*Alf Hornborg* # Progressive Summary # Definitions Commodity theory of money – sees money primarily as a medium of exchange, based on its inherent value (e.g. gold) Credit theory of money – sees money primarily as a unit of account, based on its nominal (ie conventionally agreed upon) purchasing power EUE - ecologically unequal exchange # Chapter Notes ## Part 1 - The semiotics of money fetishism ### Chapter 1 - The empty sign ### Chapter 2 - Money and civilisation This chapter draws on the work of David Graeber, Richard Seaford, and Karl Jaspers. David Graeber was very influenced by Richard Seaford's work, which inverted the causal link between a society's monetary system, and its philosophical and cultural ideas. It was money that first introduced people to abstraction, which later led to dualistic philosophies. Back in 1949, Karl Jaspers had already identified a historical moment which he called the Axial Age. Between the eighth century BCE and the second century BCE, all of the world's major religions seemed to arise simultaneously. Buddhism in India, Confucianism in China, Greek philosophy in the Mediterranean, Zoroastrianism in Persia, and Judaism in Palestine. He called this "the most deepcut dividing line in history." Graeber extended the Axial Age to 600 A.D. so as to include Taoism, Christianity and Islam. From 1500 to 1800, Mexico and Peru supplied about 80% of the world's production of silver – about 150,000 tons. Much of this went to China, which passed legislation in 1570 requiring people to pay taxes in silver. This broke with its tradition of using paper money, established since the 12th century. The value of silver relative to gold was twice as high in China as in Europe. European traders made huge profits from arbitrage. ### Chapter 3 - The semiotics of fetishism Spends a lot of time discussing this book - Desmond McNeill, Fetishism and the Labour Theory of Value: https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Fetishism_and_the_Theory_of_Value/fbwIEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover Don't follow a lot of it. ## Part 2 - Money, materiality, and entropy ### Chapter 4 - Beyond the veil of market prices Machines and money are both examples of the blurring of lines between the material and the social. They are material objects that rely on social perceptions for their existence. Mystification refers to situations where something is obscured. The concept of fetishism is used to refer to this kind of mystification. Marx showed how wages and prices covered up exploitative relationships. # Quotes # References [Ingham 2004 - The nature of money](zotero://select/items/1_UZYA4E8Q) [Jaspers 1949 - The Origin and Goal of History](zotero://select/items/1_I7FKAJSW) [Hart 12/1986 - Heads or Tails? Two Sides of the Coin](zotero://select/items/1_7C5RP9AB) [Rosenswig 01/2024 - Understanding money; Or, why social and financial accounting should not be conflated](zotero://select/items/1_Q4G4VSEG) [Rosenswig 2024-04-01 - Money, Currency, and Heterodox Macroeconomics for Archaeology](zotero://select/items/1_VSWXJQX6) - [[Dalton 1965 - Primitive Money](zotero://select/items/1_3Z2QDXZV) - [Humphrey 03/1985 - Barter and Economic Disintegration](zotero://select/items/1_I8L3IWLQ) - [Parry 2000 - Money and the morality of exchange](zotero://select/items/1_KWK5WJDY)