012-B-The-currency-of-money

B. The currency of money

货币的流通

The change of form, C–M–C, by which the circulation of the material products of
labour is brought about, requires that a given value in the shape of a commodity
shall begin the process, and shall, also in the shape of a commodity, end it.
The movement of the commodity is therefore a circuit. On the other hand, the
form of this movement precludes a circuit from being made by the money. The
result is not the return of the money, but its continued removal further and
further away from its starting-point. So long as the seller sticks fast to his
money, which is the transformed shape of his commodity, that commodity is still
in the first phase of its metamorphosis, and has completed only half its course.
But so soon as he completes the process, so soon as he supplements his sale by a
purchase, the money again leaves the hands of its possessor. It is true that if
the weaver, after buying the Bible, sell more linen, money comes back into his
hands. But this return is not owing to the circulation of the first 20 yards of
linen; that circulation resulted in the money getting into the hands of the
seller of the Bible. The return of money into the hands of the weaver is brought
about only by the renewal or repetition of the process of circulation with a
fresh commodity, which renewed process ends with the same result as its
predecessor did. Hence the movement directly imparted to money by the
circulation of commodities takes the form of a constant motion away from its
starting-point, of a course from the hands of one commodity-owner into those of
another. This course constitutes its currency (cours de la monnaie).

商品流通中的货币运动，就是货币不断地离开起点，就是货币从一个商品所有者手里到另一个商品所有者手里。这个运动形式，就是货币流通。

The currency of money is the constant and monotonous repetition of the same
process. The commodity is always in the hands of the seller; the money, as a
means of purchase, always in the hands of the buyer. And money serves as a means
of purchase by realising the price of the commodity. This realisation transfers
the commodity from the seller to the buyer and removes the money from the hands
of the buyer into those of the seller, where it again goes through the same
process with another commodity. That this one-sided character of the money’s
motion arises out of the two-sided character of the commodity’s motion, is a
circumstance that is veiled over. The very nature of the circulation of
commodities begets the opposite appearance. The first metamorphosis of a
commodity is visibly, not only the money’s movement, but also that of the
commodity itself; in the second metamorphosis, on the contrary, the movement
appears to us as the movement of the money alone. In the first phase of its
circulation the commodity changes place with the money. Thereupon the commodity,
under its aspect of a useful object, falls out of circulation into consumption.
In its stead we have its value-shape – the money. It then goes through the
second phase of its circulation, not under its own natural shape, but under the
shape of money. The continuity of the movement is therefore kept up by the money
alone, and the same movement that as regards the commodity consists of two
processes of an antithetical character, is, when considered as the movement of
the money, always one and the same process, a continued change of places with
ever fresh commodities. Hence the result brought about by the circulation of
commodities, namely, the replacing of one commodity by another, takes the
appearance of having been effected not by means of the change of form of the
commodities but rather by the money acting as a medium of circulation, by an
action that circulates commodities, to all appearance motionless in themselves,
and transfers them from hands in which they are non-use-values, to hands in
which they are use-values; and that in a direction constantly opposed to the
direction of the money. The latter is continually withdrawing commodities from
circulation and stepping into their places, and in thus way continually moving
further and further from its starting-point. Hence although the movement of the
money is merely the expression of the circulation of commodities, yet the
contrary appears to be the actual fact, and the circulation of commodities seems
to be the result of the movement of the money.

货币流通是同一个过程的不断重复。商品总是在卖家手里，货币作为购买手段，总是在买家手里。货币在实现商品价格的时候【买东西的时候】，就是执行购买手段的职能的时候。这个实现过程，使商品从卖家手里转到买家手里，使货币从买家手里转到卖家手里。然后，货币又会再次经历这样的转手。货币的单向运动源于商品的双向运动，这是被掩盖着的真相。商品流通的本质呈现出相反的表象。商品第一个变形，既是商品的运动，也是货币的运动；商品第二个变形，则仅呈现为货币的运动。商品第一个变形，是商品与货币互换位置。于是商品退出流通领域，进入消费领域。现在我们手里的是它的Value形态，即货币。现在，它经历流通的第二个阶段，不是以原来的形式，而是以货币的形式。因此，运动的连续性只由货币保持，这个运动对商品来说包含2个相互对立的过程，但对货币来说只是1个过程的重复，即货币不断地与新的商品交换位置。因此，商品流通不是呈现为商品的变形，而是呈现为这样的形式：货币作为流通中介，使不能动的商品动起来，将商品从视其为非使用价值的人手里转移到视其为使用价值的人手里，且商品的运动方向总与货币相反。货币不断地使商品离开流通领域，不断地远离自己的起点。因此，尽管货币的运动只是商品流通的表现，但感觉起来却像是商品流通是货币运动的结果。

Again, money functions as a means of circulation only because in it the values
of commodities have independent reality. Hence its movement, as the medium of
circulation, is, in fact, merely the movement of commodities while changing
their forms. This fact must therefore make itself plainly visible in the
currency of money. Thus the linen for instance, first of all changes its
commodity-form into its money-form. The second term of its first metamorphosis,
C–M, the money form, then becomes the first term of its final metamorphosis,
M–C, its re-conversion into the Bible. But each of these two changes of form is
accomplished by an exchange between commodity and money, by their reciprocal
displacement. The same pieces of coin come into the seller’s hand as the
alienated form of the commodity and leave it as the absolutely alienable form
of the commodity. They are displaced twice. The first metamorphosis of the
linen puts these coins into the weaver’s pocket, the second draws them out of
it. The two inverse changes undergone by the same commodity are reflected in the
displacement, twice repeated, but in opposite directions, of the same pieces of
coin.

If, on the contrary, only one phase of the metamorphosis is gone through, if
there are only sales or only purchases, then a given piece of money changes its
place only once. Its second change of place always expresses the second
metamorphosis of the commodity, its re-conversion from money. The frequent
repetition of the displacement of the same coins reflects not only the series of
metamorphoses that a single commodity has gone through, but also the
intertwining of the innumerable metamorphoses in the world of commodities in
general. It is a matter of course, that all this is applicable to the simple
circulation of commodities alone, the only form that we are now considering.

Every commodity, when it first steps into circulation, and undergoes its first
change of form, does so only to fall out of circulation again and to be replaced
by other commodities. Money, on the contrary, as the medium of circulation,
keeps continually within the sphere of circulation, and moves about in it. The
question therefore arises, how much money this sphere constantly absorbs?

每个商品，进入流通领域，经历了第一次变形后，就退出流通领域。而总有新的商品进入流通领域。相反，货币作为流通手段，总是留在流通领域内，且不断运动。问题来了，流通领域中有多少货币？

In a given country there take place every day at the same time, but in different
localities, numerous one-sided metamorphoses of commodities, or, in other words,
numerous sales and numerous purchases. The commodities are equated beforehand in
imagination, by their prices, to definite quantities of money. And since, in the
form of circulation now under consideration, money and commodities always come
bodily face to face, one at the positive pole of purchase, the other at the
negative pole of sale, it is clear that the amount of the means of circulation
required, is determined beforehand by the sum of the prices of all these
commodities. As a matter of fact, the money in reality represents the quantity
or sum of gold ideally expressed beforehand by the sum of the prices of the
commodities. The equality of these two sums is therefore self-evident. We know,
however, that, the values of commodities remaining constant, their prices vary
with the value of gold (the material of money), rising in proportion as it
falls, and falling in proportion as it rises. Now if, in consequence of such a
rise or fall in the value of gold, the sum of the prices of commodities fall or
rise, the quantity of money in currency must fall or rise to the same extent.
The change in the quantity of the circulating medium is, in this case, it is
true, caused by the money itself, yet not in virtue of its function as a medium
of circulation, but of its function as a measure of value. First, the price of
the commodities varies inversely as the value of the money, and then the
quantity of the medium of circulation varies directly as the price of the
commodities. Exactly the same thing would happen if, for instance, instead of
the value of gold falling, gold were replaced by silver as the measure of value,
or if, instead of the value of silver rising, gold were to thrust silver out
from being the measure of value. In the one case, more silver would be current
than gold was before; in the other case, less gold would be current than silver
was before. In each case the value of the material of money, i.e., the value
of the commodity that serves as the measure of value, would have undergone a
change, and therefore so, too, would the prices of commodities which express
their values in money, and so, too, would the quantity of money current whose
function it is to realise those prices. We have already seen, that the sphere of
circulation has an opening through which gold (or the material of money
generally) enters into it as a commodity with a given value. Hence, when money
enters on its functions as a measure of value, when it expresses prices, its
value is already determined. If now its value fall, this fact is first evidenced
by a change in the prices of those commodities that are directly bartered for
the precious metals at the sources of their production. The greater part of all
other commodities, especially in the imperfectly developed stages of civil
society, will continue for a long time to be estimated by the former antiquated
and illusory value of the measure of value. Nevertheless, one commodity infects
another through their common value-relation, so that their prices, expressed in
gold or in silver, gradually settle down into the proportions determined by
their comparative values, until finally the values of all commodities are
estimated in terms of the new value of the metal that constitutes money. This
process is accompanied by the continued increase in the quantity of the precious
metals, an increase caused by their streaming in to replace the articles
directly bartered for them at their sources of production. In proportion
therefore as commodities in general acquire their true prices, in proportion as
their values become estimated according to the fallen value of the precious
metal, in the same proportion the quantity of that metal necessary for realising
those new prices is provided beforehand. A one-sided observation of the results
that followed upon the discovery of fresh supplies of gold and silver, led some
economists in the 17th, and particularly in the 18th century, to the false
conclusion, that the prices of commodities had gone up in consequence of the
increased quantity of gold and silver serving as means of circulation.
Henceforth we shall consider the value of gold to be given, as, in fact, it is
momentarily, whenever we estimate the price of a commodity.

On this supposition then, the quantity of the medium of circulation is
determined by the sum of the prices that have to be realised. If now we further
suppose the price of each commodity to be given, the sum of the prices clearly
depends on the mass of commodities in circulation. It requires but little
racking of brains to comprehend that if one quarter of wheat costs £2,100
quarters will cost £200, 200 quarters £400, and so on, that consequently the
quantity of money that changes place with the wheat, when sold, must increase
with the quantity of that wheat.

If the mass of commodities remain constant, the quantity of circulating money
varies with the fluctuations in the prices of those commodities. It increases
and diminishes because the sum of the prices increases or diminishes in
consequence of the change of price. To produce this effect, it is by no means
requisite that the prices of all commodities should rise or fall simultaneously.
A rise or a fall in the prices of a number of leading articles, is sufficient in
the one case to increase, in the other to diminish, the sum of the prices of all
commodities, and, therefore, to put more or less money in circulation. Whether
the change in the price correspond to an actual change of value in the
commodities, or whether it be the result of mere fluctuations in market-prices,
the effect on the quantity of the medium of circulation remains the same.
Suppose the following articles to be sold or partially metamorphosed
simultaneously in different localities: say, one quarter of wheat, 20 yards of
linen, one Bible, and 4 gallons of brandy. If the price of each article be £2,
and the sum of the prices to be realised be consequently £8, it follows that £8
in money must go into circulation. If, on the other hand, these same articles
are links in the following chain of metamorphoses: 1 quarter of wheat – £2 – 20
yards of linen – £2 – 1 Bible – £2 – 4 gallons of brandy – £2, a chain that is
already well known to us, in that case the £2 cause the different commodities to
circulate one after the other, and after realising their prices successively,
and therefore the sum of those prices, £8, they come to rest at last in the
pocket of the distiller. The £2 thus make four moves. This repeated change of
place of the same pieces of money corresponds to the double change in form of
the commodities, to their motion in opposite directions through two stages of
circulation. and to the interlacing of the metamorphoses of different
commodities. These antithetic and complementary phases, of which the process of
metamorphosis consists, are gone through, not simultaneously, but successively.
Time is therefore required for the completion of the series. Hence the velocity
of the currency of money is measured by the number of moves made by a given
piece of money in a given time. Suppose the circulation of the 4 articles takes
a day. The sum of the prices to be realised in the day is £8, the number of
moves of the two pieces of money is four, and the quantity of money circulating
is £2. Hence, for a given interval of time during the process of circulation, we
have the following relation: the quantity of money functioning as the
circulating medium is equal to the sum of the prices of the commodities divided
by the number of moves made by coins of the same denomination. This law holds
generally.

一定时间内的执行流通手段职能的货币量=卖掉的商品价格总额/同名货币的流通次数

The total circulation of commodities in a given country during a given period is
made up on the one hand of numerous isolated and simultaneous partial
metamorphoses, sales which are at the same time purchases, in which each coin
changes its place only once, or makes only one move; on the other hand, of
numerous distinct series of metamorphoses partly running side by side, and
partly coalescing with each other, in each of which series each coin makes a
number of moves, the number being greater or less according to circumstances.
The total number of moves made by all the circulating coins of one denomination
being given, we can arrive at the average number of moves made by a single coin
of that denomination, or at the average velocity of the currency of money. The
quantity of money thrown into the circulation at the beginning of each day is of
course determined by the sum of the prices of all the commodities circulating
simultaneously side by side. But once in circulation, coins are, so to say, made
responsible for one another. If the one increase its velocity, the other either
retards its own, or altogether falls out of circulation; for the circulation can
absorb only such a quantity of gold as when multiplied by the mean number of
moves made by one single coin or element, is equal to the sum of the prices to
be realised. Hence if the number of moves made by the separate pieces increase,
the total number of those pieces in circulation diminishes. If the number of the
moves diminish, the total number of pieces increases. Since the quantity of
money capable of being absorbed by the circulation is given for a given mean
velocity of currency, all that is necessary in order to abstract a given number
of sovereigns from the circulation is to throw the same number of one-pound
notes into it, a trick well known to all bankers.

Just as the currency of money, generally considered, is but a reflex of the
circulation of commodities, or of the antithetical metamorphoses they undergo,
so, too, the velocity of that currency reflects the rapidity with which
commodities change their forms, the continued interlacing of one series of
metamorphoses with another, the hurried social interchange of matter, the rapid
disappearance of commodities from the sphere of circulation, and the equally
rapid substitution of fresh ones in their places. Hence, in the velocity of the
currency we have the fluent unity of the antithetical and complementary phases,
the unity of the conversion of the useful aspect of commodities into their
value-aspect, and their re-conversion from the latter aspect to the former, or
the unity of the two processes of sale and purchase. On the other hand, the
retardation of the currency reflects the separation of these two processes into
isolated antithetical phases, reflects the stagnation in the change of form, and
therefore, in the social interchange of matter. The circulation itself, of
course, gives no clue to the origin of this stagnation; it merely puts in
evidence the phenomenon itself. The general public, who, simultaneously with the
retardation of the currency, see money appear and disappear less frequently at
the periphery of circulation, naturally attribute this retardation to a
quantitative deficiency in the circulating medium.

货币流通，是商品流通的表现。所以，货币流通的速度反映了商品流通的速度。因此，货币流通速度反映出商品2个变形阶段的统一程度，也可以说，反映出商品2个变形阶段的分裂程度，即商品流通的停滞程度。货币流通变慢，只能说明出现了这停滞，而不能说明这停滞的原因。公众在货币流通变慢时，看到货币在流通领域周围出现和消失的频率降低，就自然地以为是流通手段量不足导致的。【不是货币不够，而是买卖停滞，卖不掉，买不起。】

The total quantity of money functioning during a given period as the circulating
medium, is determined, on the one hand, by the sum of the prices of the
circulating commodities, and on the other hand, by the rapidity with which the
antithetical phases of the metamorphoses follow one another. On this rapidity
depends what proportion of the sum of the prices can, on the average, be
realised by each single coin. But the sum of the prices of the circulating
commodities depends on the quantity, as well as on the prices, of the
commodities. These three factors, however, state of prices, quantity of
circulating commodities, and velocity of money-currency, are all variable.
Hence, the sum of the prices to be realised, and consequently the quantity of
the circulating medium depending on that sum, will vary with the numerous
variations of these three factors in combination. Of these variations we shall
consider those alone that have been the most important in the history of prices.

商品单价、商品数量、货币流通速度，决定了一段时期内执行流通手段职能的货币总量。

While prices remain constant, the quantity of the circulating medium may
increase owing to the number of circulating commodities increasing, or to the
velocity of currency decreasing, or to a combination of the two. On the other
hand the quantity of the circulating medium may decrease with a decreasing
number of commodities, or with an increasing rapidity of their circulation.

With a general rise in the prices of commodities, the quantity of the
circulating medium will remain constant, provided the number of commodities in
circulation decrease proportionally to the increase in their prices, or provided
the velocity of currency increase at the same rate as prices rise, the number of
commodities in circulation remaining constant. The quantity of the circulating
medium may decrease, owing to the number of commodities decreasing more rapidly;
or to the velocity of currency increasing more rapidly, than prices rise.

With a general fall in the prices of commodities, the quantity of the
circulating medium will remain constant, provided the number of commodities
increase proportionally to their fall in price, or provided the velocity of
currency decrease in the same proportion. The quantity of the circulating medium
will increase, provided the number of commodities increase quicker, or the
rapidity of circulation decrease quicker, than the prices fall.

The variations of the different factors may mutually compensate each other, so
that notwithstanding their continued instability, the sum of the prices to be
realised and the quantity of money in circulation remain constant; consequently,
we find, especially if we take long periods into consideration, that the
deviations from the average level, of the quantity of money current in any
country, are much smaller than we should at first sight expect, apart of course
from excessive perturbations periodically arising from industrial and commercial
crises, or less frequently, from fluctuations in the value of money.

各个因素的变动可以相互抵消，所以尽管这些因素不断变动，待实现的商品总价和流通的货币总量可以保持不变。因此，特别是考察一个较长的时期，就会发现：一个国家中流通的货币量的波动偏离平均水平的程度要比我们料想的小得多；当然，除了周期的生产危机商业危机引起的强烈震动外，也除了偶尔由货币Value本身的变动引起的强烈震动外。

The law, that the quantity of the circulating medium is determined by the sum of
the prices of the commodities circulating, and the average velocity of currency
may also be stated as follows: given the sum of the values of commodities, and
the average rapidity of their metamorphoses, the quantity of precious metal
current as money depends on the value of that precious metal. The erroneous
opinion that it is, on the contrary, prices that are determined by the quantity
of the circulating medium, and that the latter depends on the quantity of the
precious metals in a country; this opinion was based by those who first held it,
on the absurd hypothesis that commodities are without a price, and money without
a value, when they first enter into circulation, and that, once in the
circulation, an aliquot part of the medley of commodities is exchanged for an
aliquot part of the heap of precious metals.

流通手段量取决于流通商品的总价和货币流通的速度，这个规律，还可以表述如下：已知商品Value总额和商品形态变化的平均速度，流通货币量即货币材料量取决于货币本身的Value。有一种错误的观点，认为情况恰恰相反，即商品价格取决于流通手段量，流通手段量取决于一个国家现有的货币材料量。这种错觉在它的最初代表者那里是建立在下面这个荒谬的假设上的：在进入流通过程时，商品没有价格，货币没有Value，然后在这个过程内，商品堆的一个比例与货币堆的一个比例相交换。