013-C-Coin-and-symbols-of-value

C. Coin and symbols of value

铸币和Value的符号

That money takes the shape of coin, springs from its function as the circulating
medium. The weight of gold represented in imagination by the prices or
money-names of commodities, must confront those commodities, within the
circulation, in the shape of coins or pieces of gold of a given denomination.
Coining, like the establishment of a standard of prices, is the business of the
State. The different national uniforms worn at home by gold and silver as coins,
and doffed again in the market of the world, indicate the separation between the
internal or national spheres of the circulation of commodities, and their
universal sphere.

货币作为流通手段的职能，使货币采取了铸币的形式。像设立价格标准一样，铸币，也是国家的事。金银作为铸币，在不同的国家的里穿着不同的制服，而在世界市场上则脱掉了制服。这表明，国内的商品流通和国际的商品流通是分开的。

The only difference, therefore, between coin and bullion, is one of shape, and
gold can at any time pass from one form to the other. But no sooner does coin
leave the mint, than it immediately finds itself on the high-road to the melting
pot. During their currency, coins wear away, some more, others less. Name and
substance, nominal weight and real weight, begin their process of separation.
Coins of the same denomination become different in value, because they are
different in weight. The weight of gold fixed upon as the standard of prices,
deviates from the weight that serves as the circulating medium, and the latter
thereby ceases any longer to be a real equivalent of the commodities whose
prices it realises. The history of coinage during the middle ages and down into
the 18th century, records the ever renewed confusion arising from this cause.
The natural tendency of circulation to convert coins into a mere semblance of
what they profess to be, into a symbol of the weight of metal they are
officially supposed to contain, is recognised by modern legislation, which fixes
the loss of weight sufficient to demonetise a gold coin, or to make it no longer
legal tender.

因此，金币和金条只有形状的区别，金可以随时从一种形状转变为另一种形状。金离开造币厂的时候，就是走向熔炉的时候。在货币流通过程中，铸币会磨损，有的多有的少。名字和实质，标准重量和实际重量，越来越不一样，开始了分离的过程。相同面额的铸币，其Value变得不同，因为它们的重量被磨损得不同了。作为价格标准的金的重量，与作为流通手段的金的重量不同了。【铸币的面额与铸币的金量不同了。】铸币的含金量不再是商品的真正等价物。从中世纪到18世纪的铸币历史，记录着由此引发的混乱观念。流通的自然倾向，是将铸币转换为一个描述金量的符号。这个倾向被现代法律认可，这些法律规定，金币磨损到一定程度，就不能通用，失去法定货币资格。

The fact that the currency of coins itself effects a separation between their
nominal and their real weight, creating a distinction between them as mere
pieces of metal on the one hand, and as coins with a definite function on the
other – this fact implies the latent possibility of replacing metallic coins by
tokens of some other material, by symbols serving the same purposes as coins.
The practical difficulties in the way of coining extremely minute quantities of
gold or silver, and the circumstance that at first the less precious metal is
used as a measure of value instead of the-more precious, copper instead of
silver, silver instead of gold, and that the less precious circulates as money
until dethroned by the more precious – all these facts explain the parts
historically played by silver and copper tokens as substitutes for gold coins.
Silver and copper tokens take the place of gold in those regions of the
circulation where coins pass from hand to hand most rapidly, and are subject to
the maximum amount of wear and tear. This occurs where sales and purchases on a
very small scale are continually happening. In order to prevent these satellites
from establishing themselves permanently in the place of gold, positive
enactments determine the extent to which they must be compulsorily received as
payment instead of gold. The particular tracks pursued by the different species
of coin in currency, run naturally into each other. The tokens keep company with
gold, to pay fractional parts of the smallest gold coin; gold is, on the one
hand, constantly pouring into retail circulation, and on the other hand is as
constantly being thrown out again by being changed into tokens.

货币流通使铸币的名义金量和实际金量不一致了。这暗示出用某种符号代替金属铸币的可能。铸造重量极小的金币或银币有技术上的困难。最初是较贱的金属（是铜而不是银，是银而不是金）充当Value标尺，后来才被较贵的金属取代。这些事实说明了，历史上人们用银符号和铜符号（即辅币）代替金币。银符号和铜符号在货币流通最频繁、磨损最严重的领域，代替了金。这发生在极小额买卖不断重复进行的领域。为了避免这些次要角色篡夺金的地位，法律规定了一个极小的上限，在此上限内，它们才能代替金来支付。不同种铸币的流通轨迹，自然地相互交错着。辅币伴随着金币，支付最小额金币的尾数零头部分；金一方面不断加入零售行为，另一方面又因与辅币兑换而被抛出来。

The weight of metal in the silver and copper tokens is arbitrarily fixed by law.
When in currency, they wear away even more rapidly than gold coins. Hence their
functions are totally independent of their weight, and consequently of all
value. The function of gold as coin becomes completely independent of the
metallic value of that gold. Therefore things that are relatively without value,
such as paper notes, can serve as coins in its place. This purely symbolic
character is to a certain extent masked in metal tokens. In paper money it
stands out plainly. In fact, ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte.

银符号和铜符号中的金属重量是由法律任意规定的。在流通中，它们磨损得比金还快。因此，它们的铸币职能与它们的重量（它们的Value）完全无关了。金币的职能与其作为金的Value完全无关了。因此，基本上没有Value的东西，例如纸质符号（纸币），就可以充当铸币。在金属符号中，这种纯符号的性质只显露到一定程度。在纸币中，它就完全暴露出来了。万事开头难。实际上，万事只在开头难。

We allude here only to inconvertible paper money issued by the State and having
compulsory circulation. It has its immediate origin in the metallic currency.
Money based upon credit implies on the other hand conditions, which, from our
standpoint of the simple circulation of commodities, are as yet totally unknown
to us. But we may affirm this much, that just as true paper money takes its rise
in the function of money as the circulating medium, so money based upon credit
takes root spontaneously in the function of money as the means of payment.

这里讲的只是国家强制流通的纸币。它直接起源于金属货币的流通。而信用货币的产生条件，从简单商品流通的观点看，还完全是未知的。但我们可以断言一点，就像本来意义的纸币源于货币作为流通手段的职能，信用货币源于货币作为支付手段的职能。

The State puts in circulation bits of paper on which their various
denominations, say £1, £5, &c., are printed. In so far as they actually take the
place of gold to the same amount, their movement is subject to the laws that
regulate the currency of money itself. A law peculiar to the circulation of
paper money can spring up only from the proportion in which that paper money
represents gold. Such a law exists; stated simply, it is as follows: the issue
of paper money must not exceed in amount the gold (or silver as the case may be)
which would actually circulate if not replaced by symbols. Now the quantity of
gold which the circulation can absorb, constantly fluctuates about a given
level. Still, the mass of the circulating medium in a given country never sinks
below a certain minimum easily ascertained by actual experience. The fact that
this minimum mass continually undergoes changes in its constituent parts, or
that the pieces of gold of which it consists are being constantly replaced by
fresh ones, causes of course no change either in its amount or in the continuity
of its circulation. It can therefore be replaced by paper symbols. If, on the
other hand, all the conduits of circulation were to-day filled with paper money
to the full extent of their capacity for absorbing money, they might to-morrow
be overflowing in consequence of a fluctuation in the circulation of
commodities. There would no longer be any standard. If the paper money exceed
its proper limit, which is the amount in gold coins of the like denomination
that can actually be current, it would, apart from the danger of falling into
general disrepute, represent only that quantity of gold, which, in accordance
with the laws of the circulation of commodities, is required, and is alone
capable of being represented by paper. If the quantity of paper money issued be
double what it ought to be, then, as a matter of fact, £1 would be the
money-name not of 1/4 of an ounce, but of 1/8 of an ounce of gold. The effect
would be the same as if an alteration had taken place in the function of gold as
a standard of prices. Those values that were previously expressed by the price
of £1 would now be expressed by the price of £2.

国家把印有1元、5元等货币名称的纸票投入流通过程。只要它们确实是代替同量的金，它们的运动就遵循货币流通的规律。纸币代表金的程度不同【纸币的含金量、购买力不同】，蕴含着纸币的一个特殊规律。简单来说，这个特殊规律是这样的：无论发行的纸币的总面额是多少，它只代表这样一个金量：如果货币流通中的不是纸币而是金，那么会处于流通中的那个金量。【前文已经给出了流通中的货币量的计算公式】【这就是说，无论国家印出来的纸币上的总面额是1万亿元还是100万亿元，它都只代表一定的金量。纸币总面额上涨，只会使相同面额的纸币代表的金量下降，即购买力下降，即通货膨胀。读《资本论》到此处，已经可以看到现实的用处了。】货币流通能吸收的金量，是围绕一个定值波动的。不过，一个国家里的流通手段的最低限度，总是会通过经验来确保的。这个最低限度可以用纸币符号代替。如果纸币总面额超出了货币流通能吸收的最大限额，那么就会在商品流通的波动中溢出。【发生通货膨胀】那就再也没有什么标准了。【你手里的钱还是那个钱，但也不再是那个钱了。】如果纸币超过了能够流通的同名金币量，那么，除了信誉扫地的危险外，它的总面额仍旧只代表由商品流通规律决定的那个金量。如果纸币的实际发行量是正常量的2倍，那么，500元这个货币名称就不是代表1克金，而是代表0.5克金。这个效果，就像是金作为价格标准的职能发生变化。【金的Value下降一半，使得其他商品涨价。】从前用100元标价的商品，现在就得标价200元了。【房价暴涨的原因之一。】

Paper money is a token representing gold or money. The relation between it and
the values of commodities is this, that the latter are ideally expressed in the
same quantities of gold that are symbolically represented by the paper. Only in
so far as paper money represents gold, which like all other commodities has
value, is it a symbol of value.

纸币是代表金的符号。纸币与商品Value的关系是这样的：商品Value在头脑中表现为一定量的金，金由纸币这个符号表现出来。纸币只在能够代表金，即代表金的Value的时候，才是Value的符号。【如果国家破产，纸币就立刻变成废纸了。】

Finally, some one may ask why gold is capable of being replaced by tokens that
have no value? But, as we have already seen, it is capable of being so replaced
only in so far as it functions exclusively as coin, or as the circulating
medium, and as nothing else. Now, money has other functions besides this one,
and the isolated function of serving as the mere circulating medium is not
necessarily the only one attached to gold coin, although this is the case with
those abraded coins that continue to circulate. Each piece of money is a mere
coin, or means of circulation, only so long as it actually circulates. But this
is just the case with that minimum mass of gold, which is capable of being
replaced by paper money. That mass remains constantly within the sphere of
circulation, continually functions as a circulating medium, and exists
exclusively for that purpose. Its movement therefore represents nothing but the
continued alternation of the inverse phases of the metamorphosis C–M–C, phases
in which commodities confront their value-forms, only to disappear again
immediately. The independent existence of the exchange-value of a commodity is
here a transient apparition, by means of which the commodity is immediately
replaced by another commodity. Hence, in this process which continually makes
money pass from hand to hand, the mere symbolical existence of money suffices.
Its functional existence absorbs, so to say, its material existence. Being a
transient and objective reflex of the prices of commodities, it serves only as a
symbol of itself, and is therefore capable of being replaced by a token. One
thing is, however, requisite; this token must have an objective social validity
of its own, and this the paper symbol acquires by its forced currency. This
compulsory action of the State can take effect only within that inner sphere of
circulation which is coterminous with the territories of the community, but it
is also only within that sphere that money completely responds to its function
of being the circulating medium, or becomes coin.

最后，可能有人问，为什么金可以被没有Value的纸币符号代替呢？首先，金在仅执行铸币的流通手段的职能的情况下，才可以被纸币符号代替。货币还有其他职能，也依附在铸币身上。当然，已经磨损了的铸币，就只有流通手段的职能了。一块金子，只要处于流通中，就仅仅是流通手段，仅仅是铸币。但这仅限于最小限度的金量，这个金量是可以被纸币符号代替的。这个金量经常性地处于流通中，持续执行流通手段的职能，专门为了充当流通手段而存在。因此，这个金量的运动，只代表商品形态变化即C-M-C的两个阶段的不断交替运动。在这些形态变化中，商品成为Value形式（即成为货币），只是为了立即又消失。【我卖东西拿到钱，只是为了用钱买东西。】商品交换价值的独立存在，仅仅是一个转瞬即逝的幻影，仅仅是为了用另一种商品代替手中当前的商品。因此，在货币不断转手的过程中，只需要有货币的符号现身就足够了。货币的职能融化了货币的肉体。货币作为商品价格的转瞬即逝的客观反映，只是自己职能的符号，因此，它完全可以被另一个符号取代。不过，纸币符号必须具有社会公认的效力，这个效力是通过强制流通得到的。国家的这种强制行为，只有在国内的流通领域，只有在货币成为铸币（即完全执行流通手段的职能）的情况下，才有效。