Friedrich von Wieser, “Der Geldwert und seine Veränderungen” (1909/1929)

This file contains a German scholarly monetary-theory work: an extended report on the value of money and its changes, followed by a related conference report on measuring such changes. Wieser’s scope is value theory itself. Money value is not a merely technical currency problem, but the point where personal valuation, market calculation, national income, and historical institutions meet.

Im Geldwert schließen sich alle wirtschaftlichen Werte zu vereinigter Wirkung zusammen, und daher muß bei einer Erörterung des Geldwertes dieser ganze Zusammenhang besprochen werden, so lange wenigstens, als in der Werttheorie so wenig feste, durch allgemeine Uebereinstimmung gesicherte Ruhepunkte bestehen, als dies heute noch der Fall ist.

English translation: In the value of money all economic values combine into a unified effect; hence any discussion of the value of money must treat this whole nexus—at least so long as there exist in the theory of value as few firm resting-points, secured by general agreement, as is still the case today.

The first section distinguishes personal value from “volkswirtschaftlicher” value. Personal value rests on marginal utility for a particular person; national-economic value is the market “Geltung” a good has through its price in the social process of production and distribution. Wieser thus keeps subjective value theory while explaining why economic calculation uses impersonal price magnitudes.

Der volkswirtschaftliche Wert der Ware ist ein subjektiver Wert wie der persönliche Wert, zwischen Ware und Preis gibt es keine bloß objektive Beziehung.

English translation: The economic value of a commodity is a subjective value, just like personal value; between commodity and price there is no merely objective relation.

Applied to money, this distinction yields the second section’s central claim: money as money has exchange value only. Its personal value depends on income, needs, and the relevant price environment; its national value is assembled from many overlapping market perspectives. Yet Wieser insists that the general price level is not identical with money value, because prices reflect both the side of goods and the side of money.

Der allgemeine Preisstand der Ware ist eine zusammengesetzte Erscheinung, die von Seiten der Waren und von Seiten des Geldes bestimmt wird, und wir würden seine Veränderungen niemals verstehen, wenn wir ihn als eine einfache, bloß von Seiten des Geldes bestimmte Erscheinung auffassen wollten.

English translation: The general price level of commodities is a composite phenomenon determined both from the side of the commodities and from the side of money, and we could never understand its changes if we tried to conceive of it as a simple phenomenon determined solely from the side of money.

Against simple quantity theory, Wieser argues that money must be understood from its exchange function, not by mechanically transferring commodity supply-and-demand formulas to it. The decisive relation is between national money income and real income, especially in the purchase of consumption goods.

In dem Verhältnis, das in der Volkswirtschaft zwischen Geldeinkommen und Realeinkommen besteht, gelangt der jeweilige Geldwert zum getreuen Ausdruck.

English translation: In the relation that exists in the national economy between money income and real income, the prevailing value of money is faithfully expressed.

The fourth section explains changes in money value. Velocity and ordinary credit instruments do not independently alter money value, since they are normally induced by commodity circulation. Paper-money issue or newly coined metal can raise money income without a matching rise in real income. More originally, Wieser stresses monetization itself: as natural economy, household production, wages, rents, taxation, and state services are drawn into monetary cost accounting, prices rise because more elements are expressed in money.

Das Aufblühen der Geldwirtschaft vermindert den Geldwert, ihr Verfall erhöht ihn wieder.

English translation: The flourishing of the money economy diminishes the value of money; its decay raises the value of money once again.

The international section extends the theory to exchange rates. National money values persist because labor, costs, and most production remain nationally embedded, even under expanding trade. International money value is the relation between currencies, stabilized by the tendency of payment balances toward equilibrium and disturbed by overissue, silver crises, and redemption expectations.

Der internationale Geldwert ist die Geltung, welche inländisches Geld in der Weltwirtschaft gegenüber ausländischem erhält.

English translation: The international value of money is the standing which domestic money attains in the world economy vis-à-vis foreign money.

The appended report on measurement turns to index numbers. Wieser accepts their usefulness because money value is a composite reflection of many prices, but he warns that price collections alone cannot isolate changes in money value from changes in commodity values.

Solange man nämlich bei der bloßen Preiserhebung stehen bleibt, klären uns die Indexzahlen immer nur darüber auf, ob der Preisausdruck der Ware in Geld gestiegen oder gefallen ist, aber über den Geldwert und seine Veränderungen sagen sie uns noch nichts.

English translation: For as long as one remains with the mere collection of prices, the index numbers only ever inform us whether the price expression of the commodity in money has risen or fallen, but they tell us nothing yet about the value of money and its variations.

The work’s main thesis is that money value is a historically continuous but variable “Geltung” emerging from exchange, rooted in personal valuations, expressed through income relations, and only imperfectly measured by prices. Its relevance lies in extending marginal utility theory into monetary circulation, national calculation, historical monetization, and international exchange.