In 1892, Carl Menger wrote On the Origins of Money—the original basis of Austrian monetary theory. This essential work lays out a theory as to how monies emerged through voluntary human action and exchanges on a free market. Menger also critiqued other monetary theories—money from social compact or civil edict—as unhistorical. He wrote, Nevertheless it is clear that the choice of the precious metals by law and convention, even if made in consequence of their peculiar adaptability for monetary purposes, presupposes the pragmatic origin of money, and selection of those metals, and that