Introduction

Abstract

Marx considered his theory of money to be one of his main accomplishments and a significant advance over Ricardo’s theory and classical economics in general, which had simply taken money for granted, or explained the existence of money in ad hoc fashion, on the basis of the practical difficulties of barter, unrelated to any theory of value.

I would like to express appreciation to Mount Holyoke College for its generous financial support for the conference, especially Dean Donal O’Shea, and I would also like to thank Dawn Larder and Alena Zhaliazniak for their excellent organizational and logistical work relating to it. Finally, I also would like to thank all the conference participants for our many lively and productive discussions, both in person and by email. In spite of our disagreements (or is it because of our disagreements?), I have learned a lot from these wonderful Marxian scholars about Marx’s theory of money and other theories of money.

This introduction represents my interpretation of Marx’s theory of money. A number of the authors in this book disagree with my interpretation, as will be evident from their chapters. I have benefited from suggestions for the introduction from almost all the authors, especially Riccardo Bellofiore, Geert Reuten and Chris Arthur. The remaining errors are mine.