"wa" declares the topic of the sentence and "ga" declares the subject.
In the sentence お金がなかった the topic is left out. The full and more easily understandable version would be 私は、お金がなかった, which roughly means that "As for me, (the) money did not exist." or "I did not have money."
Translation of お金はなかった being "As for money, did not exist." is not good, because there is no declared subject and it can be anything, depending on the context.
Example of a A asking if B bought some honey:
A:はちみつを買った？
B:お金はなかった。
A:Did you buy honey? (Bought honey?)
B:Money didn't have it. (As for money, it did not exist.)
In situations like this, describing the subject is very important.
"wa" is the topic marker
"wa" declares the topic of the sentence and "ga" declares the subject.
In the sentence お金がなかった the topic is left out. The full and more easily understandable version would be 私は、お金がなかった, which roughly means that "As for me, (the) money did not exist." or "I did not have money."
Translation of お金はなかった being "As for money, did not exist." is not good, because there is no declared subject and it can be anything, depending on the context.
Example of a A asking if B bought some honey:
A:はちみつを買った？
B:お金はなかった。
A:Did you buy honey? (Bought honey?)
B:Money didn't have it. (As for money, it did not exist.)
In situations like this, describing the subject is very important.
asdfag