Money and Exchange (PDF)

Whether a theoretical system is realistic or not has been a major concern in economics, particularly in monetary theory, over the past century. Following John R. Hicks' proposal that a realistic monetary theory could be constructed along an evolutionary path, starting with the workings of a real market, this volume considers whether we can look to the medieval economy as the point of departure.
"Money and Exchange draws upon the work of Aristotle, scholastic economists, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, William Stanly Jevons and Leon Walras, as well as some modern monetary theorists, to provide a critical analysis of some basic theories that form the starting point of monetary analysis. It concentrates primarily on certain interrelated and fundamental building blocks of monetary theory, such as the difficulties of barter as the origin of money, the concept of exchange as an equation, the notion of the exchange relation as a relation of equality, the distinction between barter and monetary relations, and money and non-money commodities.
This groundbreaking study dispels some of the old myths and conjectures concerning money and exchange and opens up the way for the development of new approaches to monetary theory - approaches that are both realistic and evolutionary. It will be of particular interest to researchers and students of monetary theory and history, and the history of economic thought.