[OPE-L:3686] quantity of money in circulation

Gerald Lev (glevy@acnet.pratt.edu)
Tue, 19 Nov 1996 15:25:08 -0800 (PST)

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Fred wrote in [OPE-L:3680]:

> ... The main question of Marx's theory
> of surplus-value is how this GIVEN sum of money capital increases it
> magnitude, or becomes more money. In other words, how do capitalists
> withdraw more money from circulation than they throw into circulation,
> with the initial money capital thrown into circulation taken as given.
> ...

Someone on the list [who, at this point, is anonymous] sent me a message
which said:

> If the money is endogenous - i.e., is injected into the
> system as the result from the fact that some agent (firms, the State)
> has gone into debt in this period or in the past - how can the
> capitalists withdraw from circulation more money than the one they throw
> into circulation [I am disregarding the possibility that in the past
> there has been an accumulation of money balances: this would only
> complicate the issue, but does not change the result]? In fact, when
> Marx has M-C-M' the positive difference M-M' is a difference in abstract
> wealth, not in money strictly speaking - e.g., as the final means of
> payment.

(1) [to Fred]: how would you answer the above?

(2) [for any and all]: what is the mechanism that causes the quantity of
money in circulation to increase alongside increases in real wealth?
Doesn't a concrete explanation of the causes of a change in the quantity
of money in circulation presuppose the analysis of bank capital and the
state-form?

In solidarity,

Jerry