Alejandro:
> > > I agree: Money doesn't have a use-value and then cannot be a
> > commodity. This means that all interpretations in which Marx's
> > money is presented as a "commodity" are misleading. For example,
> > these system of equations in which one can use "cotton", "grain" or
> > "gold" as "money" are neglecting important aspects of Marx's monetary
> > theory.
> >
> > Money is a "general object" which main function is to represent and
> > to conserve, in a autonomous form, abstract social labor-time.
> >
>
Paul C.:
> what then was the sheckle? it was a measure of barley, but also, during
> at least the second babylonian empire it served as the universal
equivalent
> and
> unit of account.
>
Alejandro can, of course, speak for himself. However, that one universal
equivalent unit of account, the sheckle, was a measure Barley, a useful
object, in the second babylonian empire says absolutely nothing about
whether Capitalist Money must necessarily (for systemic reproduction) be
manifest in a Commodity.
Even if there were a systematic exchange ratio between barley and the
sheckle in the second babylonian empire, I guess it is no longer the same
as in modern Israel?
Michael
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Dr Michael Williams
"Books are Weapons"
Department of Economics Home:
School of Social Sciences 26 Glenwood Avenue
De Montfort University Southampton
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email: mwilliam@torres.mk.dmu.ac.uk mwilliam@compuserve.com
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