(OPE-L) "Marx on the Origin of the Money-Form" (2 of 2)

From: Gerald A. Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@msn.com)
Date: Sat Jun 05 2004 - 07:41:09 EDT


Posted on 5/26 by by Mathew Forstater/JL

-----------------------------

 This is, as usual, an interesting post from Walt, very well done.
Unfortunately, though, Marx probably accepted a little too much of the
conventional view of the history of money. I mean here the view that
 in  the beginning there was barter, which evolved into money use, etc.
Of course, Marx's version is far better than the standard, and he isn't
doing it from an individualist perspective, but still the whole story
doesn't seem to really jive with the latest cutting edge research on
 the  history of money.  See, e.g.,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1843765136/qid=1085591012/sr=1
-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-1518861-9479258?v=glance&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1883053714/qid=1085591218/sr=1
-8/ref=sr_1_8/002-1518861-9479258?v=glance&s=books

Moreover, I would argue that this newer view of the origins and nature
of money actually fits much better into Marx's overall system, and
that we can find in Marx evidence that he did in fact understand much about
this alternative view.



 See, e.g., the beginning of my paper on Taxation: A Secret of Colonial
Capitalist (So-Called) Primitive Accumulation. (at:
http://www.cfeps.org/pubs/wp/wp25/wp25.html )



Best, Mathew Forstater


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