The purely economic value of any commodity (or work done, in so far
as it finds expression in the money that represents its equivalent
value), will depend on the efficiency in economic administration
developed by the body economic. It will depend on the measures taken
by the economic administration, how fertile economic life can become
on the basis afforded by the spiritual and "rights" systems of the
body social. The money-value of a commodity will then indicate,
that the economic organisation is producing the commodity in a
quantity corresponding to the want for it. Supposing the premises
laid down in this book to be realised, the body economic will not be
dominated by the impulse to amass wealth through sheer quantity of
production; but the production of goods will adapt itself to wants,
through the agency of the associative guilds that will spring up in
all manner of connections. In this way, the proportion, that in each
case corresponds to the actual want, will become established between
the money-value of an article and the arrangements made in the body
social for producing it. [6] In the healthy social organism, money will
really be nothing but a measure of value; since, behind every money
piece, or money token, there stands the tangible piece of production,
on the strength of which alone the owner of the money could come by
it. These conditions will, of their nature, necessitate arrangements
being made, which will deprive money of its value for its possessor,
when once it has lost its original significance. Arrangements of this
sort have already been alluded to. Money property passes back, after
a fixed period, into the common pool, in whatever the proper form may
be; and to prevent money, withdrawn from use in industry, being held
back by its possessors to the evasion of the provisions made by the
economic organisation, there can be a new coinage, or re-stamping, from
time to time. One result of this will no doubt be, that the interest
derived from any capital sum will diminish as years go on. Money
will wear out, just as commodities wear out. Nevertheless, such a
measure will be a right and just one for the State to enact. There
can be no compound interest. If a person lays by savings, he has
certainly rendered past services that gave him a claim on future
counter-service in commodities,--just as present services claim present
service in exchange. But his claims cannot go beyond a certain limit;
for claims, that date from the past, require present labour-services
to satisfy them; and they must not be turned into a means of economic
coercion. The practical realisation of these principles will put the
problem of safeguarding the money standard upon a sound basis. For,
no matter what form money may take owing to other conditions, the
safeguard of its standard lies in the intelligent organisation of
the whole body economic through its administrature. The problem of
safeguarding the money standard will never be satisfactorily solved
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account