 The social ontology of money: But exactly how does the “social construction” of money work? This question invokes the more general philosophical issue of social ontology, with regard to which money is often used as a prime example. An influential account of social ontology holds that money is the sort of social institution whose existence depends on “collective intentionality”: beliefs and attitudes that are shared in a community (see, e.g., Searle 1995, 2010; Smit, Buekens, &amp; du Plessis 2011). The process starts with someone’s simple and unilateral declaration that something is money, which is a performative speech act (see Austin 1962). When other people recognize or accept the declaration it becomes a standing social rule. Thus, money is said to depend on our subjective attitudes but is not located (solely) in our minds (for a discussion see also the entries on  social ontology  and  social institutions).  In an early philosophical-sociological account, Georg Simmel (1900) had described money as an institution that is a crucial precondition for modernity because it allows putting a value on things and simplifies transactions; he also criticizes the way in which money thereby replaces other forms of valuation (see also section 4.1).