FW: on money, gold etc again
Jones, Peter-Cultural Studies (P.E.Jones who-is-at shu.ac.uk)
Tue, 28 Jul 1998 15:26:00 +0100
28 july
from peter jones
the 'place holding' function of money as per eva's message below is only
one aspect of the function of money, ie that to do with its role as means
of circulation in which paper tokens or other such stuff can 'stand in' for
gold (ie real money). but this presupposes that we already know the value
of the commodities being exchanged. however, money is also the 'measure' of
value - ie the relative value of the commodities being exchanged is
measured through the mass of commodity exchanges; historically this
function has accrued to gold (as well as silver) for various reasons. marx
talks about all of this in capital but don't have the details in front of
me (will look it up!)
P
----------
From: Eva Ekeblad
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: on money, gold etc again
Date: 27 July 1998 16:01
OK: exchange value is the relative quantity of socially necessary labour
time embodied in... stuff. Money serves as a kind of place holder, and
obviously must be regulated by and balanced between umm... central
instances, if it is to fulfil its function.
But why GOLD?
naively
Eva