Money and Capital in the Concepts of W. St. Jevons and C. Menger

Abstract

The article analyzes the approaches of Carl Menger and William Stanley Jevons - two authors of the marginalist revolution - to the interpretation of the most important economic concepts - money and capital. They share the evolutionary explanation of the origin of money and similarly understanding their essence, but they emphasize the different basic functions of money. It gives the different shade to the nature of the value of money in their conceptions on money. The positions of the authors on the reasons for the dynamics of the value of money and on recommendations regarding monetary policy are again converging. The authors’ interpretation of capital as a homogeneous fund for generating future income is also similar. At once, Jevons accents emphasis on the function of capital as providing for the current needs of workers, and Menger on the subjectivity of placing any type of capital goods in one or another production chain depending on the individual's needs.