[OPE-L:2045] Re: Re: Re: gold

["clyder" <wpc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Jurriaan Bendien <djjb99@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ope-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 1:11 PM
Subject: [OPE-L:2043] Re: Re: gold


> You write:
> >
> >What you have described there is not the value of a commodity but what
marx
> >represents as its price, its exchange value in terms of the universal
> >equivalent gold.
>
> So does gold itself have a price of production, or only a value ? What is
> your opinion ? For convenience, I will quote Prof. Mandel's argument
(which
> is different from Prof. Itoh's):


In a country using gold coin, gold has a price which is set by the mint.
The mint purchases gold in exchange for coin. The price obtained for
a kilo of gold will generally be coin containing less than a kilo of gold.
In the absence of gold coinage, gold prices should be set like all others
by the labour required for its production. However, the stock of gold
in existence is very large relative to current production. This means that
it approximates to a non-reproducible commodity like fine art. Such
non-reproducible commodities have a large speculative element in
their price.

In the long run, discovery of new more easily worked goldfields does
influence the price of gold relative to other commodities, and in cases
of gold coinage, produces a general price inflation.