- Ask @Hughes: What is the function of money as a measure of value? What kind of money is needed to realize this function?
- Ask @typhoon: What is the price standard? What is its relationship with the measure of value? What is its historical development?
- Ask @Herbert_Bu: What is the function of money as a medium of circulation? What kind of money realizes this function?
- Ask @Principal-Bu: What can the function of money as a store of value only be? What kind of money realizes this function? Why can it act as a reservoir?
- Ask @LuanYun: What is the function of money as a means of payment? Under what conditions does money perform this function?
- Ask @Shinkansen: What is the function of money as a world currency? What kind of money realizes this function? Why?
- Ask @luanma: What is the logical relationship among the five functions of money?
- Ask @cedar: After the function of money as a medium of circulation appeared, why did the commodity economy face the possibility of crisis?
- Ask @Long Zhifei: Why does the function of money as a means of payment increase the possibility of crisis in the commodity economy?
The means of storing currency refers to a certain amount of money that people store “to cope with various accidental changes in production and exchange,” and it can play a role in spontaneously regulating the volume of currency circulation. It can only be gold and silver coins, gold and silver bars (that is, it must be realized by tangible, full-value gold and silver currency, because paper money and others are merely symbols of value, without intrinsic value, so storing these value symbols cannot actually regulate the amount of currency spontaneously). The reason it can act as a reservoir is that, as valuable currency, it can enter circulation as the demand for money increases with commodity circulation, and exit circulation as the demand for money decreases with commodity circulation.
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The means of circulation of currency refers to the process in which currency continuously moves from buyers to sellers during commodity transactions. The means of circulation can be realized through fully valued currency, undervalued coinage, and symbols of value that have no intrinsic worth. This is because, in the process of purchasing commodities, buying and selling are instantaneous. People usually only care whether the currency they hold can exchange for the full amount of goods, and do not pay attention to whether it is fully valued or undervalued. This also creates conditions for feudal states to actively mint undervalued coinage and for bourgeois states to oversupply paper money to exploit the people.
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The function of the measure of value of money: using itself as a scale to express and measure the value of all other commodities. This function requires money that has value itself because it needs to measure the magnitude of value using the labor time condensed in commodities. Therefore, it cannot be measured with something valueless, just as a ruler cannot be made from something without length. Moreover, to express different amounts of value as different prices, the quantity of money itself must be measurable and have a definite monetary unit. However, in practical use, money functions as an imaginary or conceptual measure of value.
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The main functions of the global currency are: as a general means of payment, settling international balance of payments; as a general purchasing medium for buying foreign goods; and as a general representation of social wealth transferred between countries, such as paying war reparations and exporting monetary capital. These functions are fulfilled by gold or silver (now only gold), because paper money and coinage lose their legal tender status once they cross national borders.
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Because after the emergence of payment methods, the circulation of goods and the circulation of currency became further separated in time and space, goods could be delivered first and payment made later. This created a debt relationship between buyers and sellers. When such debt relationships are nested layer upon layer, if one party is unable to repay their debts, the entire debt chain will collapse, causing a wider and more profound impact compared to before the emergence of payment methods. Therefore, the possibility of crises increased after the appearance of payment methods.
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The function of money as a means of payment is to settle debts in the case of deferred payment for goods and services. When the buying and selling of goods are separated in time, the goods are delivered to the buyer, but the buyer does not pay the money at the same time, which is essentially credit. For example, farmers need to purchase some tools and fertilizers on credit before the autumn harvest, and they will have money to pay only after selling the crops.
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Under the conditions of direct exchange of commodities, buying and selling are unified, and the exchange occurs at the same time and place. Under the conditions of commodity circulation, the process of buying and selling is split into two independent processes. The use of money as a medium of exchange breaks the temporal and spatial limitations present in barter. As a means of circulation, money’s function creates the possibility of a crisis in situations where some people buy but do not sell, and others sell but do not buy.
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- Ask @乱云: What is the basic content of the law of value?
- Ask @赫伯提_布: How to understand that fluctuations in supply and demand cause commodity prices to deviate from value?
- Ask @huajige: Why is it said that prices deviating from value under the influence of supply and demand does not violate the law of value?
- Ask @火眼: What role does the law of value play in a private ownership commodity economy? What are its negative effects?
- Ask @红术: How do the capitalist roaders promote the “decisive role of the market in resource allocation”?
- Ask @cedar: What is commodity fetishism? Why does this phenomenon occur?
- Ask @luanma: What role does commodity fetishism play? How does bourgeois vulgar economics promote it?
- Ask @Crane1917: Why is there no commodity fetishism where there is no commodity production?
Li Shaoqi and other swindlers shamelessly praise capitalist economy for its “flexibility” and “diversity,” claiming that the value law which creates polarization and massive social labor waste is perfect and flawless, while conversely describing socialist planned economy as “rigid,” and saying that it artificially destroys this “natural harmony.”
商品拜物教将人与人之间的关系神秘化为人与物的关系，物与物的关系，甚至是物支配人的关系，因此资产阶级就用商品拜物教来掩盖资本主义中人剥削人的社会关系。如资产阶级庸俗经济学说脑体差别是天然合理的，因为脑力劳动者脑子灵光，受过培训，所以技术含量高，就应该拿高工资，体力劳动者学历低，没上过学，脑子不灵光，所以就该拿低工资，说资本家之所以能发财就是因为他们脑子特别灵光，特别有能力，从而以此来掩盖脑力劳动者获得脑力劳动的能力所需要接受的培训费用（而这个培训费用也只不过是一定的劳动成果），脑体差别并不是天然合理的。而资本家能够剥削他人更不是因为他们有什么高人一等的能力，而只是因为他们掌握了劳动者过去的死劳动，如货币、生产资料等，能够凭借这些掌握的劳动——也就是资本——来剥削工人。再比如说资产阶级庸俗经济学还会从商品拜物教出发，衍生出各种其它的拜物教，如货币拜物教、资本拜物教、利息拜物教、地租拜物教，等等，来掩盖资本主义社会其它方面的剥削关系。比如说工人被剥削是因为钱变多了就会自己变成资本剥削别人，资本家也是“身不由己”地被资本“异化”了，是被资本控制不得不去进行剥削活动的，从而给资本家的剥削罪行开脱。再比如说资产阶级庸俗经济学会玩弄庸俗的三种收入理论等等，说利润是资本（生产资料）自己产生的，利息是货币自己产生的，地租是土地自己长出来的，把资本家、银行家、地主、房东等社会寄生虫的收入全说成是“勤恳”、“聪明‘地利用自然得到的自然报酬，从而掩盖了这些收入全都是剩余价值直接或间接的转化形式的真相，让这些人的剥削行为被掩盖起来了。再比如资产阶级庸俗经济学还会说一个商品之所以贵，就是因为它”技术含量高“，宣扬”便宜没好货“、”一分价钱一分货“的谬论，从而给自己任意抬高价格，投机倒把，设置垄断价格盘剥消费者辩论，好像商品价格贵不是因为资本家唯利是图，要坑害消费者，而是因为商品本身就值这个价，资本家不得不把商品卖到这么高的价格一样
Commodity fetishism refers to the distorted reflection of commodities in people’s consciousness. This distortion is caused by the inherent form of the commodity itself. After labor products manifest as commodities, people mistakenly view the social nature of the labor that forms the commodities as an inherent natural property of the commodities, failing to correctly recognize that it is actually the labor relations between producers that are expressed through commodity exchange.
Although commodity prices are based on value, many factors influence price fluctuations, the most important being changes in supply and demand. Due to the anarchy of production in a private ownership society, the supply and demand of commodities are often out of balance. Either supply exceeds social demand, leading to prices below value, or supply cannot meet social demand, causing prices above value. As supply and demand fluctuate, they lead to inconsistencies between commodity prices and value, oscillating around the value.
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The basic content of the law of value is: the value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time, and commodities must be exchanged according to their value. That is, labor determines value, and exchange is based on equivalence.
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There are two reasons why the value deviates from value under the influence of supply and demand without violating the law of value: 1. Although the price of commodities fluctuates up and down, it fluctuates based on human undifferentiated labor, that is, value. For example, no matter how expensive a mobile phone is, it will never exceed the price of a car. This is because the labor embodied in a car far exceeds that in a mobile phone. 2. Isolated commodities, in the short term, certainly do not conform to the equality of price and value, but over a longer period, the rising and falling prices of commodities can offset each other. From a long-term, average perspective, the price of commodities still equals their value.
人们对商品的拜物教观念，是由劳动产品的商品形态引起的，这种拜物教观念由是生产商品的劳动的独特的社会性质生出的。从历史上看，在原始公社中，每个人的劳动直接表现为社会劳动，生产关系并不采取物与物的形式。在封建生产关系中，农奴给地主也是直接提供剩余劳动的，他们之间的关系不通过商品交换来表现，在资本主义社会下，商品经济发展到了顶点，一切劳动产品都转化为商品，一切生产者的社会联系都要通过价值关系来实现，价值规律广泛地支配着生产领域和流通领域。只有在资本主义社会，资本家对工人的剥削关系才被物和物的关系掩盖了。
The five functions of money are sequentially developed. First, money must have value, serving as a measure of value to compare other currencies, so that it can perform its function as a medium of circulation. Subsequently, with the development of commodity economy, money as a general equivalent has gained the function of being used in circulation; only other commodities that can be compared with money can be used in circulation, and money itself is just a special kind of commodity. The function of money as a store of value only appears after the commodity economy develops to a certain extent, and buying and selling become somewhat disconnected; money also must have intrinsic value and be able to be used in circulation at any time to fulfill its function as a store of value. Then, with the development of commodity economy, credit relations also begin to develop to alleviate phenomena such as overproduction or underproduction caused by only buying without selling or only selling without buying. At this stage, money performs the function of a means of payment. This function can only exist after money has the first three functions because only when money is stored in advance, has intrinsic value, and can be obtained from circulation beforehand, can it serve as a symbol of social wealth to eliminate credit relations and exercise the function of a means of payment. Finally, the world currency itself only exists when the commodity economy develops to a global scale, and money circulates internationally; the function of world currency is essentially the combined effect of the first four functions on an international level.
- Ask @19586: What is classical political economy? What is vulgar political economy?
- Ask @1967.1: Why does classical political economy have scientific elements, while vulgar political economy has none?
- Ask @Long Zhifei: What is Adam Smith’s theory of value? What problems does it have?
- Ask @luanma: What is David Ricardo’s theory of value? What are its defects?
- Ask @Sanshui: What are the main claims of the supply and demand theory? What are its errors?
- Ask @ame: What are the claims of the cost of production theory? What are its errors?
- Ask @Ji He: What are the claims of the marginal utility theory? What are its errors?
- Ask @Screw: What is the metallic theory of money? Why did such a theory arise?
- Ask @Matchstick: Why was the metallic theory of money criticized by classical economists?
- Ask @Wu Yaojiu: What is the nominal theory of money? What are its errors? Why did the bourgeoisie promote it?
- Ask @Aiersiluoke: What are the claims of the quantity theory of money? What are its errors?
The supply and demand theory holds that commodities have no intrinsic value; their value is solely determined by the supply and demand conditions in the commodity market. When demand exceeds supply, the value is higher; when demand is less than supply, the value is lower. In reality, this replaces the essence with phenomena—“supply and demand” theorists treat price as value and price fluctuations as value fluctuations. They pay no attention to the production process, only focusing on price phenomena during the circulation of commodities. They fail to see that only the labor expended in production can change the value of a commodity. This is because once they involve the production process, the secret of capitalist exploitation of workers is revealed.
The Metal Theory of Money is a form of monetary fetishism. Bourgeois economists believe that metal currency is the only form of wealth, and that gold and silver are naturally money, denying that money is a social relation of production between people.
It was proposed during the period of primitive capital accumulation, with a strong mercantilist flavor, reflecting the bourgeois desire at the time to accumulate gold and silver wealth through predatory trade and overseas plunder, as well as the bourgeois opposition to feudal states issuing coins of insufficient purity.