"...the substantive properties of money and monetary networks are specific to the sociological conditions in which particular monetary forms are transacted, not despite but
because of the essential features of money itself, because of its transparency as an economic instrument. Realization of this is vital if theoretical rigidity in monetary analysis is to be avoided; or more specifically, if substantive features of money are not to be confused with its essential properties, if contingency is not to be confused with necessity. Precisely this has been at the root of the inability of scholars to formulate monetary theories which are lastingly convincing, and the related incapacity of governments to act meaningfully and consequentially towards their citizens through monetary policy."
Nigel Dodd The Sociology of Money (1994) p.146
