[p. 240]
§ 15
An alienation to another requires my consent to surrender the thing to him, and his consent to accept it. This double consent, insofar as it is declared reciprocally and pronounced as valid, is called contract (pactum).
Explanation. Contract is a particular way of becoming the owner of a thing which already belongs to another. The way of becoming owner set out earlier was the immediate taking possession of a thing that was res nullius. 1. As the simplest kind of contract the contract of gift can be assumed, in which only one surrenders a thing to another without receiving compensation for its value. A valid gift is a contract, because the will of both must be present, of the one, to surrender the thing to the other without taking anything back for it, of the other, to accept the thing. – 2. The contract of exchange consists in this, that I surrender to another something of my property on the condition that he gives me a thing of equal value for it. This requires the double consent of each, to give something away and in return to accept what is offered by the other. – 3. Buying and selling is a particular kind of exchange, of commodities against money. Money is the universal commodity, which therefore, as abstract value, cannot itself be used to satisfy any particular need. It is only the universal means for obtaining the particular needs. The use of money is only a mediate one. A material is not money in and for itself, as having these qualities, but one merely lets it count as such by convention. – 4. Hire consists in this, that I surrender to someone my possession or the use of my property, but reserve the property itself for myself. It can here be the case that he to whom I have lent something must return to me exactly the same thing, or that I have reserved my property
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