The literature on the subject of money is abundant.
According to an estimate of C. Menger (in his article " Geld "
in Conrad's Handworterbnch) an approximately complete
bibliography would fill an octavo volume of over 300 pages.
Yet its importance is not proportionate to its scope ; of course,
the innumerable special treatises on the money of different
countries and different ages have their value, but the standard
works which have advanced our knowledge of the nature and
laws of money are comparatively few. As regards the general
theory of money, the views of the classical school are represented
by the works of Adam Smith, and especially of Ricardo and
J. S. Mill (Principles, book iii, ch. vii-xiii and xix-xxiv). Mill's
presentation is, however, marred by his attempt to combine
two fundamentally opposite outlooks.