Introduction

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Money, Power, and Monetary Regimes

Money, in this paper, is defined as a power relationship of a specific kind, a stratified social debt relationship, measured in a unit of account determined by some authority. A brief historical examination reveals its evolving nature in the process of social provisioning. Money not only predates markets and real exchange as understood in mainstream economics but also emerges as a social mechanism of distribution, usually by some authority of power (be it an ancient religious authority, a king, a colonial power, a modern nation state, or a monetary union). Money, it can be said, is a 'creature of the state' that has played a key role in the transfer of real resources between parties and the distribution of economic surplus. In modern capitalist economies, the currency is also a simple public monopoly. As long as money has existed, someone has tried to tamper with its value. A history of counterfeiting, as well as that of independence from colonial and economic rule, is another way of telling the history of 'money as a creature of the state.' This historical understanding of the origins and nature of money illuminates the economic possibilities under different institutional monetary arrangements in the modern world. We consider the so-called modern 'sovereign' and 'nonsovereign' monetary regimes (including freely floating currencies, currency pegs, currency boards, dollarized nations, and monetary unions) to examine the available policy space in each case for pursuing domestic policy objectives

On the Centrality of Redemption: Linking the State and Credit Theories of Money Through a Financial Approach to Money

The paper presents a financial approach to monetary analysis that links the credit and state theories of money. A premise of the functional approach to money is that "money is what money does." In this approach, monetary and mercantile mechanics are conflated, which leads to the conclusion that unconvertible monetary instruments are worthless. The financial approach to money strictly separates the two mechanics and argues that major monetary disruptions occurred when the two were conflated. Monetary instruments have always been promissory notes. As such, their financial characteristics are central to their value and liquidity. One of the main financial requirements of any monetary instrument is that it be redeemable at any time. As long as this is the case, the fair value of an unconvertible monetary instrument is its face value. While the functional approach does not recognize the centrality of redemption, the paper shows that redemption plays a critical role in the state and credit views of money. Payments due to issuer and/or convertibility on demand are central to the possibility of par circulation. The paper shows that this has major implications for monetary analysis, both in terms of understanding monetary history and in terms of performing monetary analysis

Introduction: new research in monetary history - A map

This handbook aims to provide a comprehensive (though obviously not exhaustive) picture of state-of-the-art international scholarship on the history of money and currency. The chapters of this handbook cover a wide selection of research topics. They span chronologically from antiquity to nowadays and are geographically stretched from Latin America to Asia, although most of them focus on Western Europe and the USA, as a large part of the existing research does. The authors of these chapters constitute, we hope, a balanced sample of various generations of scholars who contributed to what Barry Eichengreen defined as "the new monetary and financial history" – an approach that combines the analysis of monetary aggregates and policies with the structure and dynamics of the banking sector and financial markets. We have structured this handbook in ten broad thematic parts: the historical origins of money; money, coinage, and the state; trade, money markets, and international currencies; money and metals; monetary experiments; Asian monetary systems; exchange rate regimes; monetary integration; central banking and monetary policy; and aggregate price shocks. In this introduction, we offer for each part some historical context, a few key insights from the literature, and a brief analytical summary of each chapter. Our aim is to draw a map that hopefully will help readers to organize their journey through this very wide and diverse research area

Variation in male reproductive system characters in Corydoradinae (Loricarioidei: Callichthyidae) reflects the occurrence of different lineages in this subfamily

ABSTRACT Callichthyidae comprises a well-corroborated monophyletic group divided into two subfamilies: Corydoradinae and Callichthyinae. A recent proposal, based on molecular data, suggests that Corydoradinae is composed by nine monophyletic lineages, possibly genera. The species pertaining to those lineages have extensive modification in the size of genome, including diploid, tetraploid and octoploid species. Considering the occurrence of these monophyletic lineages and that the variations in DNA content may imply in significant alterations on the structure of spermatozoa, this study analyzed the morphology of the male reproductive system and the morphometry of the head of the spermatozoa of representatives of the nine lineages of Corydoradinae, seeking for particular characteristics of each lineage. Morphological data revealed a high intra-lineage variation, larger than that observed among species of different lineages. In contrast, morphometric data obtained for eight out of the nine lineages, revealed large congruency with the hypothesis that Corydoradinae is composed by different lineages. These results demonstrate that there is a correlation among variations in DNA content and the size of the spermatozoon head, thus providing additional subsides for the definition of the Corydoradinae lineages

Choline acetyltransferase-like immunoreactivity in the forebrain of the red-eared pond turtle (Pseudemys scripta elegans)

Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunohistochemistry was used to map the cholinergic neurons in the forebrain of Pseudemys turtles. Cell bodies with ChAT-like immunoreactivity were seen in the septum, the nucleus of the diagonal band, and embedded within the medial and lateral forebrain bundles. The region of the medial and lateral forebrain bundles contained the greatest concentration of ChAT-positive neurons. Virtually no ChAT-like immunoreactivity was seen in the areas composing the reptilian homologue of the mammalian striatum. It is suggested that the turtle basal forebrain cholinergic neurons may represent the evolutionary precursors to the mammalian cholinergic neurons of the basal forebrain and even the striatum. © 1984