Even in recent times, the dramatic arrival of paper 
currency, or “representative money,” as a substitute for 
commodity money caused confusions. Much in the same way, 
the Gutenberg technology created a vast new republic of 
letters, and stirred great confusion about the boundaries 
between the realms of literature and life. Representative money, 
based on print technology, created new speedy dimensions of 
credit that were quite inconsistent with the inert mass of 
bullion and of commodity money. Yet all efforts were bent to 
make the speedy new money behave like the slow bullion coach. 
J. M. Keynes stated this policy in A Treatise on Money :

          Thus the long age of Commodity Money has at last 
     passed finally away before the age of Representative 
     Money. Gold has ceased to be a coin, a hoard, a tangible 
     claim to wealth, of which the value cannot slip away so