On Jul 14, 2010, at 4:02 PM, c b wrote:
>
> http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/b/a.htm#barter
>
> However, such a measurement of value is not enough to allow exchange
> of commodities to fully develop, and for the practice of exchange to
> freely develop, a commodity which is infinitely divisible, of
> absolutely uniform purity and quality, infinitely durable, able to
> store a large quantity of human labour in a small quantity of itself,
> is needed.
>
> Historically gold and silver have taken on this role, and along this
> road, paper money and Credit, and inevitably the whole of bourgeois
> society arises.
What is problematic about this is that it inverts what seems to be the real historical sequence. Nowhere does a system of widespread commodity production for a cash market (like that instanced by Herakleitos in the quote appended to my sig) precede the role of "Credit"--the reverse is the case. Farmers do not sell their products for money in order to purchase commodities--they sell in order to pay off interest-bearing debt. Failure to repay costs them their land and their liberty, and the most ancient records of economic history testify to the calamitous social consequences of the debt system. In Attica Solon is remembered for the most radical of all social reforms-- the liberation of debt-slaves and restitution of their expropriated lands. The ancient Israelites dealt institutionally with Solon's problem by "Jubilee"--the repudiation of all debts and restoration of property *every fiftieth year*. The Roman "Twelve Tables of the Law" are centrally concerned with limiting interest and protecting debtors. The same holds true in pre-Exodus (Middle Kingdom) Egypt: "Pharaoh," on Joseph's advice, accumulated large grain reserves during the "fat" years. When the "lean" years came "Pharaoh" (ie., the richest Egyptians) distributed the food as loans to the poor peasants. But the peasant's were unable to repay the loans, and "...So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh...the land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, Pharaoh set them to work as slaves..." (an Egyptian Solon not arising, the debt-bondage lasted another three generations until the slaves finally revolted and "Pharaoh" was overthrown--but that is a different story). In none of these societies did money- mediated exchange play a major role. Money was invented by them for the denomination and payment of debt over time. Its essential nature was (and still is) as means and standard for deferred payment (the words on a dollar bill that define it as *money* are "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private"). The second major function of commodity-money, as medium of exchange, followed and quickly became widespread once its debt-denominating function had been securely established with the institution of coinage. In inverting the historical sequence Marx and Engels were merely repeating Aristotle, but in this, as in many other things, Aristotle was just wrong.
Shane Mage
"All things are an equal exchange for fire and fire for all things, as goods are for gold and gold for goods."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr, 90