English Literature and a Single European Currency

Abstract

Sovereignty has much to do with sovereigns, with transcendental centres of authority, whose representation on the coinage gives a mystique, an aura, to our daily dealings; sovereignty guarantees, validates, underwrites the rituals of value and exchange. It thereby affirms and stabilizes value; all values in society are referred to that which is sovereign in it, that which is transcendent to the domain of exchange. That which subordinates and orders individuals, and shapes them into a society, is, we suppose, sovereign, and there is nothing that orders us more thoroughly than money. It has not been a choice presented even to the most individualistic, what sort of currency he or she may use.