| Due to the success of the quantity theory of money in explaining the inflation of various countries in the world since the 20 th century,contemporary economic historians in Western seem to have forgotten the huge limitation of the theory in explaining the price fluctuations of the commodity money era,and believe that the long-term price rise in history is caused by the over-issuance of the quantity of money.In fact,before the establishment of the pure paper money standard,the quantity theory of money was not sufficient to explain the long-term dynamics of price change,and Marx’s theory of commodity money was more applicable.Before world war I,most countries in Western were in the era of mixed currency circulation with commodity currency as the value benchmark,this article is collectively referred to as the era of commodity currency,the change in the value of general commodity units and the change in the value of precious metal units rather than the change in the number of precious metal currencies,is an important factor affecting the long-term change of price level.Although classical economists such as Smith and Mueller criticized Hume and others’ theory of the quantity of money on the issue of price determination,believing that precious metal itself has value,and prices depend on the ratio of the general commodity to the value of precious metal money per unit,and have little relationship with the change in the quantity of precious metal,when expounding price fluctuations,they unconsciously fall into the logic of monetary quantity theory.Marx discarded the classical economists’ theory of commodity money,thoroughly criticized Hume and Ricardo’s theory of the quantity of money,and realized the logical and historical unity of monetary theory.Marx’s monetary theory holds that under the monetary system of precious metal commodities,commodity prices depend on the relative ratio of precious metal value and commodity value,and eventually under capitalist competition,value is converted into production prices,and commodity prices depend on the relative ratio of precious metal production prices and commodity production prices.This change in relative proportion determines the long-term trend of the price level.It is not the quantity and circulation speed of money that determine the price,but the total price of commodities to be realized and the speed of money circulation determine the amount of money required in circulation,through the endogenous money supply mechanism,too much or too little money can achieve self-regulation,which will not have a substantial impact on the value of money and then on the price level.Drawing on Smith’s treatment methods in that year,this paper converts the nominal price index commonly used by contemporary Western scholars into a silver price index,removes some fog from Western economic history research,makes a new description of the price fluctuations before and after the Black Death in Europe and the period of the price revolution,re-explores the price fluctuation mechanism of this period,and further shows the superiority of Marx’s commodity currency theory in explaining the price fluctuations of pre-industrial society.In the fifth chapter of this article,a further study of price fluctuations in Europe and the United States before the French Revolution and the First World War,this article points out that in the period of convertible paper money,Marx’s theory of commodity money was also more applicable than the quantity theory of money.As long as the convertibility of paper money and precious metals is guaranteed,the increase in the supply of paper money will still not lead to a substantial increase in prices,the value of paper money does not depend on the proportion of its quantity to commodities,but on the value of the precious metal coinage it replaces.This article reveals scholars research the price fluctuations of European and American countries before World War I should return to the methods of classical economics,return to Marx. |
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