《货币与信用理论》学习指南第三编第十七章

第三编 货币与银行

第十七章 信用媒介与货币需求

概要

If labor and other resources are used to extract more gold from mines, and this additional gold goes into the cash balances of people in the community, then from a social point of view the labor and other resources have been wasted. The quantity of “real out-put” (pounds of steak, barrels of crude oil, etc.) produced per person doesn’t rise, but merely the prices of these items quoted in gold or silver.
如果使用劳动力和其它资源从矿山中开采更多的黄金，而这些额外的黄金进入社区中人们的现金余额，那么从社会的角度来看，劳动力和其它资源就被浪费了。每个人的“实际产出”数量（牛排磅数，原油桶数等）并没有增加，增加的仅仅是这些商品以黄金或白银报价的价格。

The development of fiduciary media kept the objective exchange value of money lower than it otherwise would have been, and thereby avoided a large diversion of resources into mining more of the precious metals for cash holdings.
信用媒介的发展使货币的客观交换价值低于原本应有的水平，从而避免了资源被大量转用于开采更多的贵金属以获取现金。

Some writers argue that the payment system in an advanced market economy is “elastic” and responds to the “needs of commerce,” rather than the actual stock of money in the narrower sense. Although the extension of the clearing system does reduce the demand for money in the broader sense, there is no reason that its development should be related to the demand for money. It is an independent phenomenon that may either strengthen or counterbalance changes in the demand for money originating from other causes.
一些作者认为，先进市场经济中的支付系统是“弹性的”，是对“商业需求”的响应，而不是狭义上的实际货币存量。尽管广义上来说，清算系统的扩张确实减少了对货币的需求，但没有理由认为其发展与货币需求相关。它是一种独立的现象，可能会增强或抵消由其它原因引起的货币需求变化。

Many writers (such as those of the Banking School) argue that the banks do not have the power to independently increase the quantity of fiduciary media. What these writers fail to understand is that the demand for loans depends on the rate of interest. It makes no sense to speak of how much money the banks’ customers wish to borrow, without specifying a rate of interest. If the banks want to issue fiduciary media, they must lower the market rate below the natural rate of interest.
许多作者（例如银行学派的作者）认为，银行没有权力独立增加信用媒介的数量。这些作者无法理解的是，贷款需求取决于利率。在没有指定利率的情况下谈论银行客户希望借多少钱是没有意义的。如果银行要发行信用媒介，他们必须将市场利率降低到自然利率以下。

Businesses seek loans from the banks because they desire capital; they simply want capital in the form of money, so that they can conveniently acquire the physical capital goods that they ultimately desire for their operations. Of course, the mere issuance of fiduciary media does not increase the amount of tractors, fertilizer, or power tools. The only way the banks can provide these goods to their clients is through redistribution of purchasing power away from members of the community who do not receive the influx of the newly created money.
企业从银行寻求贷款是因为他们渴望资本。他们只是想要货币形式的资本，这样他们就可以方便地获得他们最终运营所需要的实物资本商品。当然，仅发行信用媒介并不能增加拖拉机、化肥或电动工具的数量。银行能够向客户提供这些商品的唯一方法是通过重新分配购买力，使购买力从没有获得新增货币的社区成员那里转移到自己客户手中。

章节大纲

一、信用媒介对狭义货币需求的影响

In one sense, the employment of the precious metals (or any other useful commodity) to enlarge the stock of money is wasteful. If labor and other resources are used to extract more gold from mines, and this additional gold goes not into industrial or commercial uses (such as for dental fillings or jewelry), but instead increases the cash balances of people in the community, then from a social point of view the labor and other resources have been wasted. Increasing the quantity of money may redistribute existing wealth to make some individuals richer, but only at the expense of making others (who are last to receive the new money) poorer. The community as a whole doesn’t achieve a higher standard of living, simply because people hold more gold or silver in their cash balances. The quantity of “real output” (pounds of steak, barrels of crude oil, etc.) produced per person doesn’t rise, but merely the prices of these items quoted in gold or silver.
从某种意义上说，使用贵金属（或任何其它有用的商品）来扩大货币储备是浪费的。如果将劳动力和其它资源用于从矿山中提取更多的黄金，而这些额外的黄金未被用于工业或商业用途（例如牙科填充物或珠宝），而是增加社会中人们的现金余额，那么从社会的角度来看，劳动力和其它资源已被浪费。货币数量的增加可能会重新分配现有财富，使某些人变得更富裕，但其代价是让其他人（最后获得新货币的人）更贫困。社区作为一个整体无法获得更高的生活水平，只是因为人们在现金余额中拥有更多的黄金或白银。每个人的“实际产出”数量（牛排磅数，原油桶数等）并没有增加，上涨的仅仅是这些物品以黄金或白银进行的报价。

The development of fiduciary media reduces the demand to hold money in the narrower sense. In a community using gold as commodity money, a person who holds (airtight and instantly redeemable) claims to gold, which are accepted in commerce by everyone in the community, doesn’t need to carry as much actual gold on a day-to-day basis. In this sense the widespread use of fiduciary media “economizes” on the amount of metal that must be allocated into the function of serving as the medium of exchange; more gold is freed up to be used in jewelry or industrial applications.
信用媒介的发展减少了狭义货币的持有需求。在使用黄金作为商品货币的社区中，持有（无风险且可立即赎回）黄金债权的人无需每天携带那么多实际黄金，因为黄金债权在交易中也被社区成员接受。从这个意义上说，信用媒介的广泛使用“节约”了必须分配给交换媒介的金属的数量，释放出更多的黄金以用于珠宝或工业应用。

Were it not for the simultaneous development of fiduciary media, the intensification of the division of labor as the world became one giant integrated market would have led to a sharp increase in the objective exchange value of money. In other words, as more people around the world became part of the global market which used gold as the international money, more people would have tried to obtain gold as part of their cash holdings. If actual gold had to satisfy this huge growth in demand, prices (quoted in gold) would have fallen and the owners of gold mines would have intensified their extraction efforts. But the simultaneous development of fiduciary media counterbalanced this tendency, so that the purchasing power of a unit of gold did not rise as much as it otherwise would have.
如果没有信用媒介的同步发展，随着世界成为一个巨大的综合市场，劳动分工的加剧将导致货币的客观交换价值急剧上升。换言之，随着全球越来越多的人成为以黄金作为国际货币的全球市场的一部分，更多的人会试图获得黄金作为他们持有现金的一部分。如果实物黄金必须满足这种巨大的需求增长，那么物价（以黄金报价）就会下降，金矿的所有者将加大开采力度。但是，信用媒介的同步发展抵消了这种趋势，因此，每单位黄金的购买力上涨没有像原本会发生的那么多。

二、货币需求的变动

Some of the fluctuations in the demand for money are quite predictable. An increase in population and the spread of the money economy increase the demand for money. The demand for money changes during boom and bust periods. And even in a typical year, there are cyclical patterns based on agriculture and the payment of workers.
货币需求的一些波动是可以预见的。人口的增加和货币经济的扩张增加了对货币的需求。在繁荣和萧条时期，对货币的需求会发生变化。即使在典型一年中，也存在基于农业和工人报酬的周期性模式。

三、相互抵消制度的弹性

Some writers argue that the payment system in an advanced market economy is “elastic” and responds to the “needs of commerce,” rather than the actual stock of money in the narrower sense. The quantity of money is said to have little influence on the objective exchange value of money, because (say) an increase in the demand for money will automatically be counterbalanced by other forces. These claims are often difficult to evaluate because they fail to make the crucial distinction between the extension of the clearing system, versus the increased use of fiduciary media. Although the extension of the clearing system does reduce the demand for money in the broader sense, there is no reason that its development should be related to the demand for money. It is an independent phenomenon that may either strengthen or counterbalance changes in the demand for money originating from other causes.
一些作者认为，不像狭义货币的实际存量，先进市场经济中的支付系统是“弹性的”，并且是对“商业需求”的响应。有观点认为货币数量对货币客观交换价值的影响很小，因为（例如）货币需求的增长将自动被其他力量抵消。这些主张往往难以评估，因为它们无法在清算系统的扩张与信用媒介使用的增加之间做出关键区分。尽管清算系统的扩张确实减少了对广义货币的需求，但没有理由认为清算系统的发展应该与货币需求有关。它是一个独立的现象，可能会增强或抵消其它原因引起的货币需求变化。

四、以票据（特别是商业票据）为基础的信用流通的弹性

Many writers (such as those of the Banking School) argue that the banks do not have the power to independently increase the quantity of fiduciary media. If business needs require more transactions, then somehow or other, business will get it—either from banks issuing more fiduciary media, or from businesses developing techniques to economize on the use of money. On the other hand (so the argument continues), if the banks try to issue more fiduciary media than the business community desires, these excess notes will come flowing back to the banks.
许多作者（例如银行学派的作者）认为，银行没有权力独立地增加信用媒介的数量。如果商业需要实现更多的交易，那么无论以何种方式，要么从发行更多信用媒介的银行那里，要么从开发节省货币使用技术的企业那里，这种商业目标终将实现。另一方面（争论还在继续），如果银行试图发行超出商业界期待的信用媒介，这些多余的票据将倒流回到银行。

What these writers fail to understand is that the demand for loans depends on the rate of interest. It makes no sense to speak of how much money the banks’ customers wish to borrow, without specifying a rate of interest. If the banks want to issue fiduciary media, they must lower the market rate below the natural rate of interest.
这些作者无法理解的是，贷款需求取决于利率。在没有指定特定利率的情况下谈论银行客户希望借多少钱是没有意义的。如果银行想要发行信用媒介，他们必须将市场利率降低到自然利率以下。

五、仅以票据作为信用媒介准备的意义

The German Bank Act of 1875 followed the famous Peel’s Act in imposing requirements on the cover that banks could accept when issuing new loans in excess of their gold deposits. The requirement was significant not because it somehow tied the expansion of credit to the desire of the community for more money. Rather, it was significant because it placed an obstacle in the issuance of fiduciary media, keeping the quantity of money in the broader sense lower than it otherwise would have been.
1875年的《德国银行法》遵循了著名的《皮尔法案》，对银行在发行超出其黄金存款的新贷款时可以接受的担保做出了要求。这一要求之所以重要，并不是因为它以某种方式将信贷的扩张与社会对更多货币的渴望联系在一起，而是因为它给信用媒介的发行设置了障碍，使广义货币的数量低于原本应有的水平。

六、银行信贷请求的周期性增减

Businesses seek loans from the banks because they desire capital; they simply want capital in the form of money, so that they can conveniently acquire the physical capital goods that they ultimately desire for their operations. Of course, the mere issuance of fiduciary media does not increase the amount of tractors, fertilizer, or power tools. The only way the banks can provide these goods to their clients is through redistribution of purchasing power away from members of the community who do not receive the influx of the newly created money.
企业从银行寻求贷款是因为他们渴望资本。他们只是想要货币形式的资本，这样他们就可以方便地获得他们最终运营所需要的实物资本商品。当然，仅发行信用媒介并不能增加拖拉机、化肥或电动工具的数量。银行能够向客户提供这些商品的唯一方法是通过重新分配购买力，使购买力从没有获得新增货币的社区成员那里转移到自己客户手中。

七、信用媒介对货币客观交换价值变动的影响

As with the extension of clearing operations, there is no reason that the expansion or contraction of fiduciary media should mirror changes in the demand to hold money; there is no “automatic” mechanism by which the objective exchange value of money is stabilized. Thus the insights of the quantity theory are upheld.
与清算业务的扩展一样，没有理由认为信用媒介的扩张或收缩应该反映持有货币需求的变化。没有“自动”机制可以稳定货币的客观交换价值。这支持了数量论的观点。

技术说明

• An example will clarify the terminology and arguments running throughout this and earlier chapters. Suppose a man asks his bartender if he can “run a tab,” meaning that he will obtain drinks in the present but will pay money for them later (perhaps at the end of the month). The bartender agrees, saying the man can have up to $100 in drinks without having to pay for them upfront. By doing so, the bartender has extended credit to the man. However, the quantity of money in the man’s possession hasn’t increased, because the man doesn’t have any transferrable claim (issued by the bartender) that others in the community would accept. In contrast, if the man goes to his local bank and applies for a $100 loan (to be paid back at the end of the month), then in this case too the man receives an extension of credit, but he also receives an addition to his cash balances. Whether the bank loan consists of a new checking account (with $100 as the initial balance), actual money, or notes issued by the bank, these would all be classified as money in the broader sense. The man could use them to buy anything he wanted, including drinks at the bar. Finally, to see the limited role of clearing systems, revert to the original assumption, where the man’s credit consists of a “tab” issued by the bartender with a limit of $100. If the man wanted to use this credit not to buy alcoholic drinks, but rather to buy (say) a pair of shoes, he would have to find a shoe seller who also wanted to buy drinks from the particular bar in question. Then it might be possible to arrange a deal whereby the man acquires the shoes, in exchange for telling the bartender to put the shoe seller’s drinks on his own tab (rather than charging the shoe seller for them).
  一个示例将阐明贯穿本章和前几章的术语和论点。假设一个男人问他的酒保是否可以“赊账”，这意味着他可以立即获得酒水，但以后付钱（也许在月底）。酒保表示同意，称该男子最多可以喝100美元的酒水，而无需先付钱。通过这种方式，酒保向该男子扩展了信用。但是，该男子拥有的货币数量没有增加，因为该男子并没有任何其他社区成员愿意接受的（由酒保签发的）可转让的债权。相反的，如果该名男子去他当地的银行申请一笔100美元的贷款（本月底偿还），那么在这种情况下，该名男子也将获得信贷延期，但他还会获得额外的现金余额。无论银行贷款是由新的支票帐户（初始余额为100美元）、实际货币还是银行发行的票据组成，它们都将被分类为广义货币。该男子可以用它们来购买他想要的任何东西，包括在酒吧喝酒。最后，要理解清算系统的作用局限，请回到最初的假设，即该男子的信贷来自酒保签发的“赊账”，限额为100美元。如果该男子想用这笔信贷购买的不是酒水，而是（比如说）一双鞋，那么他就必须找到一个鞋商，这个鞋商正在考虑从这间酒吧购买酒水。然后，也许可以安排一笔交易，让该男子获得鞋子，以换取酒保将鞋商的酒水挂在该男子的账上（而不是向鞋商收费）。

• Mises concludes his discussion of section 4 on page 312 by saying, “[A]ll of this is true only under the assumption that all banks issue fiduciary media according to uniform principles, or that there is only one bank that issues fiduciary media.” In the section, Mises had criticized the writers of the Banking School who argued that the banks couldn’t get the community to accept extra issues of fiduciary media, if the community didn’t want to hold them. Mises objected that the demand for the additional loans could be influenced by the rate of interest the banks charged, and hence the Banking School’s views were mistaken. So long as they are willing to sufficiently lower the rate of interest below the natural rate, the banks can convince the community to accept any amount of new fiduciary media. However, Mises does not mean that an individual bank has no checks on its issue. If any single bank unilaterally lowers its interest rate and issues more fiduciary media (compared to the policies of its competitors), then eventually those notes will fall into the hands of people who are not clients of the expanding bank. When these people deposit the bank’s newly issued notes with their own banks (which are competitors), these notes will be presented for redemption in money in the narrower sense. Thus the lone bank engaged in an expansionary policy will soon see its reserves of money proper dwindle, and will have to abandon its experiment. Yet this mechanism is not what the Banking School theorists had in mind when they said banks couldn’t issue more notes than the needs of the community warranted.
  米塞斯在（英文版）第312页结束对第4节的讨论时说：“只有在假设所有银行都按照统一原则发行信用媒介，或者只有一家银行发行信用媒介的情况下，这一切才是正确的。”在本节，米塞斯批评了银行学派的作者，他们认为，如果社区不想持有额外的信用媒介，银行就无法让社区接受这些信用媒介。米塞斯反对说，银行收取的利率会影响对额外信贷的需求，因此银行学派的观点是错误的。只要银行愿意将利率降至自然利率以下，它们就可以说服社会接受任何数量的新的信用媒介。然而，米塞斯的意思并不是说一家银行不需要控制它的发行。如果任何一家银行单方面降低利率并（与竞争对手的政策相比）发行更多的信用媒介，那么这些票据最终将落入这家银行客户之外的人的手中。当这些人将这家银行新发行的票据存入自己的银行（即竞争对手）时，这些票据将通过狭义货币赎回。因此，实行扩张性政策的唯一一家银行很快将看到其货币储备相应减少，并将不得不放弃其试验。然而，当银行学派理论家们说银行不能发行超过社会需要的票据时，他们并没有想到这种机制。

新术语

1. Banking School: An English school of thought which argued that the banks were incapable of independently altering the rate of interest or the purchasing power of money, because the market would use clearing operations, bills of exchange, and other techniques to receive the credit it demanded for business purposes.
   银行学派：英国的一个学派，认为银行不能独立地改变利率或货币购买力，因为市场将使用清算操作、汇票和其他技术来获得它为商业目的所需求的信贷。

2. Currency School: An English school of thought which argued that the banks caused economic crises through the expansion and contraction of credit. However, the Currency School thought the suppression of the issue of fiduciary media in the form of banknotes (which was codified in Peel’s Act) would solve the problem, because its members erroneously excluded demand (or current account) deposits from their analysis.
   货币学派：英国的一个学派，认为银行通过信贷的扩张和收缩而引起经济危机。然而，货币学派认为，抑制以钞票形式存在的信用媒介（已编入《皮尔法案》）将解决问题，因为其成员错误地将活期（或经常账户）存款排除在他们的分析之外。

3. (Wicksellian) natural rate of interest: Developed by economist Knut Wicksell, the hypothetical rate of interest that would occur if goods were traded directly against each other without the use of money.
   威克塞尔（Wicksellian）自然利率：由经济学家Knut Wicksell提出，如果商品在不使用货币的情况下相互直接交易，就会产生的假设利率。

4. Peel’s Act [Bank Charter Act 1844]: An important legislative act that took the power of issuing new notes away from private banks and vested it completely with the Bank of England, which itself was required to maintain 100 percent metallic backing for any new notes that it issued. However, the Act crucially did not impose such a restriction on the extension of deposits, meaning that private banks could create more fiduciary media by granting loans (not backed by gold) to their customers.
   皮尔法案（Peel’s Act）[1844年银行宪章法案]：一项重要的立法法案，它将发行新纸钞的权力从私人银行手中夺走，并将其完全赋予英格兰银行，英格兰银行本身被要求对其发行的任何新纸钞保持100%的金属支持。然而，该法案没有对保证金的扩张施加这样的限制，这意味着私人银行可以通过向客户发放贷款（而不是黄金作为担保）来创建更多的信用媒介。

5. Cover (of note issue): Assets backing the issue of new banknotes. Depending on the regulations, a bank might issue fiduciary media not backed by money itself, but backed by another asset such as a commodity bill.
   （发行纸钞的）准备：支持发行新纸钞的资产。根据规定，银行可能会发行不是由货币本身担保，而是以其它资产（例如商业票据）为担保的信用媒介。

6. Working capital: Current assets minus current liabilities. More generally, a measure of a firm’s ability to quickly turn some of its assets into cash in order to finance an expansion.
   营运资本：流动资产减去流动负债。一般来说，这是衡量一家公司迅速将其部分资产转化为现金以资助其扩张的能力。

7. Fixed capital: Assets embodied in durable investments such as factories and specialized equipment that will be used over a long period.
   固定资本：体现在长期投资中的资产，例如将长期使用的工厂和专用设备。

研究问题

1. What was Adam Smith’s analogy to explain the drawback of using the precious metals as money? (p. 298)
   亚当·斯密（Adam Smith）用什么类比来解释使用贵金属作为货币的弊端？ （英文版第298页）

2. If fiat or credit money is employed, does it still make sense to use fiduciary media to economize on the use of money in the narrower sense? (pp. 299–300)
   如果使用的是法币或信用货币，那么使用信用媒介来节省狭义货币的使用是否仍有意义？（英文版第299-300页）

3. Why would population growth influence the demand to hold money? (pp. 300–01)
   为什么人口增长会影响持有货币的需求？（英文版第300-301页）

4. Explain: “The demand for money and money substitutes that is expressed on the loan market is in the last resort a demand for capital goods or, when consumption credit is involved, for consumption goods.” (p. 307)
   解释：“贷款市场上对货币和货币替代品的需求最终体现的是对资本品的需求，或者在涉及消费信贷时，是对消费品的需求。”（英文版第307页）

5. Who bears the “cost of creating capital for borrowers of loans granted in fiduciary media”? (p. 314)
   谁承担“为通过信用媒介实现借贷的借款人创造资本的成本”？（英文版第314页）