Money and the Analysis of Capitalism: The Significance of Commodity Money

Costas Lapavitsas
Additional contact information
Costas Lapavitsas: Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Thornhaugh St., Russell Sq., London WCJ OXG, U.K.cl5@soas.ac.uk

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2000, vol. 32, issue 4, 631-656

Abstract: Monetary theory based on commodity money possesses sound foundations for analysis of capitalist monetary phenomena. "Valueless" forms of money (fiat and credit) have their roots in the nature and functions of commodity money. The evolution of the form of money is explained by the adequacy of each particular form for the functions which money is called to perform in capitalist exchange. Performing these functions encourages the development of money's form, leading to the emergence of several types of non-commodity ("valueless") money. This paper considers especially the adequacy of commodity, fiat, and credit money as means of exchange; adequacy is fully specified by examining determination of the exchange value of these forms of money. The process of determination is different for each: spontaneous hoarding for the first, arbitrary specification of quantity for the second, credit advance and repayment for the third. In this context, it is shown that the intrinsic value of commodity money can play an anchoring role for money's exchange value. The quantity theory of money has explanatory power with regard to the exchange value of fiat money and, under certain conditions, of credit money.

Keywords: Monetary theory; Marx; Capitalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/32/4/631.abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:32:y:2000:i:4:p:631-656

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Radical Political Economics from Union for Radical Political Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().