Staatspapierkurs und Versicherungsgesellschaften

L' arbitrage international chez les Hellenes

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 881870463

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-3654

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Meltzing, Otto

Title:: Staatspapierkurs und Versicherungsgesellschaften

Place of publication:: Berlin

Publisher:: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, Königliche Hofbuchhandlung

Year of publication:: 1913

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (VIII, 114 Seiten)

Digitisation:: 2017

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Kap. III. Gründe für den Kursrückgang der Staatspapiere

Collection:: Economics Books

164 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS enable transactions to be carried out without any move- ment of bullion by a mere process of accounting. Thus it is easy to lose sight of the fact that this unit of account is often synonymous with a given weight of a certain metal,! so that the commodities which are to be exchanged are no longer compared mentally with this given quantity of metal, but with the unit of account itself, behind which there is seen dimly a whole series of commodities of a value which is equivalent or lower or higher. A teacher who is paid 20 francs for a lesson sees that the lesson represents two or three meals or a hat or a whole set of objects which may be obtained for 20 francs, or for some multiple or sub-multiple of this sum. A small shop- keeper who has made a profit of §o francs in the course of his day’s work sees in it the possibility of feeding his family for some days on this sum, or of paying a certain part of his rent, etc.? 1 It should be remembered, however, that before the French Revolution a money of account like the livre was different from real currencies such as the écu or the louis, and that these real currencies corresponded to varying numbers of units of account according to whatever scale was in force at the moment. 2 M. Bourguin in his study “La mesure de la valeur et la monnaie,” Revue & économie politique, 1895, pp. 408 et seq., while he recognises that owing to the diversity of commodities the abstract idea of money as a measure of values ends by becoming detached from the objects into which the instru- ment of exchange (gold, paper, silver, etc.) is transformed, believes that it is possible to put into circulation a currency of which the unit does not correspond to a given quantity of a given commodity, and concludes that “it is essential that the conception of a unit of measure should be related to some concrete object.” This remark seems to us to be true only as a matter of history. But once the monetary unit which was originally connected with a given commodity is in circulation, the person who receives or gives it does not find it any easier to grasp the exchange value of a piece of precious metal than that of an abstract unit of account. Therefore when we come to study value we are forced to distinguish between value in barter where each commodity has its own utility, and value in exchange for money where we only have to take into consideration the utility of the commodity as estimated by the purchaser. Indeed a person who gives or receives money does not appear capable of realising the value of this amount of commodities, even by referring to the commodity in which the money was originally incorpor- ated, whereas he can appreciate the sum of money which he gives or receives as constituting a given proportion of income or capital.

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Full text: Modern monetary systems

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