Théories françaises de la monnaie

Abstract

Based on an interdisciplinary approach, this article aims at elucidating what can be called the nature of money. To define it, we first distinguish between the generic properties of every money and its different and non specifically monetary uses. Then currency is grasped through its three functional forms– account, “monnayage”, and payment - which are reproduced by their dynamic looping. Further we examine the three states in which a currency can be observed - embodied, objectivized, institutionalized -, and the way each of these states is generating a particular form of monetary faith – ethical (trust), methodic (confidence), and hierarchical (credibility). Finally, correlating the two preceeding points of view, we draw two of its features which most of the time are discarded: value is granted to a money only in the societal environment where it functions as a cultural capital; as an operator of societal totalization, money, save in periods of crisis, allows the distributive -social and territorial- dimensions of every monetary regime to be concealed.