Nominal and Real Money, General Equivalent and Value

Classical economists, from Smith to Ricardo, from Say to Marx, have the merit to have inquired about the nature of money and its link to value. Aware that money is a ‘vehicle’ which conveys produced goods from hand to hand, the classics paved the way for a novel conception of money as a nominal means rather than an object of payment. This chapter starts with the classical distinction between nominal and real money and delves into the search for the absolute measure of value carried out by Ricardo and Marx. Emphasis is placed on the role of labour in the classical theory of value. All this provides for founding elements of a contemporary study of national monetary phenomena.