The whole body of Keynes’s economics arose from recognition that classical theory did not provide an adequate representation of economic activity because it neutralised the role of money in the economic system. Economies were not based on the commodity money assumed by classical economics, but on bank money. Keynes saw that the evolution from commodity money to bank money had profound implications for economic theory, economic activity and economic policy. All his theories and practical measures were underpinned by a progressively more sophisticated analysis and treatment of this changed nature of money. The General Theory was, and remains, the culmination of this process and the pinnacle of monetary analysis.