Page:The International Socialist Review (1900-1918), Vol. 1, Issue 1.pdf/47

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KARL MARX ON MONEY
47

cuss; it would be sacrilege; because forsooth we should there discover the wonderful secret, the key of all knowledge on the money question, that the quantity of money determines the price level at the starting point, and at all times thereafter.

But this is only tautology, some one will say. Very well; if it is only tautology why not frankly admit it? Why be at such pains to refute what is only a tautology?

So it is also a tautology to say that with an exclusive commodity money of stable value under free coinage and no credit the quantity of money depends upon the value of the metal. It is not only a tautology; it is a supposition contrary to existing facts.

Comrades, what kind of a hearing do you expect to get on the weightier matters, when such Utopian dreams are put forth as the science of money and as an indispensable part of the economics of socialism? "Aussprechen das was ist!"