IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v62y2004i1p51-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Chartalist Critique of John Locke's Theory of Property, Accumulation, and Money: or, is it Moral to Trade Your Nuts for Gold?

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Bell
  • John Henry
  • L Randall Wray

Abstract

The focus of this paper is John Locke's theoretical defense of economic inequality. It is well known that Locke identified labor as the original and just foundation of property. Succinctly, Locke's was a labor theory of property. Now, while Locke saw private property as legitimate, he proposed that the state of nature within which people interact is part of a social system that is regulated by distinct rules that limit accumulation. There is nothing in Locke's initial argument that allows for unbounded accumulation and consequent inequality. The justification for unbridled accumulation comes later, and rests squarely on Locke's treatment of money as a non-exploitive institution. For Locke, money allows unlimited accumulation while still adhering to the rules he established to govern morally correct behavior. In this paper, we challenge Locke's position by contrasting his exchange-based view of money with the debt-based or Chartalist theory of money. We demonstrate that when money is properly conceived, Locke's own moral strictures regarding property are violated, and his theoretical defense of the accumulation process is undermined.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Bell & John Henry & L Randall Wray, 2004. "A Chartalist Critique of John Locke's Theory of Property, Accumulation, and Money: or, is it Moral to Trade Your Nuts for Gold?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(1), pages 51-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:62:y:2004:i:1:p:51-65
    DOI: 10.1080/0034676042000183826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0034676042000183826
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0034676042000183826?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephanie Bell & John Henry, 2001. "Hospitality versus Exchange: The Limits of Monetary Economies," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(2), pages 203-226.
    2. Goodhart, Charles A. E., 1998. "The two concepts of money: implications for the analysis of optimal currency areas," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 407-432, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alla Semenova & L. Randall Wray, 2015. "The Rise of Money and Class Society: The Contributions of John F. Henry," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_832, Levy Economics Institute.
    2. L. Randall Wray, 2012. "Introduction to an Alternative History of Money," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_717, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. L. Randall Wray, 2008. "Banking, Finance and Money: A Social Economics Approach," Chapters, in: John B. Davis & Wilfred Dolfsma (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Social Economics, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eduardo Garzón Espinosa & Esteban Cruz Hidalgo & Bibiana Medialdea García & Carlos Sánchez Mato, 2023. "The “Control Space†of the State: A Key Element to Address the Nature of Money," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 448-465, September.
    2. Dirk Schoenmaker, 2017. "A macro approach to international bank resolution," Bruegel Policy Contributions 21231, Bruegel.
    3. Lars Jonung & Eoin Drea, 2010. "It Can't Happen, It's a Bad Idea, It Won't Last: U.S. Economists on the EMU and the Euro, 1989–2002," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 7(1), pages 1-4–52, January.
    4. Sell, Friedrich L., 1999. "Die EWWU als Club: Positive und normative Implikationen für den Beitritt mittel- und osteuropäischer Reformstaaten," Working Papers in Economics 1999,4, Bundeswehr University Munich, Economic Research Group.
    5. Phil Armstrong, 2020. "Can Heterodox Economics Make a Difference?," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 19964.
    6. Eszter Boros, 2017. "Endogenous Imbalances in a Single Currency Area," Financial and Economic Review, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary), vol. 16(2), pages 86-118.
    7. Thomas Cate (ed.), 2012. "Keynes’s General Theory," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3855.
    8. Zhang, Cathy, 2014. "An information-based theory of international currency," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 286-301.
    9. Alla Semenova & L. Randall Wray, 2015. "The Rise of Money and Class Society: The Contributions of John F. Henry," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_832, Levy Economics Institute.
    10. Hervé Alexandre & François Guillemin & Catherine Refait-Alexandre, 2015. "Downgrades of sovereign credit ratings and impact on banks CDS spread: does disclosure by banks improve stability?," Post-Print hal-01622782, HAL.
    11. Goodhart, C. A. E. & Lee, D. J., 2013. "Adjustment mechanisms in a currency area," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 48763, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2020. "Financial supervision structure, decentralized decision-making and financing constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 13-37.
    13. Plamen Nikolov & Paolo Pasimeni, 2023. "Fiscal Stabilization in the United States: Lessons for Monetary Unions," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 113-153, February.
    14. Fratianni, Michele & von Hagen, Jürgen, 2001. "The Konstanz Seminar on Monetary Theory and Policy at Thirty," ZEI Working Papers B 02-2001, University of Bonn, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies.
    15. Angeles, Luis, 2015. "A note on debt and economic activity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 67-69.
    16. Mack Ott & John A. Tatom, 2016. "Government Finance and the Demand for Money—The Relation between Taxation and the Acceptability of Fiat Money," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 45(1), pages 53-77, February.
    17. Masciandaro, Donato & Goodhart, Charles & Ugolini, Stefano, 2021. "Pandemic recession and helicopter money: Venice, 1629–1631," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 300-318, December.
    18. Paolo Paesani, 2020. "Review of 'Banks and Finance in Modern Macroeconomics', by Bruna Ingrao and Claudio Sardoni, Edward Elgar, 2019," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 54(1), pages 267-274, June.
    19. Paolo Pasimeni, 2014. "An Optimum Currency Crisis," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 11(2), pages 173-204, December.
    20. Giovanni Pittaluga & Elena Seghezza, 2012. "Euro vs Dollar: An Improbable Threat," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 89-108, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:62:y:2004:i:1:p:51-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.