modities is hoarded as exchange-value and in that case hoarding appears as a commercial or a specific economic operation. The one who carries on such operations becomes a dealer in corn, in cattle, etc. Gold and silver are money not through some activity of the individual who accumulates it, but as crystals of the process of circulation which goes on without any aid on his part. He has nothing to do but to put them aside, adding new weights of metal to his hoard, a perfectly senseless operation which, if applied to all other commodities, would deprive them of all value.[1]
Our hoarder appears as a martyr of exchange value, a holy ascetic crowning the metal pillar. He cares for wealth only in its social form and therefore he buries
- ↑ Horace thus understands nothing of the philosophy of hoarding when he says (Satir. l. II., Satir. III): "Siquis emat citharas, emptas comportat in unum, Nec studio citharae nec musae deditus ulli; Si scalpra et formas non sutor; nautica vela Aversus mercaturis; delirus et amens, Undique dicatur merito. Qui discrepat istis, Qui nummos aurunque recondit nescius uti Compositis metuensque velut contingere sacrum?"
"If one buys fiddles, hoards them up when bought,
Though music's study ne'er engaged his thought,
One lasts and awls, unversed in cobbler's craft.
One sails for ships, not knowing fore from aft.
You'd call them mad: but tell me, if you please.
How that man's case is different from these.
Who as he gets it, stows away his gain,
And thinks to touch a farthing were profane?"
(Transl. by John Covington, London, 1874, p. 60.)
Mr. Senior understands the question much better: "L'argent paraît etre la seule chose dont le désir est universel, et il en
