As a deduction from this, we may say that while on the one hand there was no abstract necessity for the measure of value taking the form of gold, though there was a necessity for it to take a form embodying a certain definite amount of labour, yet, on the other hand, since it has taken that form, labour notes, or mere promises to pay which are of no value in themselves, cannot, as long as exchange lasts, take the place of gold, which is a commodity having a value in itself, and the particular commodity that has assumed that function through historical selection.
Footnotes
There are transitional stages between barter pure and simple and exchange operated by a universal equivalent, which only partly fulfilled this office: e.g. cattle, in the primitive ancient period, from which the name for money (pecunia) is derived; or ordinary woollen cloth, as in the curious and rather elaborate currency of the Scandinavians before coin was struck in Norway: which currency, by the way, has again, in the form of blankets, been used even in our own times in the Hudson Bay Territory.Back
It is important not to misunderstand this phrase as used here. The labour of the Middle Ages, though individual from its mechanical side, was from its moral side quite definitely dominated by the principle of association; as we have seen, the “master” of that period was but a delegate of the guild.Back