第一编 货币的本质

第三章 各种类型的货币

摘要

A money substitute is a perfectly secure and immediate claim on money. Because the claims themselves can facilitate indirect exchange, they become a “substitute” for the original commodity money.
货币替代品是一种完全安全且即时的货币索取权。由于索取权本身可以促进间接交换，因此它们成为原始商品货币的“替代品”。

The definition of money should serve the purposes of economic theory, the most important being the explanation of the purchasing power of money. For economics, what matters is the actual practices and expectations of individuals in the market, rather than legal formalities.
货币的定义应该服务于经济理论的目的，最重要的是对货币购买力的解释。 对于经济学而言，重要的是市场中个人的实际做法和期望，而不是法律手续。

Commodity money is a common medium of exchange that is also an economic good in its own right. For example, gold, silver, and even tobacco have historically been used as money, and yet people also valued and traded these commodities for other reasons.
商品货币是一种通用的交换媒介，本身也是一种经济商品。 例如，金，银，甚至烟草在历史上都曾被用作货币，但人们也出于其它原因对这些商品进行估价和交易。

Fiat money is accepted as a common medium of exchange not because of its technological properties, but because of a special legal designation provided by the appropriate authority. For example, in the current United States “green rectangular pieces of paper” become money when certain ink patterns are placed on them.
法定货币被接受为一种通用的交换媒介，不是因为它的技术特性，而是因为有关当局提供了特殊的法律指定。 例如，在当前的美国，当将某些墨水图案放置在“绿色矩形纸片”上时，它就变成了货币。

Credit money occurs when a claim on a physical or legal person, falling due in the future, is itself used as a medium of exchange.
当未来到期的自然人或法人的债权本身被用作交换媒介时，就会产生信用货币。

Some theorists explain the value of money as due to State commands. But the government cannot force people to adopt a particular item as the commonly accepted medium of exchange, let alone to accept it with a particular purchasing power. The government can use its tremendous power to make it more likely that people will adopt a particular item (such as green pieces of paper with certain ink patterns) as money, but economically something is money because of its usage by people in the market. A government edict per se cannot transform it into money.
一些理论家解释货币的价值来自国家的法令。但政府不能强迫人们采用某一特定物品作为普遍接受的交换媒介，更不能强迫人们以特定的购买力来接受它。政府可以利用其巨大的权力使人们更可能将某一特定的物品（如带有某些墨水图案的绿纸）作为货币，但从经济角度来说，某种东西之所以是货币，是因为它被市场上的人们使用。政府法令本身不能将其转化为货币。

章节大纲

一、货币和货币替代品

A money substitute is a perfectly secure and immediate claim on money. For example, suppose the commonly accepted medium of exchange is gold, and a reputable bank issues a paper ticket entitling the bearer to one ounce of gold. So long as people in the community are certain that they will be paid in physical gold whenever they present the ticket to a branch of the bank, then such tickets are money substitutes and may change hands during purchases the same way physical gold would.
货币替代品是一种完全安全且即时的货币索取权。例如，假设普遍接受的交换媒介是黄金，而一家信誉良好的银行发行纸质票据，使持票人有权获得一盎司黄金。只要社区中的人确信每当他们向银行的分支机构出示票据时，银行就会以实物黄金兑付，那么这些票据就是货币替代品，并且在购买过程中可以像实物黄金一样转手。

In the market economy, people can issue perfectly secure and immediate claims (i.e., redemption tickets) to all sorts of goods, not just money. But the crucial feature of such claims on money is that the claims themselves can facilitate indirect exchange, and so become a “substitute” for the original commodity money. In other words, pieces of paper entitling the owner to an ounce of gold can circulate in the market the same way actual 1 oz. gold coins would (so long as everyone is assured of immediate redemption). In principle merchants might never actually turn the tickets in, to receive the physical gold. In contrast, people might trade paper claims guaranteeing the owner to a loaf of bread, but they would eventually redeem them. Such tickets could never become “bread- substitutes” because the paper couldn’t serve the same function as actual bread.
在市场经济中，人们可以对各种商品（而不仅仅是金钱）发出完全安全和即时的索取权（即兑换券）。但这种货币索取权的关键特征是其本身可以促进间接交换，从而成为原始商品货币的“替代品”。换言之，允许所有者拥有一盎司黄金的纸片可以像实际的1盎司金币一样在市场上流通（只要每个人都能确保立即赎回）。原则上，商人可能永远不会真的上交票据以获取实物黄金。相比之下，人们可能会用索取权票据来换取一条面包，但最终他们会赎回这些索取权。 这样的票据永远不会成为“面包替代品”，因为纸张不能提供与实际面包相同的功能。

For economists—as opposed to legal theorists or the businessperson—the definition of money should serve the purposes of economic theory. The central task of the economic analysis of money is to explain the exchange ratios between money and all other goods, i.e., to explain the purchasing power of money.
对于经济学家而言 - 与法律理论家或商人相反 - 货币的定义应该服务于经济理论的目的。 货币经济分析的核心任务是解释货币与所有其它商品之间的交换比率，即解释货币的购买力。

二、货币替代品的特殊性

In the economic analysis of money, what matters is the actual practices and expectations of individuals in the market. For example, whether or not legislation declares that token coins are legally binding claims on money, if in practice the holder of a token can easily exchange it for the “equivalent” amount of actual money, then economically speaking the token is a money substitute.
在货币的经济分析中，重要的是市场中个人的实际做法和期望。例如，无论立法是否宣布代币是具有法律约束力的货币债权，如果在实践中，代币持有者可以很容易地将其兑换为实际货币的“等值”金额，那么从经济角度讲，代币就是货币替代品。

The same principle applies to banknotes. For example, conventional accounts say that Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1914 possessed a paper standard, because legally the Austro-Hungarian Bank had no obligation to redeem its paper notes for commodity money, and in fact the notes were declared legal tender. Yet in practice during this period, the Austro-Hungarian Bank would voluntarily cash its paper notes for gold upon request, and so economically speaking Austria-Hungary was on a gold standard.
同样的原则也适用于纸币。例如，传统观点认为奥匈帝国从1900年到1914年都实行纸币本位制，因为从法律上讲，奥匈帝国银行没有义务将纸币兑换成商品货币，事实上这些纸币已被宣布为法定货币。但实际上，在这一时期，奥匈帝国银行会根据要求自愿将纸币兑换成黄金，因此从经济角度讲，奥匈帝国当时是实行金本位制的。

三、商品货币、信用货币和法定货币

Commodity money is a common medium of exchange that is also an economic good in its own right. For example, gold, silver, and even tobacco have historically been used as money, and yet people also valued and traded these commodities for other reasons.
商品货币是一种通用的交换媒介，本身也是一种经济商品。 例如，金，银，甚至烟草在历史上都曾被用作货币，但人们也出于其它原因对这些商品进行估价和交易。

Fiat money is accepted as a common medium of exchange not because of its technological properties, but because of a special legal designation provided by the appropriate authority. For example, in the current United States “green rectangular pieces of paper” are not money per se. They only become money when they are cut to exact size and printed with the correct designs by the U.S. Treasury. Thus the green pieces of paper appear to become money by “fiat” (i.e., command) of the U.S. government. However, in economics the definition of money is a commonly accepted medium of exchange. The government can only use its powers to encourage people to use a particular class of items—for example, green pieces of paper with the appropriate ink patterns—as a common medium of exchange; the mere legal declaration isn’t what makes them money, economically speaking.
法定货币被接受为一种通用的交换媒介，不是因为它的技术特性，而是因为有关当局提供了特殊的法律指定。例如，在当前的美国，“绿色矩形纸片”本身并不是货币。只有当它们被切割成精确的尺寸并由美国财政部以正确的设计印刷时，它们才会变成货币。因此，美国政府的“法令”（即命令）似乎将绿色纸片变成了货币。然而，在经济学中，货币的定义是一种被普遍接受的交换媒介。政府只能利用其权力鼓励人们使用特定类别的物品 - 例如，带有适当墨水图案的绿色纸片 - 作为通用的交换媒介；从经济学角度来说，仅仅法律声明并不能使它们成为货币。

Credit money occurs when a claim on a physical or legal person (e.g., a corporation or government agency), falling due in the future, is itself used as a medium of exchange. To distinguish credit money from mere credit, it is necessary that people are generally willing to accept the claim in trade not because they want to wait and receive the underlying payment (to which the claim entitles them), but because they expect to be able to easily trade away the claim itself for other goods. For example, suppose a government originally promised to redeem its paper notes immediately upon demand for commodity money (such as gold). But during a war, the government suspends convertibility, so that the paper notes are now not legally binding claims on anything. However, if the public expects that at some point in the future, redeemability will be restored, then the notes would circulate as credit money (not fiat money) because they would be claims to gold falling due in the future (at an uncertain date). So long as the paper notes are considered so liquid that virtually everyone is willing to accept them in trade, they are a common medium of exchange and hence money.
当未来到期的自然人或法人（如公司或政府机构）的债权本身被用作交换媒介时，就会产生信用货币。为了区分信用货币和单纯的信贷，人们通常愿意接受交易中的债权，不是因为他们想要等待并获得基础付款（债权赋予他们的权利），而是因为他们希望能够轻易地将债权换成其他商品。例如，假设政府最初承诺在收到兑换商品货币（如黄金）的需求时立即赎回其纸钞。但在战争期间，政府暂停了可兑换性，因此纸钞现在对任何东西都没有法律约束力。然而，如果公众预期在未来某个时候，可兑换性将得到恢复，那么纸钞将作为信用货币（而不是法定货币）流通，因为它们将在未来（在不确定的日期）被兑换成黄金。只要纸币被认为是如此流动的，以至于几乎每个人都愿意在交易中接受它们，那么它们就是一种通用的交换媒介，因而也是货币。

四、过去和现在的商品货币

Some theorists explain the value of money as due to State commands. For example, “The monetary unit of the United States is the dollar, because the U.S. government has passed a law.” But this is a very inadequate reading of history, because governments cannot simply force a particular good to command a particular purchasing power in the market. For example, a king can collect taxes in the form of silver coins, and then debase them by melting them down and minting a greater number of coins with less silver content per coin. But the market will react by raising prices (quoted in terms of the coins), and even if the king resorts to price controls with draconian penalties, he will cause shortages in accordance with economic law.
一些理论家解释货币的价值来自国家的法令。例如，“美国的货币单位是美元，因为美国政府已经通过法律如此规定。”但这是对历史的一种非常不充分的解读，因为政府不能简单地强迫某种特定的商品在市场中拥有特定的购买力。例如，一位国王可以以银币的形式征税，然后通过将它们熔化并使每枚银币的含银量更少来铸造更多的银币来使它们贬值。但市场将通过提高价格（以银币的价格报价）作出反应，即使国王采用严厉的惩罚来控制价格，根据经济学原理，他只会导致短缺。

技术说明

On pages 56–57, Mises argues that token coinage is not an independent economic concept, but rather a special type of money substitute. Token coinage was developed to facilitate small transactions. For example, in a country using gold as its commodity money, it would be awkward to purchase an item with a price of 1⁄100th of an ounce of gold, if customers had to use the physical gold itself. The government might therefore produce a limited number of small discs (perhaps made of copper or nickel) that were stamped with, “Legal Tender, 1⁄100th oz. of gold.” Even though the actual metal content of the tokens would be less, they would nonetheless trade at their face value so long as everyone believed that the government would faithfully exchange one ounce of physical gold for 100 tokens. The important point is not whether such redemption were a legal requirement, but merely whether in practice people expected the option to be available upon demand. (Also note that the “coins” Mises discusses on pages 50–51 are not token coins, but coins consisting of the commodity money. In other words, such coins are valued because they actually consist of a recognized weight in gold or silver, not because the holders expect to be able to redeem them for gold or silver.)
在（英文版）第56-57页，米塞斯认为代币不是一个独立的经济概念，而是一种特殊类型的货币替代品。代币货币制度是为了促进小额交易而开发的。例如，在一个使用黄金作为商品货币的国家，如果客户不得不使用实物黄金，那么购买价格为1/100盎司黄金的商品将会很尴尬。因此，政府可能会生产有限数量的小硬币（可能由铜或镍制成），上面印有“法定货币，1/100盎司黄金”。虽然代币的实际金属含量会更低，但只要每个人都相信政府会忠实地将100枚代币兑换成一盎司实物黄金，那么它们还是会按照面值进行交易。他们就可以按面值交易。重要的一点不是这种赎回是否是法律要求，而是人们在实践中是否认为这种选项在需要时可以获得。 （另请注意，Mises在英文版第50-51页讨论的“硬币”不是代币，而是由商品货币组成的硬币。换言之，这些硬币的价值是因为它们实际上包含了公认重量的黄金或白银，而不是因为持有者认为能够将它们换成黄金或白银。）

In the Misesian scheme, credit money is not the same as a money substitute because the claims constituting credit money are not due immediately, whereas they must be for a true money substitute. Money substitutes are valued the same as the underlying money to which they are claims; a banknote entitling the bearer to one ounce of gold, upon request, will have the same purchasing power as one ounce of gold. However, a corporate bond promising the bearer one ounce of gold in 30 years, if it is to become a credit money and circulate as a common medium of exchange, will be subject to an independent valuation, depending not merely on the reliability of the claim and the wait involved, but also on the liquidity of the bond. (See p. 61.)
在米塞斯的理论框架中，信用货币与货币替代品不同，因为构成信用货币的债权并非即时到期，而即时到期是真正的货币替代品的必要条件。货币替代品的价值与其所主张的基础货币相同；根据要求，给予持票人一盎司黄金权利的钞票，其购买力与一盎司黄金相同。然而，如果公司债券承诺在30年内为持券人提供一盎司黄金，而该债券要成为一种信用货币，并作为一种通用的交换媒介进行流通，则该公司债券将接受独立估值，这不仅取决于债权的可靠性和所涉及的等待，还取决于债券的流动性。（参见英文版第61页。）

新术语

Banknotes: Paper notes issued by banks, typically entitling the bearer to a specified amount of the money good.
纸钞：银行发行的纸质票据，通常给予持票人指定数量的货币商品。

Cash (verb): To redeem a claim (such as a banknote) by paying the specified amount of the money good.
兑现（动词）：通过支付指定数额的货币商品来赎回债权（如钞票）。

Commodity money: A common medium of exchange that is an economic good in its own right, valued for nonmonetary reasons.
商品货币：一种通用的交换媒介，本身就是一种经济商品，根据其非货币因素而被估值。

Credit money: A common medium of exchange that is a claim on a person or legal person (such as a corporation or government agency), not falling due until a (possibly uncertain) future date.
信用货币：一种通用的交换媒介，在未来某一日期（可能不确定）到期的对个人或法人（如公司或政府机构）的债权。

Debase: To dilute the value of the money, for example when a ruler introduces “base” metals into the coinage, reducing their precious-metal content.
贬值：稀释货币价值，例如当统治者将“基本”金属引入铸币时，降低其贵金属含量。

Fiat money: A common medium of exchange accepted not because of its technological properties, but because of a special legal designation provided by the appropriate authority. Fiat money is not “backed up” by anything else.
法定货币：一种通用的交换媒介，使其成为通用交换媒介的原因不是其技术特性，而是有关当局给予的特殊法律指定。法定货币并没有被任何其它东西“支持”。

Gold standard: The arrangement by which a nation’s money (such as the U.S. dollar or the British pound) can be redeemed for a definite weight of gold.
金本位制：指这样一种制度，一个国家的货币（如美元或英镑）可以兑换一定数量/重量的黄金。

Legal tender: An item that the government declares to be valid for the payment of debts denominated in money, at par value.
法定偿付：政府宣布对以货币计价、按面值偿付债务有效的物品。

Liquid(adjective): The ability of being sold for the full market price with a very short search time. (For example, a share of corporate stock is much more liquid than a house.)
流动性（形容词）：在非常短的交易撮合时间内，以完整的市场价格被出售的能力。 （例如，公司股票的流动性比房子要高得多。）

Money in the narrower sense: The actual money good (whether commodity, fiat, or credit money), not including money substitutes.
狭义上的货币：实际的货币（无论是商品货币、法定货币或信用货币），不包括货币替代品。

Money in the broader sense: The actual money good (whether commodity, fiat, or credit money), plus money substitutes.
广义上的货币：实际的货币（无论是商品货币、法定货币或信用货币），加上货币替代品。

Money substitute: A perfectly secure and instantly redeemable claim on money, which itself circulates as money (in the broader sense) because it fulfills the functions of money.
货币替代品：一种完全安全、即时可赎回的货币索取权，它本身作为货币（广义上）流通，因为它实现了货币的功能。

Paper standard: The arrangement by which the government does not redeem paper notes for a precious metal. (A paper standard stands in contrast to a gold standard.)
纸钞本位：指这样一种制度，政府不会为纸钞承兑贵金属。 （纸钞本位与金本位形成鲜明对比。）

Price controls: Government decrees threatening fines or other punishment for people trading at prices that are either too high (in the case of a price ceiling) or too low (in the case of a price floor).
价格控制：政府法令威胁对以过高价格（高于价格上限）或过低价格（低于价格下限）交易的人处以罚款或其它惩罚。

Purchasing power: The amount of goods and services that a unit of money can command because of the various prices in the market.
购买力：由于市场价格的多样化，一个货币单位所能支配的商品和服务的数量。

Token coins: Coins that serve as representatives of money (usually in very small denominations), even though they do not contain the full weight of metal in the case of a commodity money.
代币：作为货币代表的硬币（通常是很小的面额），即使它们不像商品货币的情况那样包含金属的全部重量。

研究问题

1. What is “peculiar” about the fact that people may use claims on money, rather than money itself? How is this peculiarity “explained by reference to the special characteristics of money”?
   人们可能使用货币的债权而不是货币本身，这一事实有什么“特殊”之处？这种特殊性如何“通过参考货币的特殊性来解释”？

2. What does Mises think of the treatment economists had given to money, before his own contribution?
   米塞斯对自己之前的经济学家们给予货币的处理方法有何看法？

3. What is the task of economic theory, regarding money?
   关于货币，经济理论的任务是什么？

4. Explain: “Whereas it is impossible to satisfy an increase in the demand, say, for bread by issuing more bread-tickets . . . it is perfectly possible to satisfy an increased demand for money by just such a process as this.”
   解释：“然而，通过发行更多的面包票来满足对面包的需求增长是不可能的…通过这样一个过程，完全有可能满足日益增长的货币需求。”

5. Would Mises be surprised at the world’s current monetary system?
   米塞斯会对世界当前的货币体系感到惊讶吗？