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Reprint by the Mises Institute of Menger's article published in
Economic Journal 2 (1892) pgs. , 239-55 with translation by C. A. Foley
- this reprint includes a Forward by Douglas French 2009, 52 pgs., paperback
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Reviewer comment:
Carl menger is continually credited today by "Austrian School' economists
and libertarians as a genius whose books and essays laid the foundation for
their theories and proposals about economies and economics policy. What is
shows in this few pages is the multiple fallacies Menger's ideas included then
and that so many of his followers including for instance Murray Rothbard
continue to believe today.
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'The author's method is to employ deductive reasoning to create a pure
theory based on no historical records. He simply presumes what money IS and
when and where and by whom it was 'created'. At the time the economic history
of ancient societies - Mesopotamia, Egypt, China was largely unknown because
their written records had yet to be uncovered or analyzed. In the case of
Mesopotamia that process is still in an early stage with thousands of cuneiform
documents yet to be read. He simply presumes (well taking Adam Smith as the
expert) that prior to the invention of money trade in markets was conducted as
'barter'. He presumes that 'money' then was a commodity that could be used as
an intermediary (a medium of exchange) to facilitate trade in other
commodities. Eventually that commodity was precious metals such as gold and
silver. He then presumes that this process was created by individuals engaged
in exchange markets. Ignores the fact that primitive societies exchanged items
as gifts. He also ignores that the process of production, consumption and
exchange in early developed societies was organized and managed by temples and
palaces - i.e. rulers. He ignores that then and throughout history to the
present much if not most exchange was facilitated and recorded as 'credit' Not
currency.
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But from all this his theory is the delight of libertarians and others
whose political preference is to deplore 'big government' and claim that
individuals did and could do today economic activity best without the
interference of governments.
The conflict today continues between various theoriticians about the origin and
nature of "money' and between pro and anti government political factions.
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Forward by Douglas French
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I - Introduction
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II - Attempts at Solution Hetherto
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III - The Problem of the Genesis of a Medium of Exchange
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IV - Comodities as More or Less Saleable
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V. - Concerning the Causes of the Different Degrees of Saleableness in
Commodities
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VI - On the Genesis of Media of Exchange
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VII - The Process of Differentiantion between Commodities whih have
beome Media of Exchnge and the Rest
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VIII - How the Precious Metals Became Money
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IX - Influence of the Sovereign Power
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Carl Menger - Principles of Economics, Ludwig von Mises
Institute 2007, 328 pgs., index, footnotes, paperback - this is a reprint of
the translation of Menger's book published in German in 1871
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Recommend reading
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Money and Value
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