Table of Contents
Preface to the New Edition 9
Introduction Lionel Robbins 11
Preface to English Edition 14
Preface to Second German Edition 23
Part 1 The Nature of Money
Chapter I The Functions of Money
§ 1 The General Economic Conditions for the Use of Money 29
§ 2 The Origin of Money 30
§ 3 The 'Secondary' Functions of Money 34
Chapter II On the Measurement of Value
§ 1 The Immeasurability of Subjective Use-Values 38
§ 2 Total Value 45
§ 3 Money as a Price-Index 47
Chapter III The Various Kinds of Money
§ 1 Money and Money-Substitutes 50
§ 2 The Peculiarities of Money-Substitutes 54
§ 3 Commodity Money, Credit Money, and Fiat Money 59
§ 4 The Commodity Money of the Past and of the Present 62
Chapter IV Money and the State
§ 1 The Position of the State in the Market 68
§ 2 The Legal Concept of Money 69
§ 3 The Influence of the State on the Monetary System 71
Chapter V Money as an Economic Good
§ 1 Money neither a Production Good nor a Consumption Good 79
§ 2 Money as Part of Private Capital 86
§ 3 Money not a Part of Social Capital 90
Chapter VI The Enemies of Money
§ 1 Money in the Socialist Community 91
§ 2 Money Cranks 92
Part 2 The Value of Money
Chapter I The Concept of the Value of Money
§ 1 Subjective and Objective Factors in the Theory of the Value of Money 97
§ 2 The Objective Exchange-Value of Money 100
§ 3 The Problems Involved in the Theory of the Value of Money 102
Chapter II The Determinants of the Objective Exchange-Value, or Purchasing Power, of Money
(I) The Element of Continuity in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money
§ 1 The Dependence of the Subjective Valuation of Money on the Existence of Objective Exchange-Value 108
§ 2 The Necessity for a Value Independent of the Monetary Function before an Object can serve as Money 110
§ 3 The Significance of Pre-existing Prices in the Determination of Market Exchange-Ratios 111
§ 4 The Applicability of the Marginal-Utility Theory to Money 114
§ 5 'Monetary' and 'Non-Monetary' Influences Affecting the Objective Exchange-Value of Money 123
II Fluctuations in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money evoked by Changes in the Ratio between the Supply of Money and the Demand for it
§ 6 The Quantity Theory 124
§ 7 The Stock of Money and the Demand for Money 131
§ 8 The Consequences of an Increase in the Quantity of Money while the Demand for Money remains Unchanged or does not Increase to the same extent 137
§ 9 Criticism of some Arguments against the Quantity Theory 146
§ 10 Further Applications of the Quantity Theory 151
III A Special Cause of Variations in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money arising from the Peculiarities of Indirect Exchange
§ 11 'Dearness of Living' 154
§ 12 Wagner's Theory: the Influence of the Permanent Predominance of the Supply Side over the Demand Side on the Determination of Prices 155
§ 13 Wieser's Theory: the Influence on the Value of Money exerted by a Change in the Relations between Natural Economy and Money Economy 157
§ 14 The Mechanism of the Market as a Force affecting the Objective Exchange-Value of Money 162
IV Excursuses
§ 15 The Influence of the Size of the Monetary Unit and its Sub-divisions on the Objective Exchange-Value of Money 166
§ 16 A Methodological Comment 167
Chapter III The Problem of the Existence of Local Differences in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money
§ 1 Inter-local Price Relations 170
§ 2 Alleged Local Differences in the Purchasing Power of Money 172
§ 3 Alleged Local Differences in the Cost of Living 175
Chapter IV The Exchange-Ratio Between Money of Different Kinds
§ 1 Co-existence of Different Kinds of Money 179
§ 2 Static or Natural Exchange-Ratio 180
Chapter V The Problem of Measuring the Objective Exchange-Value of Money and Variations In It
§ 1 The History of the Problem 187
§ 2 The Nature of the Problem 188
§ 3 Methods of Calculating Index Numbers 189
§ 4 Wieser's Refinement of the Methods of Calculating Index-Numbers 191
§ 5 The Practical Utility of Index Numbers 194
Chapter VI The Social Consequences of Variations in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money
§ 1 The Exchange of Present Goods for Future Goods 195
§ 2 Economic Calculation and Accountancy 203
§ 3 Social Consequences of Variations in the Value of Money when only One Kind of Money is Employed 206
§ 4 The Consequences of Variations in the Exchange-Ratio between Two Kinds of Money 212
Chapter VII Monetary Policy
§ 1 Monetary Policy Defined 216
§ 2 The Instruments of Monetary Policy 219
§ 3 Inflationism 219
§ 4 Restrictionism or Deflationism 231
§ 5 Invariability of the Objective Exchange-Value of Money as the Aim of Monetary Policy 236
§ 6 The Limits of Monetary Policy 238
§ 7 Excursus: The Concepts, Inflation and Deflation 239
Chapter VII The Monetary Policy of Etatism
§ 1 The Monetary Theory of Etatism 242
§ 2 National Prestige and the Rate of Exchange 244
§ 3 The Regulation of Prices by Authoritative Decree 245
§ 4 The Balance-of-Payments Theory as a Basis of Currency Policy 249
§ 5 The Suppression of Speculation 252
Part 3 Money and Banking
Chapter I The Business of Banking
§ 1 Types of Banking Activity 261
§ 2 The Banks as Negotiators of Credit 262
§ 3 The Banks as Issuers of Fiduciary Media 263
§ 4 Deposits as the Origin of Circulation Credit 268
§ 5 The Granting of Circulation Credit 271
§ 6 Fiduciary Media and the Nature of Indirect Exchange 275
Chapter II The Evolution of Fiduciary Media
§ 1 The Two Ways of Issuing Fiduciary Media 278
§ 2 Fiduciary Media and the Clearing System 281
§ 3 Fiduciary Media in Domestic Trade 286
§ 4 Fiduciary Media in International Trade 291
Chapter III Fiduciary Media and the Demand for Money
§ 1 The Influence of Fiduciary Media on the Demand for Money in the Narrower Sense 297
§ 2 The Fluctuations in the Demand for Money 300
§ 3 The Elasticity of the System of Reciprocal Cancellation 302
§ 4 The Elasticity of a Credit Circulation Based on Bills, especially on Commodity Bills 305
§ 5 The Significance of the Exclusive Employment of Bills as Cover for Fiduciary Media 313
§ 6 The Periodical Rise and Fall in the Extent to which Bank Credit is Requisitioned 314
§ 7 The Influence of Fiduciary Media on Fluctuations in the Objective Exchange-Value of Money 318
Chapter IV The Redemption of Fiduciary Media
§ 1 The Necessity for Complete Equivalence between Money and Money-Substitutes 319
§ 2 The Return of Fiduciary Media to the Issuer 321
§ 3 The Case Against the Issue of Fiduciary Media 322
§ 4 The Redemption Fund 325
§ 5 The So-called 'Banking' Type of Cover 331
§ 6 The Significance of Short-Term Cover 334
§ 7 The Security of the Investments of the Credit-Issuing Banks 335
§ 8 Foreign Bills in the Redemption Fund 337
Chapter V Money, Credit, and Interest
§ 1 On the Nature of the Problem 339
§ 2 Money and Interest 346
§ 3 Equilibrium Rate and Money Rate of Interest 349
§ 4 Interest Policy and Production 357
§ 5 Credit and Economic Crises 365
Chapter VI Problems of Credit Policy
I Prefatory Remark
§ 1 The Conflict of Credit Policies 367
II Problems of Credit Policy Before the War
§ 2 Peel's Act 368
§ 3 The Nature of Discount Policy 373
§ 4 The Gold-Premium Policy 377
§ 5 Systems Similar to the Gold-Premium Policy 382
§ 6 The 'Illegitimate' Demand for Money 384
§ 7 Other Measures 386
§ 8 The Promotion of Cheque and Clearing Transactions 387
III Problems of Credit Policy in the Period Immediately After the War
§ 9 The Gold-Exchange Standard 391
§ 10 A Return to a Gold Currency 394
§ 11 The Freedom of the Banks 395
§ 12 Fisher's Commodity Standard 399
§ 13 Future Currency Policy 406
Part 4 Monetary Reconstruction
Chapter I The Principle of Sound Money
§ 1 The Classical Idea of Sound Money 413
§ 2 The Virtues and Alleged Shortcomings of the Gold Standard 416
§ 3 The Full-Employment Doctrine 423
§ 4 The Emergency Argument in Favour of Inflation 426
Chapter II Contemporary Currency Systems
§ 1 The Inflexible Gold Standard 429
§ 2 The Flexible Standard 429
§ 3 The Freely-vacillating Currency 431
§ 4 The Illusive Standard 432
Chapter III The Return to Sound Money
§ 1 Monetary Policy and the Present Trend Towards All-round Planning 435
§ 2 The Integral Gold Standard 438
§ 3 Currency Reform in Ruritania 442
§ 4 The United States' Return to a Sound Currency 448
§ 5 The Controversy Concerning the Choice of the New Gold Parity 452
Concluding Remarks 456
Appendix A On the Classification of Monetary Theories
§ 1 Catallactic and Acatallactic Doctrine 461
§ 2 The 'State' Theory of Money 463
§ 3 Schumpeter's Theory 469
§ 4 'Metallism' 473
§ 5 The Concept of 'Metallism5 in Wieser and Philippovich 475
§ 6 The Two English Schools of Banking Theory 481
Appendix B Translator's Note on the Translation of Certain Technical Terms 482
Index 487
