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06731_Field_TCUM T296.txt
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1996-04-10
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community character. In the beginning, its function of
extending the grasp of men from their nearest staples and
commodities to more distant ones is very slight. Increased
mobility of grasp and trading is small at first. So it is with the
emergence of language in the child. In the first months
grasping is reflexive, and the power to make voluntary release
comes only toward the end of the first year. Speech comes with
the development of the power to let go of objects. It gives the
power of detachment from the environment that is also the
power of great mobility in knowledge of the environment. So it
is with the growth of the idea of money as currency rather than
commodity. Currency is a way of letting go of the immediate
staples and commodities that at first serve as money, in order
to extend trading to the whole social complex. Trading by
currency is based on the principle of grasping and letting go in
an oscillating cycle. The one hand retains the article with which