The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
(4) The theory has no bearing on the problems of supply and demand.
Demand-curves are curves, not of utility, but of money-prices. They are
concerned, not with a _system_ of ratios among goods in general, but
with the absolute money-prices of particular goods, one at a time. The
modern demand-curves and supply-curves, representing the demand and
supply doctrine first made precise by J. S. Mill,[82] are concerned with
the money-prices of particular goods, and the "equation of supply and
demand"--amount supplied and amount demanded--gives an equilibrium in
which only one price is determined. Austrian theory, in Boehm-Bawerk's
hands, and in the hands of practically all adherents of the Austrian
School, including Davenport,[83] has been offered as really bearing on
the explanation of demand, and as giving a psychological account and
explanation of the demand-curve. The scheme of Schumpeter has simply no
bearing at all on this vital point. The equilibrium picture in which
_all_ goods are involved supplies no data from which to construct any of
the magnitudes above or below the margin of the demand and supply-curves
of any given good. One reason why this is so will appear from the point
made with reference to "money-prices" in the preceding paragraph. For
Schumpeter's scheme, the significance of the article chosen as "money"
would be as much a problem as anything else, when the conditions are
laid down. It would vary in the process of reaching the equilibrium. Its
ratios with all other things would, thus, fluctuate until the
equilibrium was reached. But, as we have seen, in the chapter on "Supply
and Demand," curves of supply and demand must assume a fixed
significance of the money-unit. It may be further noticed, as marking
off Schumpeter's scheme from supply and demand analysis, that in
Schumpeter's scheme, the individual is the centre of interest, and his
reactions _toward all kinds of goods_ is emphasized; whereas in supply
and demand analysis, the _good_--one good--is the centre of interest,
and the price-offers streaming toward it from all kinds of individuals
is emphasized. The two bodies of doctrine are quite distinct.
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