that the buyer alone is responsible for mistakes in selection, or again, sole responsibility is placed upon market agencies. In this discussion both buying methods and market arrangements will be appraised from the standpoint of their efficacy in reducing mistakes and expenditures of time and money. Early in any discussion of buying methods or market arrangements the actual situation of the consumer-buyer should be noted. There is no reality in discussions of deficiencies or remedies that fail to take into account that buying for individual or family use is different in fundamental respects from commercial buying for manufacture or re-sale. The consumer-buyer can not be expected to act like the commercial buyer, to use the methods of the commercial buyer, or to have the skills and information of the commercial buyer. Yet these facts have been commonly ignored in law, in appraisal of market arrangements, and in plans for improvement of buying technique. Even when the buyer for individual or family consumption is the non-gainfully employed home-maker, buying is but one of several tasks. Furthermore the goods purchased are of a wide variety and of highly diversified character. Some, as certain food-stuffs, are bought frequently; others are bought only once in a life-time. Compared with the specialized buyer for a commercial concern the experience, information and judgment of the consumer-buyer must be limited and imperfect. Not only does the consumer-buyer purchase a wide variety of goods but her purchases are necessarily small-scale. She buys small amounts at each purchase and the total quantity purchased during the year is relatively small. These characteristics of household buying are well-known; they were set forth by W. C. Mitchell as an explanation of the "backward art of spending money" in an article in the American Economic Review in 1912. They are emphasized in every discussion of the economic character of household production. Yet when projects for the education of the household buyer are on foot, or when discussions of needed changes in market arrangements are under way, they seem to be largely ignored.