Monetary value is a basic problem in monetary economics and financial economics, and it is also an unsolved mystery in the history of economic theory, because the two concepts of "money" and "value" are difficult to grasp in economics, let alone the "monetary value" that combines them. This paper puts forward that there should be two perspectives in the analysis of currency value. The first point of view is macro-analysis, mainly the study of the transaction value of money, and the resulting discipline trend is monetary economics, that is, macro-financial theory; The second perspective is micro-analysis, which mainly studies the asset value of money (or the time value of money), and the discipline trend is financial economics, that is, micro-financial theory. This analysis will make the two existing financial theories have the same foundation, that is, they are both based on monetary value.
First, the historical origin of the dual value of currency
There are two basic viewpoints in the study of monetary value: first, based on the theory of monetary goods, the labor theory of value and cost theory of monetary (monetary) value are put forward, in which the labor theory of value is the mainstream; Second, based on the theory of currency names, it puts forward the theory of monetary quantity, functional axiology, statutory axiology and marginal utility axiology of monetary value, in which the theory of monetary quantity is the mainstream. The characteristics of monetary value research in this period are as follows: first, research is carried out under the condition of precious metal currency; Second, it mainly studies the transaction value of money. Because money acts as a precious metal, under the theory of monetary goods, the transaction value of money is the same as the asset value; Under the theory of currency name, the two are separated, that is, the currency as currency and the currency as commodity are separated, and only the transaction value of currency is discussed; Third, the concept of currency neutrality, that is, money has only transaction value and has no substantial impact on economic operation.
Classical economics studies the transaction value of money on the premise of currency neutrality, so it is impossible to break through the theoretical basis of currency neutrality, that is, the theory of money quantity. The classical expression of money quantity theory is: MV = PQ, and the conclusion is that the value of money (transaction) depends on the amount of money, and the important premise of its conclusion is that V and Q remain stable. To break this research paradigm, we must first break its preconditions. Two great economists started their creative research here: one is Wechsel. He broke through the premise of the quantity theory of money and put forward the non-neutral proposition of money from the angle of unstable currency circulation speed (that is, V variable). The other is Keynes. From the perspective of underemployment (variable Q), he broke through the premise of money quantity theory and analyzed money as an asset for the first time. The significance of these two breakthroughs lies in breaking the theory of currency neutrality, putting forward the view that money has an important influence on economic operation, and making people realize that money has asset value besides transaction value. Since then, with Keynes's speculative money demand theory, the asset value of money has been studied to a certain extent, and the time value of money has become the basis of capital asset value and pricing, thus gradually forming a modern financial economics theory.
Second, analyze the dual value of money.
People's demand for money determines the function of money, and the function of money further determines the value of money. Keynes believed that there are three motives for human demand for money, which can be summarized as the transaction demand of money and the asset demand of money. Therefore, modern money has two basic functions: transaction medium function and asset function. It is these two functions of money that form the dual value of money, that is, both transaction value and asset value.
The trading function of money is based on the homogeneity of money. Because money is a social symbol of value, only when money is homogeneous will people * * * recognize money as a trading medium and exchange goods with money as a tool. The transaction function of money forms the transaction value of money, which inherits the tradition of the classical school. The analysis of the transaction value of money is still carried out under the framework of the theory of currency neutrality, that is, on the premise that the marginal utility of money remains unchanged. The reason why currency transaction value analysis is a macro perspective is that its analysis method can only be the total amount analysis or average amount analysis of money, but not the micro marginal analysis, because the marginal utility assumption of money is unchanged.
The asset function of money is based on the heterogeneity of money. Money is a personalized asset here, and it is precisely because of its heterogeneity that people regard money itself as the object of transaction, not the medium of transaction. The asset function of money forms the asset value of money, and its analysis method is the same as that of ordinary goods or assets, which is based on the premise of diminishing marginal utility of money assets. Therefore, the asset value analysis of money is micro-analysis, because its analysis method is marginal analysis suitable for micro-subjects, rather than total analysis or average analysis for the whole society. The source of currency heterogeneity lies in: first, the difference in the amount of money held. Due to the diminishing marginal utility of money, money can be transferred from a large number of people to a small number of people, which can produce the value of monetary assets; The second is the difference in the ability of currency holders. When money is transferred from inefficient hands to efficient hands, it can produce the asset value of money; The third is the time structure of money distribution. The asset value (or time value) of money can be generated by using or improving the time structure of currency risks and benefits. It is worth noting that, on the one hand, the macro value of money, that is, the transaction value, will affect its micro value, that is, the asset value of money (such as the time value), such as the difference between the real interest rate and the nominal interest rate, and the change of price will affect the asset value of money, so the behavior of micro-subjects will be affected by macro-policies. On the other hand, the asset value of money is heterogeneous and generally does not affect the change of transaction value. That is, the ability difference between people and the time structure of risk and return will not cause the change of transaction value. Therefore, monetary policy makers generally consider homogeneous money, that is, the transaction value of money, without considering the differences formed by different micro-subjects.
Third, the measurement of the dual value of money.
The transaction value of money is the so-called exchange value, that is, the value of money is measured by the goods that money can exchange. Traditional economic theory generally uses price index to measure the transaction value of money. We generally adopt three types of price indexes: consumer price index; Production price index; GDP contraction index. The price index includes two pieces of information: price and quantity. If the price is the price to be paid, that is, the price can reflect the utility of goods, then the transaction value of money depends on the quantity and utility of goods. Therefore, it can be said that the macro price index has an embedded micro-basis, that is, it averages and summarizes the effectiveness of micro-subjects. But its summation process is not the summation of single utility, but the summation of various commodity prices, and each commodity price is the comprehensive evaluation or utility average of various subjects in the market.
However, this method, which is based on the traditional real economy and uses the real asset price index to measure the value of currency transactions, is difficult to fully reflect the demand of modern financial and economic society for currency transactions. Because the total transaction volume of financial assets in today's society has far exceeded the total transaction volume of the real economy, it needs a lot of funds. At the same time, the rise and fall of financial asset prices affect people's consumption and investment decisions and the rise and fall of physical prices. Since the price of financial assets is so important to people's economic decision-making, it is difficult for a simple physical price index to fully reflect the transaction value of money, so a comprehensive index must be used to reflect the value of money, such as: physical asset price index; Consumer price index; Labor price index; Securities financial asset price index; Prices of monetary and financial assets, etc.
In mainstream finance, the asset value of money is mainly manifested as the time value of money, which is measured by discount. Due to the time factor, the time value of money involves the following five elements: present value, final value, time length, interest rate and interest calculation method. The present value and final value of the first two items are only the difference of calculation methods. The final value method is an idealistic method that extends to the future, divergent and unconstrained, and is not suitable for actual decision-making. The present value method is a realistic method to return to the present, which is convergent and binding and suitable for financial decision-making. In fact, the time value of money is mainly determined by the last three items, namely, term, discount rate and interest-bearing method. The longer the term, the higher the total time value under the condition that the monetary value per unit time of continuous compound interest remains unchanged. The stronger the profitability, the higher the opportunity cost, the higher the discount rate and the higher the monetary value per unit time, while the total time is constant and the total time value is higher; The more interest-bearing times, the higher the monetary value per unit time, while the total time is constant, the higher the total time value.
Human society is stepping into the era of knowledge economy. Accurately speaking, mankind is entering an economic era with the possession and allocation of intellectual resources and the production, distribution and use (consumption) of knowledge as important factors. With the advent of this economic era, knowledge capital will surely become an important financial carrier and the main production and consumption capital of social economy.
First, knowledge is transformed into capital, which makes the value composition of capital change qualitatively.
Different from all previous eras, knowledge has completely changed its position and role in the era of knowledge economy. Before the post-industrial era (at the latest in the late 1950s), knowledge was only an accessory to production and products (commodities), and it was in a subordinate and subservient position. In the final analysis, knowledge is just an "ideology". With the beginning of the post-industrial era and the arrival of the knowledge economy era, knowledge gradually changed its nature, and knowledge began to dominate people, production and its products, from passive to active. In the past, the only principle that knowledge is closely related to spirit (ideology) and individuals is out of date. Knowledge has its own raw products (suppliers) and consumers (users). The production and consumption of knowledge is no different from the production and consumption of products, and so are the suppliers and users of knowledge. Thus, knowledge is produced for sale, consumed for reproduction, and knowledge becomes a commodity. Different from all previous material goods, knowledge (goods) can be directly converted into capital without exchange or sale, because knowledge itself is capital and wealth. Mastering and consuming more knowledge means having more knowledge capital. Whoever has more knowledge will have more economic capital and more economic and wealth control. From this point of view, after entering the era of knowledge economy, the capital form is no longer just commercial capital, industrial capital and financial capital, but more intellectual capital. Therefore, how much capital is invested by enterprises or production participants means how much knowledge is invested, and knowledge has become synonymous with (knowledge) capital to some extent.
As capital, knowledge is different from all previous forms of capital, because knowledge is brought as a commodity (product), which is mainly manifested in the following aspects.
1. The past or existing economics can't fully explain the value of knowledge and its great role, and the scale of measuring commodity value in the past can't meet the requirements of measuring knowledge value. This is mainly because the value of knowledge has spontaneity, infinity, fuzziness and potential. Similarly, knowledge capital has similar attributes.
2. In the past, the traditional industrial economy invested mainly in tangible assets, while the knowledge economy invested more in knowledge and intelligence, and knowledge capital was intangible assets.
3. The formation of traditional material capital and financial capital mainly depends on "capital accumulation", the most important source of which is savings, while the formation of knowledge capital mainly depends on "education and scientific and technological development", and the most important source of which is "knowledge introduction and knowledge reserve".
4. Material capital and financial capital are not people-oriented, while knowledge capital is people-oriented. Even if there are material products containing high-tech knowledge, if such products want to be transformed into capital, they can only be knowledgeable through human actions; Although human capital is also the carrier of human beings, its essence is the capital that sells labor (including physical strength), while knowledge capital does not need the condition of selling labor, and can appear in the form of intelligence or knowledge. Moreover, the value of human capital is always measured by money, which is very limited, and the potential great value of knowledge capital to be developed is far from being measured by money.
5. Knowledge capital is self-generated, self-derived, self-reproduction, self-derived, and all previous capital is impossible. Capital is accumulated for reproduction, that is to say, capital (the main financial capital-capital) is raised for investment in new production, which is called investment. Investment in the era of non-knowledge economy mainly includes material (material) investment, manpower investment and financial (financial) investment, while in the era of knowledge economy, knowledge (intelligence) capital investment (referred to as "knowledge investment") accounts for the vast majority of the total investment. Investment in knowledge economy is mainly based on knowledge capital investment, which completely changes the value composition of capital investment.
Second, the realization of knowledge capital has caused a qualitative change in the value composition of money.
Knowledge as currency is brought by knowledge as capital, in other words, knowledge capital is the direct premise and condition for the formation of knowledge currency. The concept of "knowledge currency" contains the following connotations: 1. Knowledge under the condition of knowledge economy has common monetary attributes, functions of money and monetary value; 2. The currency form in the knowledge economy is dominated by knowledge currency, which has replaced the status of paper money and coins in the non-knowledge economy; 3. Money under the condition of knowledge economy has more knowledge attributes, functions and components than money under the condition of non-knowledge economy; 4. Knowledge currency is an intangible currency, which is qualitatively different from all previous material forms of currency-metal currency, paper money, coins, etc. The connotation of the concept of "knowledge currency" determines that "knowledge currency" consists of two extensions (specific forms or carriers): one is knowledge as currency, which is called KAC； in English; Abbreviation; The second is the currency represented by electronic money, which is called electronic data currency in English or EDC for short. ? The essential attribute (connotation) of knowledge currency determines that it has the following attributes or characteristics. 1. Common currency and knowledge currency are important currencies in a knowledge-based economy society. It has the same function and value composition as paper money and coins. It can pay, save, circulate, invest, exchange and so on. 2. Spontaneity (productive). Money, such as paper money and coins, is just a valuable paper or metal that acts as a certain amount of money. Although its intrinsic value (actual purchasing power) will change with the change of bank interest rate or price, the number of meanings it represents remains unchanged. A 100 yuan note always represents 100 yuan, not 100 yuan. As for 65438 at this time, knowledge currency is different, especially KAC. The amount of sensory money it embodies is not fixed. On the one hand, it will change with the change of the amount of knowledge it contains. For example, a software that acts as knowledge currency contains abundant high-tech information, and the amount of sensory currency is 654.38+100000 yuan. With the loss or reduction of high-tech information, the amount of sensory money of this kind of software as knowledge currency will decrease in the future, which may only be several thousand or several hundred yuan. On the other hand, because knowledge currency contains huge high-tech knowledge and information, although the holder only acts as a certain amount of sensory currency when exchanging, paying, saving and exchanging, knowledge currency can be directly used for production, circulation and investment. At this time, the sensory currency of knowledge currency will increase with the progress of production, circulation and investment. For example, using (production, circulation, investment) 10000 yuan as a specific electronic software, under the condition of creating new knowledge, new technology or adding new information and new knowledge, electronic software containing more knowledge or information can be produced. Although the electronic software at this time only exists in the physical form of 10000 yuan, the amount of sensory money it embodies has increased, not only 100000 yuan, but also 3. Intangible, knowledge currency is intangible currency. Although knowledge currency will inevitably be presented to people through some carriers (such as software, EDI e-commerce, credit cards, smart cards, etc.). ), compared with all previous forms of money (such as paper money, metal coins, etc. ), knowledge currency is actually an invisible currency with nothing. A credit card can deposit 654.38+100000 or100000, in the sense of a credit card. 4. In many cases, knowledge currency is electronic currency. Although it is not excluded that knowledge currency can be realized through other forms or through other carriers and media, electronic money project must be an important circulation channel of knowledge currency. Electronic money project is being realized and popularized all over the world. It is a kind of currency transaction based on computer, network communication, electronic financial tools, electronic commerce machines and other modern technologies, with various savings cards and credit cards as the media, and carries out electronic information transmission. This currency transaction is obviously carried out in intangible (paperless) currency, and the role of paper money in this currency transaction is minimized. Knowledge currency appears as KAC and EDC, which not only breaks the situation that paper, cloth and currency dominate the currency transaction process, but also makes the value composition of currency circulating in our lives change qualitatively because of the appearance of KAC and EDC and their realization and popularization in economic life. It is manifested in the following aspects. 1. The form and essence of money have changed. From tangible to intangible, from direct value to indirect value, KAC must be the complete disappearance of the object form. The direct value is not fixed and can only be presented through indirect channels (computers); As for electronic money (also known as electronic cash, virtual currency, digital currency, etc. ), EDC is just a string of current and numbers bearing the value of monetary phenomenon, which is not directly perceived by people in social and economic life. 2. Maximize the savings value of money. Knowledge currency has always been in the bank's network terminal computer, and the bank can temporarily store or pay others without the consent of the money owner. Therefore, banks are bound to pay profits to the owners of money, so the owners of knowledge money are bound to be savers of knowledge money, and knowledge money is always increasing in value, which on the other hand explains why the above-mentioned knowledge money is spontaneous. 3. Knowledge currency greatly improves the speed of currency transmission and avoids the value loss caused by the physical consumption of currency in the process of transmission and circulation (such as the consumption and wear of banknotes and coins, the destruction of counterfeit money, etc.). ), realizing zero consumption of currency circulation and transmission.
Third, how is knowledge currency possible?
Under the condition of knowledge economy, the qualitative change of capital value composition and currency (cash) value composition is not only the result of knowledge currency, but also the condition for its realization. But how is it realized in real social life and economic life? How is knowledge currency possible? To answer this question, there is only one sentence: to realize the value transformation project of money. The essence of the value transformation project under the condition of knowledge economy is the great development project of human intelligence, so an important prerequisite for realizing the monetary value transformation project is the all-round progress of the national knowledge quality. The key to improving the quality of national knowledge (mainly high-tech knowledge) is education. Of course, the education here is not limited to school education, but also refers to social education forms such as community education, continuing education and lifelong education to a greater extent. It is hard to imagine that when a person doesn't know what EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is, he will still make a lot of money through electronic trade through EDI. Obviously, the realization of all value transformation processes is inseparable from education. Therefore, we imagine that at this stage, China should carry out the education campaign of knowledge economy nationwide, so that many common sense and basic viewpoints of knowledge economy, many new ideas, new methods and new things in the process of changing old and new values are popularized among the people, laying a good foundation for the realization of knowledge economy. Obviously, the realization of China's monetary value transformation project in the near future must be based on the high development and popularization of science and technology. In addition to the promotion of education, the key to this premise lies in the hardware realization of knowledge economy.
First, to realize "National Information Infrastructure" (NII for short), we should not only pursue NII's own economic interests, but also make NII provide various services for the whole people, promote the development of scientific research, promote the development of national health care, promote the development of education, and realize electronic government and electronic society. At present, the Jinqiao project being implemented in China is a major strategic project to achieve this goal.
Second, in order to realize and popularize EDI electronic trade mode, the national economic and trade information network project being implemented in China serves this purpose.
Third, realize and popularize electronic cash (electronic money). The Gold Card Project (Electronic Money Project) being implemented in China serves this purpose. At present, electronic money is mainly realized in three ways: credit card, smart card and cash transfer through computer.
Fourth, to achieve the popularization of computer use and telephone use, the utilization rate of computers and telephones in China is still very low at present, so it is very important to vigorously develop the information industry (especially the communication industry).
Fifth, the realization of digital financial market, the replacement of independent banking mechanism by online banking mechanism, and the realization and popularization of unmanned banking and telephone banking are important prerequisites to ensure the full operation of knowledge currency. At this stage, China should vigorously experiment with online banking, vigorously practice the digital financial market, and vigorously try unmanned banking and telephone banking to ensure the smooth development of these experimental practices and attempts.
Sixth, the present world is a world ruled by law, and law should be ahead of social and economic life. Only the law can fundamentally regulate and restrain people's behavior. The development plan of knowledge economy or the Law on the Development of Knowledge Economy and the Measures for the Administration of Knowledge Currency (Electronic Currency) should be promulgated as soon as possible. With the advent of the era of knowledge economy, new things emerge one after another, and many people's previous ethical thoughts and methods can no longer adapt. It is obviously the necessity of the times and society to rely on legal education, norms and constraints.
Seventh, people's great changes in the concept of money use and its value are also a necessary prerequisite to ensure the normal operation of knowledge money (electronic money). People must change the existing morality and values that point to money (cash). As far as money users and banks are concerned, users are holders and users of money and natural automatic savers. Users should not only get all the money principal, but also get all the profits from current savings. Banks no longer rely solely on deposit business to survive, but also must obtain income by providing special high value-added investment and wealth management services to customers. If KAC is circulated in banks in the future, banks are not only institutions that store purchasing power and wealth symbols, but also huge computers that store labor and wisdom. All these require the rapid progress of people's morality and values.
Eighth, due to the reality of China's current socio-economic and scientific development, it is a prepared and meaningful work to carry out extensive forward-looking research on knowledge economy and experimental practice of currency value transformation project.
(included in the book Knowledge Economy and Value Transformation Project, edited by Huang Jinkui, published by Guangdong Economic Publishing House 1999).