As materialised labour-time gold is a pledge for its own magnitude of value,and,since it is the embodiment of universal labour-time,its continuous function as exchange-value is vouched for by the process of circulation.The simple fact that the commodity-owner is able to retain his commodities in the form of exchange-value,or to retain the exchange-value as commodities,makes the exchange of commodities,in order to recover them transformed into gold,the specific motive of circulation.The metamorphosis of commodities C --M takes place for the sake of their metamorphosis,for the purpose of transforming particular physical wealth into general social wealth.Change of form --instead of exchange of matter --becomes an end in itself.Exchange-value,which was merely a form,is turned into the content of the movement.Commodities remain wealth,that is commodities,only while they keep within the sphere of circulation,and they remain in this liquid state only in so far as they ossify into silver and gold.They remain liquid as the crystallisation of the process of circulation.But gold and silver establish themselves as money only in so far as they do not function as means of circulation.They become money as non-means of circulation.The withdrawal of commodities from circulation in the form of gold is thus the only means of keeping them continuously in circulation.
The owner of commodities can recover as money from circulation only as much as he put into it in the form of commodities.Looked at from the standpoint of the circulation of commodities,the first condition of hoarding is constant selling,the incessant throwing of commodities into circulation.
On the other hand,money as a medium of circulation constantly disappears in the process of circulation itself,since it is all the time being realised in use-values and dissolved in ephemeral enjoyments.It must,therefore,be withdrawn from the stream of circulation;in other words commodities must be retained in the first stage of their metamorphosis in order to prevent money from functioning as means of purchase.The owner of commodities who has now become a hoarder of money must sell as much as possible and buy as little as possible,as even old Cato preached --patrem familias vendacem,non emacem esse.[The head of the family should be eager to sell,not eager to buy.Cato The Elder,De re rustica.--Ed.]
Parsimony is the negative pre-condition of hoarding,just as industry is its positive pre-condition.The smaller the proportion that is withdrawn from circulation as an equivalent for the commodities [thrown into it]
consisting of particular commodities or use-values,the larger the proportion that consists of money or exchange-value.[6]The appropriation of wealth in its general form therefore implies renunciation of the material reality of wealth.Hence the motive power of hoarding is avarice,which desires not commodities as use-values,but exchange-value as a commodity.So as to take possession of superfluous wealth in its general form,particular needs must be treated as luxuries and superfluities.For instance,in 1593the Cortes sent a petition to Philip II,which among other matters contains the following passage:
"The Cortes of Valladolid requested Your Majesty in 1586not to permit the further importation into this kingdom of candles,glassware,jewellery,knives and similar articles coming from abroad,which,though they are of no use to human life,have to be exchanged for gold,as though the Spaniards were Indians ."The hoarder of money scorns the worldly,temporal and ephemeral enjoyments in order to chase after the eternal treasure which can be touched neither by moths nor by rust,and which is wholly celestial and wholly mundane.
In the above-quoted work Misselden writes:"The general remote cause of our want of money is the great excesse of this Kingdom in consuming the Commodities of Forreine Countries,which prove to us discommodities,in hindering us of so much treasure,which otherwise would bee brought in,in lieu of those toyes....Wee ...consume amongst us,that great abundance of the Wines of Spaine,of France,of the Rhene,of the Levant ...the Raisins of Spaine,the Corints of the Levant,the Lawnes and Cambricks of Hannaults ...the Silkes of Italie,the Sugers and Tobaco of the West Indies,the Spices of the East Indies:All which are of no necessetie unto us,and yet are bought with ready mony."[7]
Wealth in the shape of gold and silver is imperishable because exchange-value is represented by an indestructible metal and especially because gold and silver are prevented from functioning as means of circulation and thus from becoming a merely transient monetary aspect of commodities.The perishable content is thus sacrificed to the nonperishable form.
"Suppose that Money be taken (by means of Taxation)from one who spendeth the same ...in superfluous eating and drinking,or any other perishing Commodity;and the same transferred to one that bestoweth it on Cloaths.I say,that even in this case the Commonwealth hath some little advantage;because Cloaths do not altogether perish so soon as Meats and Drinks.But if the same be spent in Furniture of Houses,the advantage is yet a little more,if in Building of houses yet more;if in improving of Lands,working of Mines,Fishing,etc.yet more;but most of all,in bringing Gold and Silver into the Country;because those things are not only not perishable,but are esteemed for Wealth at all times and every where;whereas other Commodities [which are perishable,or whose value depends upon the Fashion;or which are contingently scarce and plentiful,]are Wealth,but pro hic et nunc ."[At a particular place and a particular time.--Ed .][8]
