登陆注册
4811800000021

第21章 (3)

But in commerce 100 such quarters would never have been worth more than 50. By changing the name we do not change the thing. The quantity of wheat, whither supplied or demanded, will be neither decreased nor increased by this mere change of name. Thus, the relation between supply and demand being just the same in spite of this change of name, the price of wheat will undergo no real change. When we speak of the supply and demand of things, we do not speak of the supply and demand of the name of things.

Philip I was not a maker of gold and silver, as M. Proudhon says; he was a maker of names for coins. Pass off your French cashmeres as Asiatic cashmeres, and you may deceive a buyer or two; but once the fraud becomes known, your so-called Asiatic cashmeres will drop to the price of French cashmeres.

When he put a false label on gold and silver, King Philip could deceive only so long as the fraud was not known. Like any other shopkeeper, he deceived his customers by a false description of his wares, which could not last for long. He was bound sooner or later to suffer the rigour of commercial laws. Is this what M. Proudhon wanted to prove? No. According to him, it is from the sovereign and not from commerce that money gets its value. And what has he really proved? That commerce is more sovereign than the sovereign. Let the sovereign decree that one mark shall in future be two marks, commerce will keep on saying that these two marks are worth no more than one mark was formerly.

But, for all that, the question of value determined by the quantity of labor has not been advanced a step. It still remains to be decided whether the value of these two marks (which have become what one mark was once)is determined by the cost of production or by the law of supply and demand.

M. Proudhon continues: "It should even be borne in mind that if, instead of debasing the currency, it had been in the king's power to double its bulk, the exchange value of gold and silver would immediately have dropped by half, always from reasons of proportion and equilibrium."[I 71]

If this opinion, which M. Proudhon shares with the other economists, is valid, it argues in favor of the latter's doctrine of supply and demand, and in no way in favor of M. Proudhon's proportionality. For, whatever the quantity of labor embodied in the doubled bulk of gold and silver, its value would have dropped by half, the demand having remained the same and the supply having doubled. Or can it be, by any chance, that the "law of proportionality" would have become confused this time with the so much disdained law of supply and demand? This true proportion of M. Proudhon's is indeed so elastic, is capable of so many variations, combination and permutations, that it might well coincide for once with the relation between supply and demand.

To make "every commodity acceptable in exchange, if not in practice then at least by right", on the basis of the role of gold and silver is, then, to misunderstand this role. Gold and silver are acceptable by right only because they are acceptable in practice; and they are acceptable in practice because the present organization of production needs a universal medium of exchange. Right is only the official recognition of fact.

We have seen that the example of money as an application of value which has attained constitution was chosen by M. Proudhon only to smuggle through his whole doctrine of exchangeability, that is to say, to prove that every commodity assessed by its cost of production must attain the status of money. All this would be very fine, were it not for the awkward fact that precisely gold and silver, as money, are of all commodities the only ones not determined by their cost of production; and this is so true that in circulation they can be replaced by paper. So long as there is a certain proportion observed between the requirements of circulation and the amount of money issued, be it paper, gold, platinum, or copper money, there can be no question of a proportion to be observed between the intrinsic value (cost of production) and the nominal value of money. Doubtless, in international trade, money is determined, like any other commodity, by labor time. But it is also true that gold and silver in international trade are means of exchange as products and not as money. In other words, they lose this characteristic of "stability and authenticity", of "sovereign consecration", which, for M. Proudhon, forms their specific characteristic.

Ricardo understood the truth so well that, after basing his whole system on value determined by labor time, and after saying:

"Gold and silver, like all other commodities, are valuable only in proportion to the quantity of labor necessary to produce them, and bring them to market", he adds, nevertheless, that the value of money is not determined by the labor time its substance embodies, but by the law of supply and demand only.

"Though it [paper money] has no intrinsic value, yet, by limiting its quantity, its value in exchange is as great as an equal denomination of coin, or of bullion in that coin. On the same principle, too, namely, by limitation of its quantity, a debased coin would circulate at the value it should bear, if it were of the legal weight and fineness, and not at the value of the quantity of metal which it actually contained. In the history of the British coinage, we find, accordingly, that the currency was never depreciated in the same proportion that it was debased; the reason of which was, that it never was increased in quantity, in proportion to its diminished intrinsic value."(Ricardo, loc. cit. [pp.206-07])

This is what J. B. Say observes on this passage of Ricardo's:

"This example should suffice, I think, to convince the author that the basis of all value is not the amount of labor needed to make a commodity, but the need felt for that commodity, balanced by its scarcity."[ The reference is to Say's note on the French edition of Ricardo's book, Vol.II, pp.206-07. ]

同类推荐
  • 净土随学

    净土随学

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说十一想思念如来经

    佛说十一想思念如来经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清太霄隐书元真洞飞二景经

    上清太霄隐书元真洞飞二景经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 荣枯鉴

    荣枯鉴

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金光明经玄义拾遗记

    金光明经玄义拾遗记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 飞鸟集·新月集

    飞鸟集·新月集

    夏天的飞鸟,飞到我窗前唱歌,又飞去了。秋天的黄叶,它们没有什么可唱,只叹息一声,飞落在那里。世界上的一队小小的漂泊者呀,请留下你们的足印在我的文字里。世界对着它的爱人,把它浩翰的面具揭下了。它变小了,小如一首歌,小如一回永恒的接吻。是大地的泪点,使她的微笑保持着青春不谢。无垠的沙漠热烈地追求一叶绿草的爱,她摇摇头笑着飞开了。
  • 怀星堂集

    怀星堂集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 青年职场塑身

    青年职场塑身

    许多青年朋友都会过这样的经历;当你起出大学校门时,明明觉得自己的能力不比别人差,但几年过后,别人升职的升职,加薪的加薪,唯独自己还在原地踏步,问题竟争出在哪里?怎样才能在职场上上春风得意?遥想当年,编者年轻时也有过以上的困惑与苦恼,随着阅历的增长,现在再反观那段起过的路时,真是面般滋味在心头。乘着让后来的青年在职场少起弯路的良好愿望,绪仔细地分析了当今青年人在职场发展的特点,提出了青年职场塑身的五个要点。求职一箭中的,工作出类拨萃,关系左右逢源,竟争陪颖而出领导得心应手。
  • 玩转幽默英语

    玩转幽默英语

    搜集西方流传的九类笑话:女人与男人、童真童趣、雇主与雇员、律师与警察等,结合实用情景,逐一指点,保证读者活学活用,幽默中玩转英语。
  • 教育青少年珍惜理解的感恩故事

    教育青少年珍惜理解的感恩故事

    有些爱不计任何的得与失,不需要任何的回报;有些爱没有华丽的辞藻,没有惊涛骇浪,在平实中感动你我;有些爱如细流般隽永而无声……拥有一颗感恩的心才能体会到我们身边无处不在的爱,本书选取了关于感恩的故事,它们或许会让你泪流满面,或许让你感受到丝丝温暖,或许让你开始有了珍惜这份爱的感悟,但不管它会带给你怎样的感动,这些都是难得一见的好故事。
  • 与君书:故梦旧影不相逢

    与君书:故梦旧影不相逢

    她千里迢迢送了一封信,藏着一份和离书,全文只道那君子混身上下,无一不好。他拿到这封和离书时,她就在他眼前,他说,我欠你太多,如今这一纸和离,也值得我为你守住这里。她道:“将军哪里都好,唯独,将军不爱我。”
  • 最具影响力的企业富豪(下)

    最具影响力的企业富豪(下)

    文学简史主要指文学发展的历史进程,这跟各国历史发展是相辅相成的。历史的发展为文学的发展提供了时代背景,而文学的发展也形象地记录了历史发展的真实面貌。 总之,学习世界文学,就必须研究世界著名文学大师、著名文学作品和文学发展历史,才能掌握世界文学概貌。
  • 语文新课标课外必读第十辑:彼得·潘

    语文新课标课外必读第十辑:彼得·潘

    国家教育部颁布了最新《语文课程标准》,统称新课标,对中、小学语文教学指定了阅读书目,对阅读的数量、内容、质量以及速度都提出了明确的要求,这对于提高学生的阅读能力,培养语文素养,陶冶情操,促进学生终身学习和终身可持续发展,对于提高广大人民的文学素养具有极大的意义。
  • 思惟略要法

    思惟略要法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 殷小萱大闹三王爷

    殷小萱大闹三王爷

    party过后深睡,不料竟然穿越,不知何年何月何地,既来之则安之,但是宫廷之中满是算计,真的能安么?--情节虚构,请勿模仿