The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
high premium would awaken a distrust which would bring the premium to
destruction, by destroying trade, and so destroying the money-use on
which the premium is based.
A detailed discussion of the Indian Rupee since 1893 lies outside the
scope of this chapter. I think it may be well, however, to recognize at
this point that the limitation in the quantity of the rupee, through
abrogation of free coinage, was a factor in the subsequent rise in its
value. It was not the only factor, by any means. But it was a factor. It
may be also recognized as a factor in the value of Austrian paper money.
The doctrine just laid down, as to the influence of the money-use in
adding to the value of money, is in no sense the same as the quantity
theory. For one thing, it is easily demonstrated that the value-curve
for the uses of money is not described by the equation, _xy_ = _c_. This
curve expresses, in terms of value, the idea of proportionality which is
an essential part of the quantity theory. Put in terms of the money
market, we have a demand-curve for money, not for the long-time
possession of money, but for its temporary use--a rental, rather than a
capital value, is expressed in the price which this curve helps to
determine. This curve is highly elastic. When money-rates are low,
transactions will be undertaken which will not be undertaken when the
rate is a little higher. In the second place, the method of approach is
very different. It is not the whole volume of transactions which must
employ money, but only a flexible part. In the third place, the
money-use is here conceived of as a source, not of the whole value of
money, but only of a differential portion of that value. In the fourth
place, the argument runs in terms of the absolute value of money, and
not in terms of the level of prices.
It is not the legal peculiarity of money, as legal tender, which is
necessarily responsible for this agio when it appears. In the first
place, not all money is legal tender. In the second place, we find the
same phenomenon in connection with "bank-money" at times--I would refer
especially to the premium on the _marc banko_ of the Hamburg Girobank.
(_Cf._ Knapp, _Staatliche Theorie des Geldes_, p. 136.) The legal tender
peculiarity may, however, in special circumstances be a source of a very
considerable temporary agio.
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