State, money, catallaxy: underlaboring for a chartalist theory of money

This paper explores recent developments in the chartalist theory of money, and looks, in the first section, at the consequences of taxes for the development of markets and monetary exchange. Contrary to Ludwig von Misesʹs contention that chartalism be acatallactic, I argue, using both theoretical and historical resources, that chartalism has direct implications for catallactic processes. In the second section, I consider the origins of money. I shed new light on Pierre Griersonʹs thesis, which has been discussed in recent chartalist contributions, that the origins of money are to be found in the medieval legal institution of wergeld. The final section examines the wider implications of chartalism for the analysis of the state in which I put forward a model of the "extortionary state."