Sunday, August 17, 2014

Scott Ferguson — Emmanuel Kant was a chartalist


Kant was a chartalist:
 "But how is it possible that what at the beginning constituted only goods or wares, at length became money? This has happened wherever a sovereign as great and powerful consumer of a particular substance, which he at first used merely for the adornment and decoration of his servants and court, has enforced the tribute of his subjects in this kind of material. Thus it may have been gold, or silver, or copper, or a species of beautiful shells called cowries, or even a sort of mat called makutes, as in Congo; or ingots of iron, as in Senegal; or Negro slaves, as on the Guinea Coast. When the ruler of the country demanded such things as imposts, those whose labour had to be put in motion to procure them were also paid by means of them, according to certain regulations of commerce then established, as in a market or exchange. As it appears to me, it is only thus that a particular species of goods came to be made a legal means of carrying on the industrial labour of the subjects in their commerce with each other, and thereby forming the medium of the national wealth. And thus it practically became money."
The Philosophy of Law
Kant, Immanuel, The Philosophy of Law: An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right. Translated from the German by W. Hastie, B.D. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1887. xxxvi, 265 pp. Reprinted 2002, 2010 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
Scott Ferguson on FB

11 comments:

David said...

The idea of custom becoming enshrined in law is often discussed. The idea of law being enshrined in custom is much less discussed and, I believe, rather underestimated as a factor in history.


Detroit Dan said...

Link doesn't work...

Tom Hickey said...

It links to the reference in Kant's Philosophy of Law at googlebooks. The link works for me.

I did not provide the link to FB because it is to a private group.

Detroit Dan said...

For me, the link goes to Facebook. I believe you will see this if you hover over it with your mouse. Facebook displays "Something went wrong"...

Detroit Dan said...

Anyway, appreciate the citation. I'm trying to remember where I previously encountered Kant in reading about MMT-related economics. Or maybe it was not economics but rather linguistics, and related to the writings of Steven Pinker...

Tom Hickey said...

Well, von Mises was a neo-Kantian.

Tom Hickey said...

@DD

Strange. That doesn't happen for me in Chrome on a Mac.

Detroit Dan said...

Yes, I had read about Kant in Steven Pinker's book, The Stuff of Thought. Nothing to do with economics. You may now return to MMT discussions...

Detroit Dan said...

I'm using Chrome on Windows. What do you see when you hover over the link?

Tom Hickey said...

Nothing.

Ralph Musgrave said...

That's a great quote from Kant. I love it. Thanks.