Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/73

 SIMMEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY 59

draw a conclusion from the value of money to the value of the purchase. That a woman becomes valuable because a price has been paid for her is only a case of the psychologically general projection of value we have spoken of above. Examples of this from ethnology are easily to be found; a good analogy from daily life is the fact that children who have given most trouble to their parents are generally most loved. The changes in the organization of economics, the formation of the family, alters the position of women ; the economic value of women loses its origi- nal character ; in the eyes of superficial observers she becomes a burden, as she does not earn anything. This is the motive for the dowry, the spreading of which is possible only in a time which considers money to be the natural means of exchange, as only money can give woman the desired economic security. The price which was formerly paid for the productive power of woman is now replaced by the dowry in money given as a compensation for the non-working woman and at the same time as a security for herself.

A most delicate and subtle treatment has been devoted to the part that money plays in prostitution. Money alone which in itself is akin to prostitution can enter into the only momen- tary relation of two people which leaves no trace behind. " By giving money we have withdrawn ourselves more completely from the relation, have done with it more radically than by giving any other object to which, by its quality, its choice, or its use, can easily cling a greater part of the giving personality." "For a relation between men which is based on permanency and inner truth as the real alliance of love, however short a time it may eventually last money can never be an adequate medium, whereas money is objectively as well as symbolically the most perfect equivalent to any purchasable enjoyment." Prostitution as the typical case in which men consider each other merely as a means must have some relation to money, as the absolute means. " Prostitution becomes dishonoring because the gift of a woman's whole being, which ought only to be paid by the absolute devotion of a man, is felt to be sufficiently rewarded by money, this most neutral and impersonal of objects." Again