Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The models of the mature phase
- Part II The models of the phase of decline
- 15 The structure of the barter model of written pledges markets
- 16 Disequilibrium features of the barter model of written pledges markets
- 17 The written pledges markets in the last comprehensive model
- 18 The markets for circulating capital and money in the last comprehensive model.
- 19 Conclusion
- References
- Collation of editions of the Eléments
- Index
15 - The structure of the barter model of written pledges markets
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I The models of the mature phase
- Part II The models of the phase of decline
- 15 The structure of the barter model of written pledges markets
- 16 Disequilibrium features of the barter model of written pledges markets
- 17 The written pledges markets in the last comprehensive model
- 18 The markets for circulating capital and money in the last comprehensive model.
- 19 Conclusion
- References
- Collation of editions of the Eléments
- Index
Summary
Walras's barter model of written pledges markets is his solution to the problems created for his theorizing by endogenously induced economic changes. This chapter examines the structural aspects of the model that influence its equilibrating process. It presents and interprets his treatment of the parameters of the model, of written pledges, of the numeraire, and of the participants and trading conventions in the markets for consumer commodities, capital goods, and productive services.
Introduction
Decline of intellectual powers
It was stated in the introduction to this book, and it will be shown in the remaining chapters, that there was a marked decline in the quality of Walras's work during his final phase of theoretical activity. During that phase he tried to revise the Eléments into a written pledges system of markets. The reader should have some understanding of the reasons for the poor performance that is going to be described in the following pages. Why did it happen? A large part of the answer to that question is surely to be found in the state of his health. For all of his adult life, Walras was inconvenienced by headaches, “cerebral congestions,” pain in the neck and spine, and an “affliction of the nerves” (Walras to William Stanley Jevons, February 26–27, 1877, in 1965, 1, letter 376, p. 532). In 1887, he wrote about “suffering as usual from nervous fatigue and cerebral excitation” (Walras to Rawson William Rawson, April 10, 1887, in 1965, 2, letter 796, p. 207), and explained that “all my nights are passed in crises of obsessiveness and neuralgia” (Walras to Luigi Bodio, April 19, 1887, in 1965, 2, letter 796, p. 207).
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- Information
- Walras's Market Models , pp. 319 - 349Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996