ABSTRACT
It has been shown in earlier chapters that money looms large over the capitalist non-economic sphere because, first, disparate things and relations are traded as commodities even when they are intrinsically different from commodities, and second, personal incomes normally accrue in the form of money through market operations. Money as monopolist of the ability to buy facilitates formation of non-economic relations and lends a pecuniary character to trust, power, hierarchy, and moral obligation. Capitalist non-economic relations are stamped with the imprint of money and are placed at the service of profit making. However, the exceptionally important role of money in capitalist society springs ultimately from its class structure, rather than from money’s intrinsic qualities. The underlying relations of production between capitalists and workers imply that markets act as organisers of the capitalist economy. Money as monopolist of buying ability is the social nexus of capitalist society because commercial exchanges are inherent to social relations between the capitalist and the working class, lending an aspect of ‘foreign-ness’ to all economic agents. By the same token, if the underlying class structure of society was altered, money’s economic and social role could become far less prominent. To conclude this book, therefore, it is important to consider some of the theoretical consequences of a socialist transformation of society for the role of money. Some implications also follow for the currently prominent Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS), which aim at reforming capitalism and its markets.
