[转帖] [Free exchange] [2012.08.18] On The Origin of Specie 物种起源

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http://www.ecocn.org/thread-75388-1-1.html
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On the origin of specie
物种起源


Theories on where money comes from say something about where the dollar and euro will go
美元欧元何去何从？货币起源理论有话说


Aug 18th 2012 | from the print edition


MONEY is perhaps the most basic building-block in economics. It helps states collect taxes to fund public goods. It allows producers to specialise and reap gains from trade. It is clear what it does, but its origins are a mystery. Some argue that money has its roots in the power of the state. Others claim the origin of money is a purely private matter: it would exist even if governments did not. This debate is long-running but it informs some of the most pressing monetary questions of today.
货币大概是经济学中最基本的组成部分了。它有助于政府征税并用以提供公共物品，也促使生产者专业分工，彼此通过交易获利。货币的功能显而易见，但其起源依然成谜。一些人认为政府权力是货币的根源，而另一些则称货币完全产生于私人行为：即使没有政府，货币同样存在。货币起源之争旷日持久，却也透露出一些当今所面临的迫在眉睫的货币问题。

Money fulfils three main functions. First, it must be a medium of exchange, easily traded for goods and services. Second, it must be a store of value, so that it can be saved and used for consumption in the future. Third, it must be a unit of account, a useful measuring-stick. Lots of things can do these jobs. Tea, salt and cattle have all been used as money. In Britain’s prisons, inmates currently favour shower-gel capsules or rosary beads.
货币大致履行三大职能：第一是交换媒介，即能便捷的用之换取商品或服务；第二是价值储藏，即可被存储并用于未来消费；第三是作为计量单位或实用的量度。许多物品都可以履行以上职能。茶、盐、牛都曾作为货币使用。在英国监狱，囚犯们目前青睐小包装的沐浴露或是念珠。

The use of money stretches back millennia. Electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, was used to make coins in Lydia (now western Turkey) in around 650BC. The first paper money circulated in China in around 1000AD. The Aztecs used cocoa beans as cash until the 12th century. The puzzle is how people agreed what to use.
货币的使用要追朔到数千年前。大约在公元前650年，在利底亚（今土耳其西），埃列克特鲁金—一种金银合金已被用来铸币。纸币流通最早出现在公元1000年左右的中国。12世纪以前，阿兹特克人仍将可可豆作为货币使用。让人困惑的是，人们是如何就作为货币的物达成一致的。

Karl Menger, an Austrian economist, set out one school of thought as long ago as 1892*. In his version of events, the monetisation of an economy starts when agricultural communities move away from subsistence farming and start to specialise. This brings efficiency gains but means that trade with others becomes necessary. The problem is that operating markets on the basis of barter is a pain: you have to scout around looking for the rare person who wants what you have and has what you want.
早在1892年，奥地利经济学家卡尔.门格尔既阐述了他的学派思想*。依他之见，经济货币化始于农业社会脱离自给自足式农业及分工出现。这提高了经济效率，也使交换成为必要。问题是，建立在以物易物基础上的市场运作很费劲：你不得不四处打望，寻找可各取所需的交易对象，而这样的对象凤毛麟角。

Money evolves to reduce barter costs, with some things working better than others. The commodity used as money should not lose value when it is bought and sold. So clothing is a bad money, since no one places the same value on second-hand clothes as new ones. Instead, something that is portable, durable (fruit and vegetables are out) and divisible into smaller pieces is needed. Menger called this property “saleableness”. Spices and shells are highly saleable, explaining their use as money. Government plays no role here. The origin of money is a market-led response to barter costs, in which the best money is that which minimises the costs of trade. Menger’s is a good description of how informal monies, such as those used by prisoners, originate.
为降低以物易物成本，货币也随着更合适物的出现而发展。用做货币的商品在被购买或出售时，其价值不应损失。所以布料不是合适的选择，因为没人认为二手衣服和新衣服价值相同。反而一些携带方便、经久耐用（蔬菜水果就出局了）且物理上容易分割的物品成为需要。门格尔将这样的特征称为“可售性”。调料和贝壳的高度可售性解释了他们被用作货币的原因。这和政府行为无关。货币的起源是在市场主导下的对以物易物成本的回应，这种情况下，最好的货币就是交易成本最低的货币。门格尔源理论很好的描述了非常规货币是如何产生的，就如监狱里使用的那些。

But the story just doesn’t match the facts in most monetary economies, according to a 1998 paper** by Charles Goodhart of the London School of Economics. Take the widespread use of precious metals as money. A Mengerian would say that this happens because metals are durable, divisible and portable: that makes them an ideal medium of exchange. But it is incredibly hard to value raw metals, Mr Goodhart argued, so the cost of using them in trade is high. It is much easier to assess the value of a bag of salt or a cow than a lump of metal. Raw metals fail Menger’s own saleableness test.
但根据伦敦经济学院查理斯.古德哈特1998年的论文，门格尔的理论并不契合多数货币经济。以广泛使用贵金属作为货币为例，门格尔主义者会解释这是因为金属的耐用，可分割且携带方便，使其成为理想的交换媒介。但古德哈特认为，估计金属原料的价值异常困难，所以使用贵金属进行交易成本高昂。评估一口袋盐或一头奶牛的的价值要比一块金属容易得多。金属原料过不了门格尔理论自有的可售性这关。

This problem explains why metal money has circulated not in lumps but as coins, with a regulated amount of metal in each coin. But history shows that minting developed not as a private-sector attempt to minimise the costs of trading, but as a government operation. It was state intervention, not the private market, that made metal specie work as money.
这一问题解释了为何金属货币是以铸币形式-而不是整块流通。每个硬币里的金属含量是有规定的。但历史表明，铸币的发展并非缘于私人部门企图最小化交易成本，而是因为政府行为。正是政府的干预——而非私人市场使得金属物行使货币职能。

That suggests another theory is needed, in which the state plays a bigger role in the origin of money. Mr Goodhart called this the “Cartalist” theory. The fiscal wing of government has a huge incentive to move its economy away from barter. Once money exists, income and expenditure can be measured. That means they can be taxed. And the public purse gets a second boost from seigniorage, the difference between the value of the coins and the cost of producing them. On this account, governments impose taxes payable only in money, creating a demand for money that means it will be widely accepted as payment for goods. The state forces the economy away from barter for its own fiscal purposes.
这也意味着需要新的货币起源理论，在新的理论中，政府的角色将更为重要。古德哈特先生将之称为“查特主义“理论。政府的财政目的是促使经济远离以物易物的巨大动因。一旦货币存在，收入及支出便可计量。这意味着征税成为可能。况且铸币税（硬币价值与铸造成本之间的差额）还能充实政府的钱包。这说明，政府只能以货币的形式征收税金，创造货币需求意味着货币将作为商品的支付对价被广为接受。政府强制经济与易货贸易脱钩有着自己的财政目的。

Mr Goodhart used monetary history to test these competing theories. He examined the overthrow of Rome and a period in the tenth century when the Japanese government stopped minting coins. If the origin of money were purely private, these shocks should have had no monetary effects. But after Rome’s collapse, traders resorted to barter; in Japan they started to use rice instead of coins. There is a clear link between fiscal power and money.
古德哈特先生用货币历史检验这两个相对立的理论。他检验了罗马颠覆时期及在20世纪日本政府停止铸币一段时期。如果货币完全是起源于私人行为，这些的冲击就不应该产生货币上的效果。然而，在罗马被颠覆以后，商人们又重拾易货贸易；在日本，人们开始使用大米来取代铸币。财政权力于货币之间的联系昭然若揭。

The struggle for life
适者生存

The evidence suggests that only “informal” monies can spring up purely privately. But informal money can exist on the grandest scale. The dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency is not mandated by any government, for example. Its pre-eminence outside America rests on it being the best option for international transactions. Once a competitor currency becomes preferable, firms and other governments will move on. The good news for the dollar is that the Chinese yuan is not yet widely accepted and suffers from higher inflation, reducing its usefulness. But a shift in the world’s reserve currency could be swifter than many assume.
证据表明，只有非常规的货币才完全产生于私人行为。但非常规的货币广为存在。例如，美元的世界储币地位就并非任何政府指定。它是国际交易中的最佳选择，故在美国境外也地位卓越。一旦其他与美元竞争的货币更可取，企业和政府亦将采纳。对美元来说，好消息是人民币还没有被广泛接受，再加上更高的通胀影响，其实用性随之降低。但世界储币的转换将快于很多人的预期。

The dollar’s other competitor, the euro, has deeper problems. Its origins were not private. Nor is it a proper Cartalist money, backed by a nation state. This means it lacks a foundation in the power of either the market or the state. In his paper, written a year before the euro was introduced, Mr Goodhart was prescient, highlightng “an unprecedented divorce between the main monetary and fiscal authorities”. Cartalists, he said “worry whether the divorce may not have some unforeseen side effects”.
美元的另一竞争者欧元则问题更深。其起源既非私人行为，也不是严格由国家政府支持的查特主义货币。这意味着欧元既缺乏市场基础，也缺少政府支持。在欧元被引入的前一年，古德哈特先生所写的一篇文章颇有远见，文中强调了“这是一场货币与财政当局空前的离异。”他同时说道，查特主义者也“担心这场离异是否会产生不可预见的副作用。”



注：关于Karl Menger：google了一下，Karl Menger是位数学家，而他爹Carl Menger才应是文中提到的经济学家。