Analytical Table of Contents
Part I The Value of Money and the General Theory of Value
| CHAPTER I ECONOMIC VALUE | |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
| Problem of value of money special case of general theory of value; present chapter concerned with general theory | 1 |
| Formal and logical aspects of value: value as quality; value as quantity; value and wealth | 5-6 |
| Absolute vs. relative conceptions of value: value of money vs. “reciprocal of price-level”; value prior to exchange; value and exchangeability; do prices correctly express values? | 6-12 |
| Doctrine so far in accord with main current of economic opinion | 12-14 |
| Causal theory of value new: marginal utility, labor theory, etc., rejected | 14-16 |
| Social explanation required: “individual” a social product, both in history of individual and in history of race | 16-19 |
| And above individual impersonal psychic forces, law, public opinion, morality, economic values | 19-20 |
| Three types of theory have dealt with these: theory of extra-human objective forces; extreme individualism; social value theory | 20-21 |
| Illustrated in jurisprudence, ethics, and economic theory | 21-26 |
| Law, morals, and economic values generically alike, but have differentiæ | 26-28 |
| But not differentiated on basis of states of consciousness of individual immediately moved by them, because many minds in organic interplay involved | 28-33 |
| Economic social value (a) of consumers’ goods and services: “utility” and scarcity; “marginal utility”; social explanation of marginal utility; marginal utilities the conscious focus of economic values of consumers’ goods; but only minor part of these values; individuals, classes and institutions heavily weighted by legal, moral, and other social values, in power over economic values of consumers’ goods | 33-38 |
| Economic social value (b) of labor, land, stocks, bonds, “good will,” etc.; based only in part on values of consumers’ goods; partially independent, directly influenced by contagion, and centers of power and prestige | 38-41 |
| Pragmatic character of theory | 41-43 |
| Relation of social values to individual values | 43-45 |
| CHAPTER II SUPPLY AND DEMAND, AND THE VALUE OF MONEY | |
| Hiatus between general theory of value and theory of value of money | 46-47 |
| Partly because former has been developed by different writers from those who have developed latter | 47-49 |
| But chiefly because supply and demand, cost of production, etc., assume fixed value of money, and are theories of price, rather than value | 49 |
| Supply and demand useful but superficial formula, common property of many value theories | 49-50 |
| Crude and unanalyzed in Smith and Ricardo; first made precise by J. S. Mill, who gives essentials of modern doctrine | 49-51 |
| Böhm-Bawerk’s pseudo-psychology spoils Mill’s clean-cut doctrine | 51-52 |
| Supply and demand assumes fixed value of money-unit, and hence inapplicable to money itself | 52-56 |
| But supply and demand does not assume fixed price-level | 56-57 |
| Cairnes vs. Mill | 57-58 |
| Mill’s unsuccessful effort to apply supply and demand to money | 59-62 |
| Walker’s attempt | 62 |
| Supply and demand in the “money market” | 62-63 |
| CHAPTER III COST OF PRODUCTION AND THE VALUE OF MONEY | |
| Types of cost theory: modern cost doctrine is “money costs” doctrine, and inapplicable to value of money | 64 |
| Labor cost: Smith; Ricardo; Ricardo’s confession of failure; “real costs” in Senior and Cairnes; Mill’s “money-outlay” cost doctrine, and Cairnes’ criticism; but “money-cost” has survived | 64-67 |
| Because “real cost” doctrine does not square with facts | 67-69 |
| “Money-cost” of producing money-metal | 69-70 |
| Austrian cost doctrine runs still in money terms, assuming value, money, and fixed value of money | 70-71 |
| “Negative social values” as “real costs” | note, 71 |
| CHAPTER IV THE CAPITALIZATION THEORY AND THE VALUE OF MONEY | |
| Money as “capital good,” and “money-rates” as rentals | 72-73 |
| Capitalization theory; formula; capital value passive resultant of annual income and rate of discount | 73-74 |
| But in case of money, rental and rate of discount not independent variables | 74-76 |
| And in case of money, capital value not passive shadow, but active cause of income | 76 |
| Capitalization theory assumes money, and fixed value of money | 76-77 |
| Assumed fixed value of money absolute, and not relative | 77-78 |
| Capitalization theory, in current formulation, inapplicable to value of money | 78-79 |
| CHAPTER V MARGINAL UTILITY AND THE VALUE OF MONEY | |
| Marginal utility theory usually thinly disguised version of supply and demand, and hence inapplicable to money | 80 |
| View that money is unique in having no utility per se | 81-83 |
| Marginal utility and “commodity theory” of money-value | 81-82 |
| Quantity theorists and marginal utility of money | 81-82 |
| Money an instrumental good, and marginal utility no less applicable here than elsewhere; marginal utility invalid as general theory of value, hence invalid when applied to money | 82-120 |
| Wieser’s theory of value of money | 83-88 |
| A circle in reasoning | 88-90 |
| Schumpeter’s similar circle | 100 |
| But Schumpeter’s general utility theory, though inapplicable to value of money, in form avoids a causal circle | 90-98 |
| Schumpeter’s conspectus; different from Böhm-Bawerk and most utility theorists | 90-92, 113-120 |
| Defects and limitations of Schumpeter’s general theory | 90-98 |
| Schumpeter’s substitutes for social value concept | 98-99 |
| Von Mises sees circle of Wieser and Schumpeter | 100 |
| Seeks to avoid it by construing utility theory as historical, instead of static, theory | 101 |
| But this departs from fundamentals of utility theory; other difficulties | 101-110 |
| Kinley’s doctrine | 110-111 |
| General criticism of utility theory | 111-115 |
| Davenport, Wicksteed, Fisher, Perry | 113-120 |