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[94] Ricky: Marx's derivation of money represents one of the most striking contrasts
between Marxian and traditional economics. Prior to Marx, mainstream
economists (i.e. Ricardo, Hume) viewed money as merely a way to
facilitate market exchanges. Money was nothing more than a practical
way to deal with the difficulties that arise in bartering. Marx
criticizes this oversight by writing that the task of understanding the
origin of money has never been attempted by bourgeois economics (Marx
1867, pg. 139). Marx's derivations of the necessity of money in a
commodity market are based on his labor theory of value. All
commodities share a common property - abstract labor. Marx believes that
the amount of abstract labor in each commodity must take some socially
recognizable form. He concludes that this observable form must be
money, pointing out that the key characteristics of money, namely
homogeneous quality and specific quantities, are derived from the same
characteristics of abstract labor. In summary, main stream economists
see money as a form of circulation. Marx sees money as a measure of
value. |
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