CREDIT AND STATE THEORIES OF MONEY: THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF A. MITCHELL INNES; ED. BY L. RANDALL WRAY

In 1913 and 1914, A. Mitchell Innes published a pair of articles that stand as two of the best pieces written in the twentieth century on the nature of money. Only recently rediscovered, these articles are reprinted here for the first time. In addition, five new contributions analyze and extend the approach of Innes in a number of directions by including historical, anthropological, sociological, archeological, and economic analyses of the nature of money. A "rather obscure functionary in Her Majesty's Foreign Service," in the words of editor Wray (economic, U. of Missouri), A. Mitchell Innes contributed two important articles on monetary history and theory (in 1913 and 1914) that subsequently disappeared from view until the Post- Keynesians began to revisit his ideas on state money three-quarters of a century later. Wray reprints those two articles in this volume, following it with five essays relating the analysis of Innes to such topics as the origins of money in ancient Egypt, the evolution of money from three distinct forms of debt, links between the articles of Innes and the approach of Adam Smith, and the nature of money in a capitalist economy. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR In Credit and State Theories of Money, Professor Randy Wray continues and extends the influential tradition established by his path-breaking contribution Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies (1990). The focus in the current book is on the work of A. Mitchell Innes and his contributions in the early 20th century which had caught Keynes's eye. This focus enables this important contribution to push the frontiers of our knowledge on monetary and credit phenomena both in terms of analysis and of their historical development Introduction / L. Randall Wray and Stephanie Bell What is money? / A. Mitchell Innes The credit theory of money / A. Mitchell Innes The social origins of money : the case of Egypt / John F. Henry The archaeology of money : debt versus barter theories of money's origins / Michael Hudson The primacy of trade debts in the development of money / Geoffrey W. Gardiner The emergence of capitalist credit money / Geoffrey Ingham Conclusion : the credit money and state money approaches / L. Randall Wray. Preliminaries 1 Contents 5 Notes on Contributors 7 Acknowledgements 10 1 Introduction 11 2 What is Money? 24 3 The Credit Theory of Money 60 4 The Social Origins of Money: The Case of Egypt 89 5 The Archaeology of Money 109 6 The Primacy of Trade Debts in the Development of Money 138 7 The Emergence of Capitalist Credit Money 183 8 Conclusion: The Credit Money and State Money Approaches 233 Index 273 In 1913 And 1914, A. Mitchell Innes Published A Pair Of Articles That Stand As Two Of The Best Pieces Written In The Twentieth Century On The Nature Of Money. Only Recently Rediscovered, These Articles Are Reprinted And Analyzed Here For The First Time.