Money is the right to take things. The claim of money comes from the right of a set of products. If a country's currency issuing unit does not see this characteristic of currency, it will inevitably destroy the circular movement of currency and even bring disastrous consequences. The hyperinflation during the Kuomintang period is the embodiment of this disastrous consequence.
Money and the carrier of money are different. The carrier of money can be cattle and sheep, gold and silver, paper or symbols. Up to now, basically no one has distinguished money from the carrier of money. Marx also made this mistake, so he thought that money was a universal equivalent and a commodity. Marx's "history" about money is actually the evolutionary history of money carrier. In the early days, the carrier of money was all kinds of specific commodities, which caused a lot of trouble, so people began to fix the carrier of money on one or two metals. With the development of science and technology, the carrier of money has gradually changed from metal to paper, until today's symbol. Although the carrier of money is constantly changing, this change does not affect the essence of money, and money is always a proposition for things.
Money claims that the rights of things are transmitted through credit. Without credit, money cannot circulate. The reason why Apple owners accept 2 yuan's money depends on credit. Without credit, the owner of Apple will not accept 2 yuan money. When the money carrier is various specific products, the money carrier (specific products) acts as the credit basis of money. With the change of currency carrier, the carrier of currency has evolved from a specific product to a symbol. At this time, the carrier of money has no credit basis. Who will provide the credit base of money at this time? Issued by the currency issuing unit. Under the present circumstances, the unit that issues money is generally the central bank of the country, in addition, there are commercial banks (such as Bank of China). These currency issuing units not only issue money, but also provide credit for the flow of money.
As mentioned above, money comes from a set of rights of products, including the ownership, use and claim of products. If the right subject of the product does not accept it, the claim of the product is invalid. In order to be effective, the right subject of the product must accept it. Accepting the claim must be accompanied by giving up the claim. Money is the right to claim things, and the right to claim money is based on giving up the right to claim things. The unit that issues money just completes this process. In view of the fact that there is no money in the market now, Zhang San founded Company A in order to make money. In order to get money, Zhang San used his own property as collateral (creditor's rights based on these products) and asked the central bank to issue money. The central bank accepted Zhang San's request and issued 1 10,000 yuan to Zhang San.
1. Zhang San changed his mind and stopped running the company. He returned 6,543,800 yuan of currency to the central bank, and the central bank and Zhang San lifted the mortgage relationship. At this time, money has completed a circular movement, that is, the process of shadow money-money-shadow money. The shadow currency mentioned here refers to the amount of money calculated according to the shadow price, and the shadow price refers to the arbitrary price given to the unit product. For example, Zhang San has 10 products, and the given shadow price of each product is10 million yuan, so the shadow currency calculated by Zhang San according to the shadow price is10 million yuan. If we give a shadow price of 6.5438+0 million yuan, then Zhang San's shadow currency is 6.5438+0 million yuan. Zhang San mortgaged the shadow currency of 654.38+00,000 yuan to the central bank, and the currency he got was 654.38+00,000 yuan (in reality, it is likely to be 78% off, and here is the discount). When Zhang San returned 65.438 million yuan to the central bank, Zhang San's currency became a shadow currency again.
Second, Zhang San pays all 1 ten thousand yuan, assuming that no one buys the products produced by Zhang San. At this time, the holders of the currencies approached the Central Bank and demanded to honor the creditor's rights of these currencies. The central bank asked Zhang San to repay 6,543,800 yuan. Because Zhang San has no money, he has to pay off his debts with collateral. At this time, bargaining began. If the holder thinks that the collateral is just 654.38+0 million, there is no problem, but Zhang San's assets have become the assets of others. If the holder of the money thinks that these collateral are only 500 thousand, trouble will come. The central bank owes money holders 500 thousand, and Zhang San also owes the central bank 500 thousand Zhang San declared bankruptcy. What about the central bank? Can it declare bankruptcy?
Third, all Zhang San's products were sold, and * * * recovered 1 10,000 yuan. Zhang San returned the money to the central bank, and everyone was safe.
Fourth, Zhang San sold half of the products and recovered 6.5438+0 million yuan, and half of the products were still there.
Through this example, readers should have a specific understanding of the circular movement of money. Of course, we can introduce other financial structures and some financial and derivative financial products.
Money is transformed from shadow money, and the calculation basis of shadow money is products, so money is transformed from products. Why can products be converted into money? Some people think that products have intrinsic value, and value is created by labor or factors (capital, land, etc.). ). Is that really the case? Is the product created by labor equal to the product value created by labor? Of course not. As for the factors of production, creating value is meaningless. The root of the conversion of products into money is a set of rights of products. If products do not have this set of rights, money does not exist. The right to convert products into money is the right to claim products. As long as the product claim can be separated from a group of rights of the product and drive the transfer of other rights, the function of money can be reflected.
When we find out what money is, many concepts and theories in economics will be re-examined, such as cost and profit. . . IS-LM model. . . Comparative advantage theory, etc. Because there are two fundamental defects in current economics: one is its logical basis, and the other is the analysis of money (including so-called monetarism).
Of course, there are also many people who are opposed to overthrowing the current economic society. There are many reasons for opposition, including problems of understanding, habits and interests. Every research chain has many benefits, and these may be famous economists.