[The bourgeousie] has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors,” and has left remaining remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment.”…It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Free Trade.

—Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto…”All that is solid melts into air.” Also of interest, The Cash Nexus, Nial Ferguson (2001)