The matter of payment

Abstract

This chapter sheds light on the materiality of payment devices. It makes a simple proposition: that the matter of money-the tangible qualities of sets of transactional objects and how they are handled and move around-matters. This is illustrated by examining two forces to which money is connected. The first is adaptation, and concerns changes over time in the stuff of money itself, the transformations payment devices have had to undergo to function successfully as money. The second is calculation, and relates to how exactly the material properties of money, once settled, might shape the financial decisions we make. With respect to the latter, the chapter shows that money may not be as transparent a medium as is so often thought.