Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money: How, Why, and Through What Is a Commodity Money?

In this volume, Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money. How, Why, and Through What is a Commodity Money?, the first of the author’s works to be translated into English, Samezo Kuruma examines the different angles from which Marx analyses the commodity and money in the first two chapters of Capital, Volume I. Kuruma carefully explains each of the theoretical questions raised by Marx, particularly the theory of the value-form, which unravels the mystery surrounding money. The theoretical knowledge Marx gains from his analysis of the commodity is the linchpin of Capital, but he recognises that this presents the reader with the ‘greatest difficulty’ - just as ‘beginnings are always difficult in all sciences’. Kuruma helps to ease this difficulty by making the reader clearly aware of how and why Marx poses his theoretical questions.

This work includes an English translation of the full text of Kuruma’s book, Kachikeitai-ron to kokankate-ron (Theory of the Value Form and Theory of the Exchange Process) (Iwanami Shoten, 1957) and a slightly abridged version of Part I of Kahei-ron (Theory of Money) (Otsuki Shoten, 1979). It is a substantially revised edition of the English translation under the same title, Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money, that was self-published by the translator (Outskirts Press, 2008).