Chai-on:
--------
In the above, "the power to command the labour of others" is
not in Money but in CAPITAL.
Paul
----
Capital commands the labour of others because it is money.
If I purchase a haircut with money, I command the barbers
labour, but my money is not capital. If I purchase bread,
I indirectly command the labour of the bakers.
Chai-on
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And, moreover, 'a method of recording
information, and a method of constraining transitions between
information states' is not in the function of money but in that of
book-keeping.
Paul
----
Book keeping and coinage are both technologies for recording
information, the latter arises after the development of place
notation in arithmetic. Coinage is closely related to calculation
using abacusses and reckoning tables. Double entry book keeping
developed after the spread of the Indian number system allowed
similar calculations to be performed on paper. Prior to that,
actual piles of coin moved on a reckoning table performed the
same function.
Both coinage and book keeping are now obsolete, most of the
monetary function is performed using relational databases.
One should not identify the social function of money with one
of its technical forms.
Paul Cockshott
wpc@cs.strath.ac.uk
http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/CS/Biog/wpc/index.html