Jacques Le Goff explains the role of currency, or rather currencies, in the life, mentality, and economy of the Middle Ages, and in this society dominated by religion, how the church viewed it and taught what attitudes Christians ought to adopt toward money, as well as what uses they could make of it. He also demonstrates that while money played a major role in the rise of cities, commerce, and the development of the State, the Middle Ages, for lack of a truly global market, did not really have more than a kind of pre-capitalism, even by their end. In medieval times, giving money was as important as earning it. True wealth was not yet of this world, though money only grew to occupy an ever larger place in people's minds and deeds.