Table Of ContentMarx’s Theory of
Money
Modern Appraisals
Edited by
Fred Moseley
Marx’s Theory of Money: Modern Appraisals
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Marx’s Theory of
Money
Modern Appraisals
Edited by
Fred Moseley
Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA
© Editorial matter and selection © Fred Moseley 2005
Individual chapters © contributors 2005
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this
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Marx’s theory of money:Modern appraisals / edited by Fred Moseley.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–3641–2
1. Money – Congresses.2. Marx,Karl,1818–1883.Kapital.English –
Congresses.I.Moseley,Fred,1946–
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Introduction 1
Fred Moseley
Part I Marx’s Basic Theory of Money
1 The Commodity Nature of Money in Marx’s Theory 21
Claus Germer
2 Marx’s Theory of Money in Historical Perspective 36
Duncan Foley
3 Money as Displaced Social Form: Why Value cannot
be Independent of Price 50
Patrick Murray
4 Marx’s Objections to Credit Theories of Money 65
Anitra Nelson
5 Money as Constituent of Value 78
Geert Reuten
Part II Extensions and Reconstructions of Marx’s
Theory of Money
6 The Universal Equivalent as Monopolist of the Ability to Buy 95
Costas Lapavitsas
7 Value and Money 111
Christopher J. Arthur
8 The Monetary Aspects of the Capitalist Process in
the Marxian System: An Investigation from the
Point of View of the Theory of the Monetary Circuit 124
Riccardo Bellofiore
v
vi Contents
Part III Marx’s Critique of the Quantity Theory of Money
9 Marx’s Explanation of Money’s Functions: Overturning
the Quantity Theory 143
Martha Campbell
10 Marx’s Anti-Quantity Theory of Money: A Critical Evaluation 160
Pichit Likitkijsomboon
Part IV Money and the Transformation Problem
11 The New Interpretation and the Value of Money 177
Makoto Itoh
12 Money has no Price:Marx’s Theory of Money and
the Transformation Problem 192
Fred Moseley
Part V Marx’s Theory of World Money
13 Marx’s Contribution to the Search for a Theory of Money 209
Suzanne de Brunhoff
14 Towards a Marxian Theory of World Money 222
Tony Smith
Author Index 237
Subject Index 239
List of Contributors
Members of the International Symposium on Marxian Theory
Christopher J. Arthur, University of Sussex, UK
Riccardo Bellofiore, University of Bergamo, Italy
Martha Campbell, State University of New York–Potsdam, USA
Fred Moseley, Mount Holyoke College, USA
Patrick Murray, Creighton University, USA
Geert Reuten, University of Amsterdam, Holland
Tony Smith, Iowa State University, USA
Invited Conference Participants
Suzanne de Brunhoff, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Duncan Foley, New School University, USA
Claus Germer, University of Parana, Brazil
Makoto Itoh, Kokugakuin University, Japan
Costas Lapavitsas, University of London, UK
Pichit Likitkijsomboon, Thammasat University, Thailand
Anitra Nelson, RMIT University, Australia
vii
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Introduction1
Fred Moseley2
Marx considered his theory of money to be one of his main accomplish-
ments and a significant advance over Ricardo’s theory and classical economics
in general, which had simply taken money for granted, or explained the
existence of money in ad hocfashion, on the basis of the practical difficulties
of barter, unrelated to any theory of value.
Now, however, we have to perform a task never even attempted by bour-
geois economics. That is, we have to show the origin of this money-form,
we have to trace the development of the expression of value contained in
the value-relation of commodities from its simplest, almost imperceptible
outline to the dazzling money-form. When this has been done, the mys-
tery of moneywill immediately disappear.
(Marx 1867: 139; emphasis added)
According to my interpretation of Marx’s theory of money, Marx derived
the necessity of money in a commodity (or market) economy from his fun-
damental assumption of the labour theory of value, in the crucial but often
1 I would like to express appreciation to Mount Holyoke College for its generous
financial support for the conference, especially Dean Donal O’Shea, and I would also
like to thank Dawn Larder and Alena Zhaliazniak for their excellent organizational
and logistical work relating to it. Finally, I also would like to thank all the confer-
ence participants for our many lively and productive discussions, both in person and
by email. In spite of our disagreements (or is it becauseof our disagreements?), I have
learned a lot from these wonderful Marxian scholars about Marx’s theory of money
and other theories of money.
2 This introduction represents my interpretation of Marx’s theory of money. A num-
ber of the authors in this book disagree with my interpretation, as will be evident
from their chapters. I have benefited from suggestions for the introduction from
almost all the authors, especially Riccardo Bellofiore, Geert Reuten and Chris Arthur.
The remaining errors are mine.
1
Description:In Marx’s theory, value results not from just any sort of labour, but rather from a specific social type: privately undertaken labour that pro-duces commodities for
