The term imaginary was used by J.G. Schlosser (1739-99), a contemporary and brother-in-law of Goethe. The monetary philosophy of Schlosser in shown in greater detail in Binswanger (1991: 195). An even more appropriate term I should like to suggest is the word notional which denotes both the immaterial nature of the kinds of needs in question and articles like buttons, buckles, mirrors and ribbons - the 'instrument of vanity and waste' as David Landes called them - as offered by peddlers at the doorstep in pre- and early industrial times. By imaginary or notional I am referring to needs that go beyond subsistence. The are called imaginary or notional because they refer not to what human beings need for their survival but to what they would like beyond that, their wants. They are what humans desire, or require, to satisfy their feelings, their imagination, their social standing, their psychological or social deficits. One would call this a misfortune that was waiting to happen to humankind, with its ability to process symbols. This ability allows man to invest material objects like the cross, the car, palaces, clothes, golden cutlery or red roses with meanings like divine power, male potency, social standing, personal values, a secure living or love, representing an immaterial reality.