Commodity Money System
A commodity money system is a monetary system such as the gold standard in which a commodity such as gold is made the unit of value and physically used as money, any other money, such as paper notes, being theoretically convertible to it on demand. An historical alternative which was rejected in the Twentieth Century was bimetallism, also called the "double standard", under which both gold and silver were legal tender.
Read more about this topic: Monetary System
Famous quotes containing the words commodity, money and/or system:
“For things to have value in man’s world, they are given the role of commodities. Among man’s oldest and most constant commodity is woman.”
—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)
“... a family I know ... bought an acre in the country on which to build a house. For many years, while they lacked the money to build, they visited the site regularly and picnicked on a knoll, the site’s most attractive feature. They liked so much to visualize themselves as always there, that when they finally built they put the house on the knoll. But then the knoll was gone. Somehow they had not realized they would destroy it and lose it by supplanting it with themselves.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)