Parallel money : appraisal and theoretical stakes of the phenomenon Parallel money consist of means of payment and units of account employed beside the national currencies in the internal relations of contemporary States. An inventory shows 465 cases of parallel money in 136 States on a recent period (1988-96). This gives evidences of their use even in financially stable economies and of their great variety. A short typology of the phenomenon shows the type of paramonies which consist of means of payment or units of account intended to be employed in a limited range of purposes and by a limited range of agents only. Hence the phenomenon of parallel money leads to a reappraisal of the very conceptual basis of the monetary theory. These evidences lead to question the way the economic theory considers such a phenomenon and especially the present analysis of parallel money. Some sorts of parallel money are the outcome of some attempts to put into practice theories tending to reform the monetary organization of the society. Moreover, the current analysis of the currency substitution develop portfolio approaches that make difficult to analyze the use of means of payment and units of account, and they only allow to analyze the use of foreign currencies as parallel money. The analysis of hyperinflation show some ways to think money differently but parallel money are still considered as fringing situations. The permanence and the variety of the phenomenon are still to take into account, so this text outlines the ways to a critical reappraisal of the money concept. Money appears to be both a wide range of instruments not confined to the instruments of the national currency, and a system of payment including the monetary instruments. Money appears finally to be a principle of debts solution. Then this text outlines the ways to a general schema of monetary uses of which parallel money would be an integrant part. The analysis of the social structure, centred round the concept of pay community and monetary groups, allows to think parallel money as normal, permanent and various instruments used by the agents.
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