Carl Menger's theory of money's origins: Responding to revisionism

Abstract

This article disputes the validity of the revisionist accounts of Carl Menger's theory of money's origins. While Menger's monetary thought underwent a complicated process of development and his later works reflected new Chartalist insights, Menger never escaped the theoretical framework of the spontaneous origins of the monetary unit, devoid of any action or intervention by the state. The role of the state in Menger's monetary theory was always confined to the later stages of money's development. While Menger once admitted a possibility of money's origins by the influence of public authority, he never incorporated it into his overall theoretical framework. © 2014 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.