Once upon a time there was a frontier. Small towns were established. They needed a bank. So the general store owner decided he could be the bank. He issued notes good for merchandise good at his store. He keeps the cost of iron constant and all other prices float relative to that.
Then the years pass and some of the townsfolk think the banker is getting rich off of us; let’s Nationalize the bank!
Off they go to the banker and tell him the sad, sad news.
"Okay", he says, lighting his pipe with a burning bill.
"Hey, you’re burning money."
"No I’m not, I am burning an IOU on me."
"But what about the money I gave you yesterday as a deposit in the bank?"
"I burned it. It is still an IOU I owe to you. Goods from my store, the amount currently a number in the bank’s books.
The only way you can Nationalize my bank is to confiscate my store."
And so they did.