The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
Supply-situation, represented by the supply-curve, and demand-situation,
represented by the demand-curve, are conceived of as antithetical and
independent causal forces, whose equilibrium determines both "supply and
demand" (in the sense of quantities supplied and demanded) and price.
Mill's doctrine that supply and demand determine price gets out of the
circle that demand (amount demanded) is itself dependent on price, only
by making both demand in this sense and price _results_, rather than
causes, and by putting the causation back into the more complex factors
which I call "supply-situation" and "demand-situation." The two
independent causes, then, are summed up in the supply-curve and the
demand-curve. But, first, these curves are expressed in money. And
second, a change in the value of money would affect _both_ of them
proportionately. But a theory which is concerned with supply and demand
as independent and antithetical must abstract from factors which give
them a _common_ movement, without modifying their _relation_ to each
other. A change in the value of money would lead the supply-curve to
move to the right, and the demand-curve to move to the left, the change
in each being proportionate, and the amount supplied, and amount
demanded, would remain unchanged. Changes in the value of money must,
therefore, be abstracted from.
Again, we must precise the notion of an _increase_ in demand, or of
supply. Increase in demand may mean mere increase in amount demanded,
consequent upon a lower price, consequent, _i. e._, upon a lowering of
the supply schedule. In this sense, increase in demand is a passive
fact, a result rather than a cause. On the other hand, if the increase
in demand is an increase in the amount demanded at the _same_ price, if
it means a change in the demand-situation, represented by the moving to
the right of the demand-curve, we have a causal factor in increase in
demand, a factor which raises the price and compels new supply to come
into the market. We may distinguish these two meanings as increase in
demand in the active and in the passive senses. _Mutatis mutandis_, we
may speak of increase of supply in the active and passive senses. These
distinctions have been made before, but it has not been clearly seen
that these distinctions, and the connected doctrines, involve the
assumption of a fixed value of money. But consider: it is the current
doctrine that increase in demand in the active sense, the demanding of
a greater amount at the same price, the moving of the demand-curve to
the right, not only raises the price, but also tends to _increase the
supply_. But this is true only if the _cause_ of the increase in demand
is not a cause which simultaneously works on supply, neutralizing that
tendency. If the increase in amount demanded at a given price be due to
a lowered value of money, then the same lowered value of money will
reduce the supply available at that price _pro tanto_, and the new
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