I study the institution of money. I provide a history of the real bills doctrine in its various

forms through debates with the quantity theory of money. I provide a brief history of

financial regulation in the USA. I use a monetary history of the USA to motivate a search

and matching model of transition from commodity money to fiat. I provide a theoretical

underpinning to the fact that monetary history is a history of commodity money. I extend

my model to consider convertible money, oligarchy, two currencies, money and credit, and

Aztec money.