Money: Difference between revisions
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[[Cash]] requires your total commitment, or nothing: you can’t futz around with it, you can’t declare a [[trust]] over it<ref>You can declare a [[trust]] over an account that ''holds'' cash, of course: a subtly, but significantly, different thing.</ref>, [[pledge]] it, or hold it for anyone other than yourself. If you could, this would undermine the practical value of money ''as'' money: a £5 note, to be meaningful, must be a token worth exactly £5. A [[bank note]] has no intrinsic value — it’s a scruffy bit of paper. If its notional value is £5 but you fear that the person giving it to you may not own it — there is a risk that some random may snatch it from your hands after you have given up your goods in exchange for it, alleging some prior ownership right — ''then it does not have a value of £5 any more''. | [[Cash]] requires your total commitment, or nothing: you can’t futz around with it, you can’t declare a [[trust]] over it<ref>You can declare a [[trust]] over an account that ''holds'' cash, of course: a subtly, but significantly, different thing.</ref>, [[pledge]] it, or hold it for anyone other than yourself. If you could, this would undermine the practical value of money ''as'' money: a £5 note, to be meaningful, must be a token worth exactly £5. A [[bank note]] has no intrinsic value — it’s a scruffy bit of paper. If its notional value is £5 but you fear that the person giving it to you may not own it — there is a risk that some random may snatch it from your hands after you have given up your goods in exchange for it, alleging some prior ownership right — ''then it does not have a value of £5 any more''. | ||
===''Holding'' cash is different from putting it in a [[bank account]]=== | |||
It follows from the above that if you put ''your'' [[money]] in ''your'' [[bank account]], it isn’t ''your'' [[money]] any more. It is the [[bank]]’s. | |||
''Wait, wha — ?'' | |||
Stop. Go see the [[Bank account|article]]. | |||
===Whoever holds it holds it outright. No exceptions.=== | ===Whoever holds it holds it outright. No exceptions.=== | ||
Transfer of [[cash]] to another person<ref>This is called “[[payment]]”, not “[[delivery]]”, as those who have had to dally with [[Physical settlement|physical]] and [[cash settlement]] wording will, to their chagrin, know.</ref> with the expectation of its return fundamentally, ''necessarily'', creates '''[[indebtedness]]'''. By transferring cash to someone else in expectation of its return, you convert your own ''holding of that abstract token'' into ''a claim on the estate of the person to whom you transferred it for [[repayment]] of that [[debt]]''. [[Indebtedness]] is not in any sense a [[proprietary]] claim over some [[money]]. It is a simple contractual obligation, owed by the [[debtor]], to pay the [[creditor]] an [[equivalent]] amount of [[money]]. But it confers no rights over ''that'' money. There can be no kind of [[bailment]] or [[custody]] arrangement over [[money]]. | Transfer of [[cash]] to another person<ref>This is called “[[payment]]”, not “[[delivery]]”, as those who have had to dally with [[Physical settlement|physical]] and [[cash settlement]] wording will, to their chagrin, know.</ref> with the expectation of its return fundamentally, ''necessarily'', creates '''[[indebtedness]]'''. By transferring cash to someone else in expectation of its return, you convert your own ''holding of that abstract token'' into ''a claim on the estate of the person to whom you transferred it for [[repayment]] of that [[debt]]''. [[Indebtedness]] is not in any sense a [[proprietary]] claim over some [[money]]. It is a simple contractual obligation, owed by the [[debtor]], to pay the [[creditor]] an [[equivalent]] amount of [[money]]. But it confers no rights over ''that'' money. There can be no kind of [[bailment]] or [[custody]] arrangement over [[money]]. | ||