Just as the old circular configuration of similitudes and marks had unravelled itself so that it could be redeployed to form the two correlative fabrics of representation and signs, so the circle of 'preciousness' is broken with the coming of mercantilism, and wealth becomes whatever is the object of needs and desires; it is split into elements that can be substituted for one another by the interplay of the coinage that signifies them; and the reciprocal relations of money and wealth are established in the form of circulation and exchange.