Hospitality versus Exchange: The Limits of Monetary Economies

Stephanie Bell and John Henry
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stephanie Kelton

Review of Social Economy, 2001, vol. 59, issue 2, 203-226

Abstract: This paper attempts to specify theoretically the origins of money. Rather than the exchange-based view of neoclassical economists where money is seen as a transaction cost-reducing instrument (and where exchange itself is asserted to be a universal phenomenon), we argue that money is a social relationship, specifically a debt relationship, that emerges with propertied, class society. "Primitive" (pre-class) society could not generate money, as the rule of hospitality, universally practiced among such organizations, precluded debt and the self-interested behavior that is consistent with debt. Adopting the Chartalist position on the matter, we show that money is symptomatic of privilege, of inequality, of economic and political power.

Keywords: Chartalism; Debt; Exchange; Hospitality; Money; Property (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1080/00346760110036166

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