第39章 MONEY OR SIMPLE CIRCULATION(20)

The names of coins become thus detached from the substance of money and exist apart from it in the shape of worthless scraps of paper.In the same way as the exchange-value of commodities is crystallised into gold money as a result of exchange,so gold money in circulation is sublimated into its own symbol,first in the shape of worn gold coin,then in the shape of subsidiary metal coin,and finally in the shape of worthless counters,scraps of paper,mere tokens of value .

But the gold coin gave rise first to metallic and then to paper substitutes only because it continued to function as a coin despite the loss of metal it incurred.It circulated not because it was worn,but it was worn to a symbol because it continued to circulate.Only in so far as in the process of circulation gold currency becomes a mere token of its own value can mere tokens of value be substituted for it.

In so far as the circuit C --M --C is the dynamic unity of the two aspects C --M and M --C,which directly change into each other,or in so far as the commodity undergoes the entire metamorphosis,it evolves its exchange-value into price and into money,but immediately abandons these forms again to become once more a commodity,or rather a use-value.

The exchange-value of the commodity thus acquires only a seemingly independent existence .We have seen,on the other hand,that gold,when it functions only as specie,that is when it is perpetually in circulation,does indeed represent merely the interlinking of the metamorphoses of commodities and their ephemeral existence as money .Gold realises the price of one commodity only in order to realise that of another,but it never appears as exchange-value in a state of rest or even a commodity in a state of rest.The reality which in this process the exchange-value of commodities assumes,and which is expressed by gold in circulation,is merely the reality of an electric spark.Although it is real gold,it functions merely as apparent gold,and in this function therefore a token of itself can be substituted for it.

The token of value,say a piece of paper,which functions as a coin,represents the quantity of gold indicated by the name of the coin,and is thus a token of gold .A definite quantity of gold as such does not express a value relation,nor does the token which takes its place.

The gold token represents value in so far as a definite quantity of gold,because it is materialised labour-time,possesses a definite value.But the amount of value which the token represents depends in each case upon the value of the quantity of gold represented by it.As far as commodities are concerned,the token of value represents the reality of their price and constitutes a token of their price and a token of their value only because their value is expressed in their price.In the circuit C --M--C,in so far as it expresses merely the dynamic unity of the two metamorphoses or the direct transformation of one metamorphosis into the other --and this is how it appears in the sphere of circulation,within which the token of value operates --the exchange-value of commodities assumes in the price merely a nominal existence and in money merely an imaginary or symbolic existence.Exchange-value thus appears to be something purely conceptual or an imagined entity but possessing no reality except in the commodities,in so far as a definite amount of labour-time is materialised in them.

The token of value therefore seems to represent the value of commodities directly ,since it appears to be not a token of gold but a token of the exchange-value which exists solely in the commodity and is merely expressed in the price.But the appearance is deceptive.The token of value is directly only a token of price ,that is a token of gold ,and only indirectly a token of the value of the commodity.Gold,unlike Peter Schlemihl,has not sold its shadow,but uses its shadow as a means of purchase.Thus the token of value is effective only when in the process of exchange it signifies the price of one commodity compared with that of another or when it represents gold with regard to every commodity-owner.First of all custom turns a certain,relatively worthless object,a piece of leather,a scrap of paper,etc.,into a token of the material of which money consists,but it can maintain this position only if its function as a symbol is guaranteed by the general intention of commodity-owners,in other words if it acquires a legal conventional existence and hence a legal rate of exchange.Paper money issued by the state and given a legal rate is an advanced form of the token of value ,and the only kind of paper money which directly arises from metallic currency or from simple commodity circulation itself.Credit money belongs to a more advanced stage of the social process of production and conforms to very different laws.Symbolic paper money indeed does not differ at all from subsidiary metal coin except in having a wider sphere of circulation.Even the merely technical development of the standard of price,or of the mint-price,and later the external transformation of gold bars into gold coin led to state intervention and consequently to a visible separation of internal circulation from the general circulation of commodities,this division being completed by the transformation of coin into a token of value.Money as a simple medium of circulation can after all acquire an independent existence only within the sphere of internal circulation.

Our exposition has shown that gold in the shape of coin,that is tokens of value divorced from gold substance itself,originates in the process of circulation itself and does not come about by arrangement or state intervention.

Russia affords a striking example of a spontaneously evolved token of value.