Marx, Say’s Law and Commodity Money

Trigg, Andrew B. (2020). Marx, Say’s Law and Commodity Money. Contributions to Political Economy, 39(1) pp. 23–41.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cpe/bzaa005

Abstract

Under Marx’s critique of Say’s Law, as originally devised by Say and James Mill, money hoarding leads to a shortfall in aggregate demand. This paper responds to a Post Keynesian argument that hoarding does not restrict aggregate demand since for Marx money consists of a produced commodity, and hoarding is just one form of commodity demand. Drawing on Marx’s monetary writings, a new monetary equilibrium is suggested in which produced gold is used to replace wear and tear in circulation. An alternative critique of Say’s Law is thus proposed as a contribution to understanding the complexity of Marx’s monetary foundations.

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