"Barbara" wrote
the prostitute has paid off her E100 debt to the hotel owner.

Part of why Fred's story is interesting is that the banknote is not a real
thing in the way the the things it is being used to pay for are real. So in
its journey, the banknote represents pigs, time in a room, and whatever else
people owed money for. The prostitute gave the hotel owner a piece of paper
that by agreement is accepted as being equivalent to the value of however
many hours she used the room for. So she is out of debt. So is the hotel
owner, because he paid his meat supplier. The hotel owner has to give the
money back to the tourist, because he has provided no services to the
tourist. So he ends up with nothing in that transaction, but gave nothing
to the tourist either. Everything is dependent on a convention that accepts
currency as having an equivalance to real goods and services.

Dawne