Money and the logic of capitalism

L. Randall Wray ()

Chapter 10 in Understanding Modern Money Theory, 2025, pp 238-264 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the origins of many distinguishing features of capitalism in the New World's plantations and the triangular trade: commodification of labor (free and unfree) and of the social output of means of subsistence, generation of a surplus in money form, and accumulation of a portion of the surplus as a means of further accumulation. As argued by the three main heterodox traditions (following Marx, Veblen, and Keynes), production in capitalism is undertaken with money to end up with more money. This provides a logic to the operation of capitalism as a monetary system that is capable of economic analysis. The chapter uses two theories of value—the labor theory of value of the classical economists and Keynes's liquidity preference theory of value—to highlight the role played by money in the capitalist system.

Keywords: Theory of value; Monetary theory of production; Rate of exploitation; Value of money; Liquidity preference theory; Labor theory of value; Slavery and the origins of capitalism; Triangular trade; Development of the modern financial system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781800375147
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