Money as 'Universal Equivalent' and Its Origin in Commodity Exchange (original) (raw)
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Credit and capital markets, 1977
Marx on Money I. Introduction Marx's performance in the field of money and credit has never attracted the same attention as, for instance, his labour theory of value or his 'law' of the falling rate of profit. Money and credit is perhaps a field of study in which non-specialists feel a bit insecure and on which they do not want to burn their fingers. The negative opinion of prominent academic economists of Marx's theory of money may also not have been much of an incentive to study that theory. Schumpeter called Marx's performance in the field of money "distinctly weak" and was of the opinion that it "did not succeed in coming up to the Ricardian standard" (Schumpeter, 1962 p. 22). Blaug remarks on Marx's theory of money, as found in "Capital", vol. I, chs. 2 and 3, that "There is nothing in these chapters not found in Ricardo or Mill" (Blaug, 1968 p. 276). Even the Marxist economist Oscar Lange had not much time for the contributions of Marx (and of his followers, for that matter) in the field of money and credit. He wrote that "There are some problems before which Marxian economics is quite powerless, while "bourgeois" economics solves them easily. (...) what has it [Marxian economics] to say on the fundamental problem of monetary and credit theory?" (Lange, 1934-'5 p. 191). These disparaging remarks arouse one's curiosity, for the chapters on money take quite a prominent place in a number of Marx's main writings. The "Grundrisse" starts, after a 31-page Introduction, with a chapter on money ("Das Kapital vom Geld", 141 pages), "Zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie" is (barring a first chapter on commodities) entirely about money, and volume I of "Das Kapital" starts with a part I, titled "Commodities and Money" (Ware und Geld). This seems sufficient reason for investigating what Marx had to say about money. This article is, therefore, a review and critique of Marx's theory of money*.
The Commodity Nature of Money in Marx’s Theory
Marx's Theory of Money, 2005
This paper has two objectives. In the first part-more succinct because it uses concepts that are more well known-I seek to demonstrate that Marx unequivocally defines money as a commodity and that he maintains this definition in his analysis of advanced capitalism. In the second part I attempt to clarify the theoretical bases that he provides, in order to demonstrate that from the point of view or logic of his theoretical framework, money must be a commodity. In order to do so I resort primarily to Marx's own writings, through the presentation of the logical structure of his theory, and showing where the passages needed for my demonstration are situated within his work. The numerous literal quotations from Marx's work can be justified by the need to leave no room for doubt regarding my interpretation. I also seek to show that attention must be paid both to what Marx says and doesn't say. This is important because we can thus appreciate the total absence of any reference in Marx to the hypothesis that money must at any point become a non-commodity. Finally, my goal is to provide a clear exposition of what Marx's theory of money is, rather than engage in discussion regarding the extent to which his theory is the one which most accurately captures reality.
Marxist Essays on Money, 2016
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Marx's Critique of (Ricardian) Political Economy, the Quantity Theory of Money and Credit Money
The Marxist concept of value is very frequently equated, whether explicitly or merely tacitly, with the corresponding Ricardian concept of "labour expended". This paper argues that unlike the Ricardian theory of value, the Marxist theory of value is a monetary theory. In the Marxist system, the value of a commodity is expressed not through itself but through its distorted forms of appearance, in prices. Moreover, it cannot be defined in isolation, but exclusively in relation to all other commodities, in a process of exchange. In this relation of exchange value is materialised in money. The essential feature of the "market economy" (of capitalism) is thus not simply commodity exchange but monetary circulation and money. Commodity exchange presupposes thus the (positive) prices of all commodities involved. In other words, prices are not determined after the establishment of a non-monetary equilibrium system of barter between "production sectors", like the Sraffian "linear production systems". On the contrary, barter is for Marx non-existing, as all exchange transactions are made up of separate acts of exchange of commodities with money. Prices are determined in the process of capitalist commodity production, i.e. in a historically unique process of (capitalist) production-for-the-exchange, a process which unites immediate production with circulation. Money is thus conceived as the adequate form of appearance of capital, that is a material embodiment of abstract and therefore equal human labour, which the capitalist appropriates, and which in the framework of capitalist relations of exploitation is accumulated and functions as a "self-valorising value". Only these Marxian concepts of value and money enable, on the one hand, a radical critique to the Quantity Theory of money, and on the other, an insight into the process of credit-money formation, in the framework of the reproduction and circulation of the total social capital.