[OPE-L:2380] Re: commodity money in Marx's theory

Chai-on Lee (conlee@chonnam.chonnam.ac.kr)
Mon, 27 May 1996 23:17:57 -0700

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Jerry wrote in [2370]

I don't think that Marx argued -- "predict(ed)" -- that money must always take the form of a commodity under capitalism.

Chai-on:
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Sure. Money substitutes can take the money form at any time, even in Marx's days.

Jerry:
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What is the key factor *NOT* included in his analysis of money? In
_Capital_, Marx examines money in an economy "free" from state
intervention. Yet, state intervention is both a presupposition for the
analysis of money (as Paul C argued many months back) and a result of analysis.
While money took the form of commodity-money during Marx's day and while we have no way of knowing for sure how Marx intended to
examine this topic further *beyond* Capital, let me note that this is an
issue that we could and should address in considering "Book IV" --
"The State".

Chai-on:
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We can at least intorduce the state as a factor of primitive accumulation
in discussing the money question, as a factor of the faux frais de
production in discussing the labor-values.

In OPE-L Solidarity,

Chai-on