The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
Before undertaking detailed analysis of the causes governing V, I shall
discuss Fisher's specific argument, typical of the quantity theory, that
an increase of money cannot change the V's. "As a matter of fact, the
velocities of circulation of money and deposits depend, as we have seen,
on technical conditions, and bear no discoverable relation to the
quantity of money in circulation. Velocity of circulation is the average
rate of 'turnover,' and depends on countless individual rates of
turnover. These, as we have seen, depend on individual _habits_. Each
person regulates his turnover to suit his individual _convenience_....
In the long run, and for a large number of people, the average rate of
turnover, or what amounts to the same thing, the average time money
remains in the same hands, will be closely determined. It will depend on
density of population, commercial _customs_, rapidity of transport, and
other technical conditions, but not on the quantity of money and
deposits nor on the price-level." (Italics mine.[208]) He proceeds to
assume that money is doubled with a _halving_ of the V's, instead of a
_doubling_ of P. Everybody now has on hand twice as much money _and
deposits_ as his convenience has taught him to keep on hand. He will
then try to get rid of this surplus, and he can only do it by buying
goods. But this will increase somebody else's surplus, and he will
likewise try to get rid of it. This will raise prices. "_Obviously_ this
tendency will continue until there if found another adjustment of
quantities to expenditures, and the _V's are the same as
originally_."[209] The foregoing argument rests in part, it will be
seen, on the assumption that a fixed ratio between M and M' obtains,
else the increase of _money_ in everybody's hands would not mean a
corresponding increase in their _deposits_. I have already criticised
this doctrine. For the contention that the V's will finally be _just the
same_ as before, I find no specific argument at all--"_obviously_"
presumably making that unnecessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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