Money Is a Sign

Dmitry G. Egorov ()

Economics of Contemporary Russia, 2022, issue 1

Abstract: The work is devoted to the problem of defining the category of «money». To correctly define the concept of «money», one should: 1) conduct a logical analysis of the main forms and types of money for what unites them all, while 2) take into account that money does not exist outside time and space, but in the economic system. A sign is an object that replaces another object in someone's mind (which is the meaning of a sign). Еconomic relations in many cases are fixed in symbolic form. What is included in the symbolic subsystem of the economy? – ​signs of property rights; debt signs; and finally, money. Is money a sigh? Money is a legitimate sign of value. Money, in accordance with our definition (and with the real state of affairs), is an object that denotes a particular measure of value. At the same time, what kind of object is the bearer of the sign is a question that has nothing to do with the essence of money. Money can be classified according to what is the substrate of the sign: metal, paper (banknotes), credit (records on bank accounts), electronic. The differences in the substrates of money are the basis for the advancement of various genetic theories of the origin of money. all of them, in essence, can be reduced to the commodity-metal concept and the concept of state-legal (nominalist, contractual, debt). The presence of these two genetic concepts is associated with two fundamentally different types of legitimization of banknotes: 1) direct, when the substrate of the sign has a value that it symbolizes (coins made of gold or silver); 2) mediated (fiat money). The solution to this problem of the external duality of money is in the understanding that money is essentially a sign. This is what unites everyone. The difference between the forms of money is in the form of legitimization (directly commodity, or legal).

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ack:journl:y:2022:id:720

DOI: 10.33293/1609-1442-2022-1(96)-7-16

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