The origin of money from the money-debt approach

  • Eduardo Garzón Espinosa Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Keywords: origin of money; commodity; debt; theoretical approach.

Abstract

There are two fundamental approaches to the nature and origin of money that are incompatible with each other: money-commodity and money-debt. The first one has occupied a hegemonic position in the academy —and so outside it— throughout history. On the other hand, the money-debt approach was developed in response to the conventional view, although it currently occupies a marginal place in the academic sphere and is barely known beyond it. Despite its low popularity, the unorthodox outlook of money-debt is much more useful in order to understand the origin and nature of money; and represents a much more accurate analytical framework to monetary phenomena. In this paper a detailed review of the origin of money from this less-known approach is made in order to demonstrate its analytical superiority against the hegemonic approach that suffers from significant theoretical inconsistencies and a lack of empirical support.

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Author Biography

Eduardo Garzón Espinosa, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Department of Economy and Public Finance


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Published
2019-04-12
How to Cite
Garzón Espinosa E. (2019). The origin of money from the money-debt approach. Iberian Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 6(1), 37-54. https://doi.org/10.5209/IJHE.64117
Section
Artículos