Money, power, and capitalism: Marx’s theory of money and the contemporary state-credit standard

Abstract

The analytical structure of Marx’s theorization of money reflects both his materialist conception of history and the dialectical method of analysis he deployed to understand concrete phenomena. The same approach is deployed to comprehend how and why and by what means credit money (and state credit money in particular) became the basis of the modern monetary system. The chapter highlights how Marx’s ideas about money and finance, which were developed in the context of commodity money, help in comprehending the contemporary international financial system.