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2 - Monetization: cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2012

Sitta von Reden
Affiliation:
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
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Summary

ATHENS AND OTHER GREEK POLEIS

Writing in fourth-century Athens, Aristotle had two explanations for the origins of coined money (nomisma). In the Politics he points to the intrinsic value of metals, and their use as coins in trade among people with no social or political connection (Pol. 1257a 31–8, quoted on p. 1). In the Ethics, by contrast, he suggests that coinage had its origin and principal function within communities. By convention (nomos), citizens had given value to legal tokens (nomismata) in order to achieve justice in exchange. These tokens compensated those who provided services to another citizen at precisely the value of the benefit produced for the exchanging partner. They thus provided the possibility of compensating each citizen for the different use value of their products:

The number of shoes exchanged for a house (or for a given amount of food) must correspond to the ratio of builder to shoemaker. For if this does not happen, there is no exchange and no community … All goods must therefore be measured by some one measure, as we said before. Now this unit is in truth ‘need’ (chreia) which holds all things together … But coinage has become by convention some kind of representative of utility; and this is why it has the name nomisma – because it exists not by nature but by law and convention (nomos)

(EN 1132b 20–34).
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • Monetization: cases
  • Sitta von Reden, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
  • Book: Money in Classical Antiquity
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763069.005
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  • Monetization: cases
  • Sitta von Reden, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
  • Book: Money in Classical Antiquity
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763069.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Monetization: cases
  • Sitta von Reden, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
  • Book: Money in Classical Antiquity
  • Online publication: 05 August 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763069.005
Available formats
×