Author: Harvey Mei

名义货币与信用货币

人们在历史上曾经使用小麦或金银等贵重金属作为购买其它商品的交换媒介，也就是货币。这种交换媒介本身的内在价值相当于要交换的商品的价值。但现代形式的货币，不管是纸钞、硬币、还是电子货币，它们本身都与要交换的商品价值并不相等。一张五元或是五十元的纸币本身都只不过是印了彩色图案的纸片，甚至几分钟之内就能把千百万元转手的银行卡，本身也只不过是不值几文的塑料片。那么，为什么这些纸片和塑料卡深受人们的重视，成为人们生活中须臾不可离开的东西呢？这是因为它们本身虽然没有什么价值，但却代表了一定的价值。这也就是说，现代货币是一种名义货币。

人们在历史上曾经使用小麦或金银等贵重金属作为购买其它商品的交换媒介，也就是货币。这种交换媒介本身的内在价值相当于要交换的商品的价值。但现代形式的货币，不管是纸钞、硬币、还是电子货币，它们本身都与要交换的商品价值并不相等。一张五元或是五十元的纸币本身都只不过是印了彩色图案的纸片，甚至几分钟之内就能把千百万元转手的银行卡，本身也只不过是不值几文的塑料片。那么，为什么这些纸片和塑料卡深受人们的重视，成为人们生活中须臾不可离开的东西呢？这是因为它们本身虽然没有什么价值，但却代表了一定的价值。这也就是说，现代货币是一种名义货币。

Fiat money has not only no particular value in use, it doesn’t even really have a value in exchange except that which is decreed that it would have.

名义货币不仅仅没有什么特别的价值，而且在商品的交换中它本身根本没有价值。它拥有的只是法律所赋予它的价值。

So fiat money is money which is intrinsically worthless. And its value exists by virtue of the fact that it is generally acceptable. And fiat money, needless to say, is one of the most mysterious inventions of the human mind, and no economist has managed to explain exactly why it is that people will generally accept something as valuable when it clearly has no value other than that which it is decreed to have.

因此，名义货币从它的本质来说实际上一钱不值。它的价值只在于它能够获得普遍的接受。毫无疑问，名义货币是人类最神奇的发明之一。任何经济学家都还无法确切解释，为什么人们能够把一种除了法定的价值外显然没有任何价值的东西作为宝贵的东西来普遍接受。

A credit instrument is an obligation. And it’s used as money because it has value. And the value that it has, of course, is a value which is based upon its credit-worthiness, in other words, how much credit or how much credence people give to the promise which is actually written down. What I’m receiving or using as an instrument for money purposes is somebody else’s obligation. Their preparedness to do something for me which might be to give me fiat money. That could be the promise which is incorporated in the cheque or the bill of exchange.

信用手段是一种契约。它可以被当作货币使用是因为它也有价值。当然，它的价值是建立在它的信用声誉之上的。换句话说，也就是要看人们能够给予这些写成文字的保证多大程度的信任。我作为货币收取的票据文件是对方的一种债务契约，是保证他们准备为我做一些事，比如要支付给我法定货币。这种保证可能会以支票或汇票的方式来体现。

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重点词汇

1、 fiat money 名义货币，法定货币
2、 credit money 信用货币
3、 credit instrument 信用手段，信用安排
4、 credit – worthiness 信贷价值，信用声誉

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生词

货币的历史和基本功能

Money’s got a very colourful history, because a number of things have been used in the place of what we use as money. Feathers¹, shells, cloth …salt in Roman² times when the Roman soldiers were paid in salt and that’s how we get the word salary³, from the Latin⁴ sal for salt.

历史上的货币五花八门。古时候，羽毛、贝壳、布料甚至盐都曾是交换工具。古罗马士兵得到的军饷就是盐。盐这个词也是英文“工资”这个词的起源。拉丁文Sal的意思是盐，英文中工资Salary就是从它演变而来的。

And a number of tribes⁵ used cattle⁶, which were useful because they were transportable⁷. But they were quite⁸ bulky⁹ and you weren’t always sure of the size of cattle you were going to get, so there was a problem there of quality¹⁰.

还有一些部落以牲畜作为交换媒介。这很有用，因为牲畜可以运来运去。但是它们体积庞大，而且无法确切知道你将要得到的牲畜的大小，因此存在质量方面的问题。

In the ninth century¹¹ in China we had paper money for the first time. It wasn’t quite the paper money that we know, it was more like a piece of paper saying a promise¹² to pay.

九世纪时在中国首次出现了纸币。这种纸币与我们现在使用的不同，更象是一种欠条。

And then in the seventh century we had money in the form¹³ of precious¹⁴ metal. There was always a problem of making sure that the coin that you got had enough precious metal in it to give it a value. When things got tough¹⁵, you often found some civilisations¹⁶ were quite good at what they called sweating the money, which was effectively¹⁷ taking out the precious metal content so that what you got actually ¹⁸wasn’t what you thought you got.

另外在七世纪时出现了贵重金属货币。但如何确切知道货币中有足够的贵重金属含量以使它具有相应的价值则一直是个问题。当时局艰难时，一些文明古国会从这种货币中提取贵重金属成份，使得货币已不再拥有你原来以为它拥有的价值。

And we have a form of that here in Australia when we had the holey¹⁹ dollar … when we had a coin with a hole in the middle because there was a shortage²⁰ of metal.

澳大利亚就曾有过一种这类的货币，一种中间有个洞的货币。这是由于当时缺乏铸币金属的缘故。

And in those days, Spanish²¹ coins were used a lot. Sometimes stores used certain²² tokens²³ because there was a shortage of actual coinage²⁴. And then there is money as we know it today in notes²⁵ and coins – plastic notes.

那时候西班牙硬币广为流通。有时商店里因为没有足够的硬币而使用一些代用币。后来就有了我们现在使用的纸钞、硬币，还有塑料钞票。

And of course, if we were doing this program in a hundred years time we might talk about quaint²⁶ little things called money, notes and coins, because all we’d be using would be plastic card.

当然，如果我们在一百年之后再来制作这一节目，我们可能就会谈论一些奇特有趣的叫做钱、纸币或是硬币的小东西，因为到那时我们大概只使用塑料卡了。

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We look at the functions²⁷ of money. Firstly it’s a medium²⁸ of exchange, so it’s some commodity²⁹ which facilitates³⁰ the exchange of goods and services.

It is also a unit of account, which means that we use money to reckon³¹ prices and reckon values for comparisons³² between goods and services or over time.

And thirdly, money is a store of value. It is an asset. It’s something that we can use to store value away to be retrieved ³³at a later point in time. So we can not consume³⁴ today, we can hold money instead – and transfer that consumption³⁵ power to some point in the future.

首先货币是一种交换媒介，是帮助其他货物与服务进行交换的手段。

其次它是一种计算单位，就是说我们用钱来测量货物、服务或时间之间的价格和价值的比较。

第三它是价值存储手段，是一种资产。我们可以用它把价值储存起来，在以后的某个时刻再取回。这样我们不必现在就把它用掉，而是可以存着钱，把这种消费能力转移到将来的某个时刻。

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重点词汇

1、 Precious metal 贵重金属
2、 Sweating the money 从货币里提取贵重金属成分
3、 Holey dollar 有洞的钱币，这是十九世纪在澳大利亚新南威尔士州流通的货币，因为缺乏金属材料而将钱币穿洞
4、 Token 辅币，具有象征性的货币，代表的价值高于本身的价值
5、 Plastic note 塑料钞票
6、 Plastic card （塑料）信用卡，也叫 credit card
7、 Medium of exchange 交换媒介
8、 Unit of account 计算单位
9、 Store of value 价值储存手段

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生词

1. feather /ˈfeðə(r)/ noun
   one of the many soft light parts covering a bird’s body
   羽毛；翎毛 ↩︎
2. Roman /ˈrəʊmən/ adjective
   connected with ancient Rome or the Roman Empire
   古罗马的；古罗马帝国的 ↩︎
3. salary /ˈsæləri/ noun
   (plural salaries)
   ​money that employees receive for doing their job, especially professional employees or people working in an office, usually paid every month
   薪金，薪水（尤指按月发放的） ↩︎
4. Latin /ˈlætɪn/ adjective
   of or in the Latin language
   拉丁语的；用拉丁语写成的 ↩︎
5. tribe /traɪb/ noun
   (sometimes offensive) a social group in a traditional society consisting of people with the same language, culture, religion, etc., living in a particular area and often having one leader known as a chief
   部落 ↩︎
6. cattle /ˈkætl/ noun
   [plural]
   cows and bulls that are kept as farm animals for their milk or meat
   （饲养的）牛 ↩︎
7. transportable /trænˈspɔːtəbl/ adjective
   [not usually before noun]
   ​that can be carried or moved from one place to another, especially by a vehicle
   可运输；可运送；可输送 ↩︎
8. quite /kwaɪt/ adverb
    (British English)(not used with a negative 不与否定词连用)to some degree
   synonym fairly, pretty
   颇；相当；某种程度上 ↩︎
9. bulky /ˈbʌlki/ adjective
   (comparative bulkier, superlative bulkiest)
   ​(of a thing) large and difficult to move or carry
   庞大的；笨重的 ↩︎
10. quality /ˈkwɒləti/ noun
    (plural qualities)
    ​  [uncountable, countable] the standard of something when it is compared to other things like it; how good or bad something is
    质量；品质 ↩︎
11. century /ˈsentʃəri/ noun
    a period of 100 years
    100年；百年 ↩︎
12. promise /ˈprɒmɪs/ noun
    [countable] a statement that tells somebody that you will definitely do or not do something
    诺言；许诺；承诺 ↩︎
13. form /fɔːm/ noun
    [countable, uncountable] the particular way something is, seems, looks or is presented
    形式；外表；样子 ↩︎
14. precious adjective
    rare and worth a lot of money
    珍奇的；珍稀的 ↩︎
15. tough /tʌf/ adjective
    (comparative tougher, superlative toughest)
    having or causing problems or difficulties
    艰苦的；艰难的；棘手的 ↩︎
16. civilization /ˌsɪvəlaɪˈzeɪʃn/ noun
    [uncountable, countable] a society, its culture and its way of life during a particular period of time or in a particular part of the world
    （特定时期或地区的）社会文明 ↩︎
17. effectively /ɪˈfektɪvli/ adverb
    ​used when you are saying what the facts of a situation are
    实际上；事实上 ↩︎
18. actually /ˈæktʃuəli/ adverb
    used in speaking to emphasize a fact or a comment, or that something is really true
    （在口语中用于强调事实）的确，真实地，事实上 ↩︎
19. holey /ˈhəʊli/ adjective
    a holey piece of clothing or material has a lot of holes in it
    多洞的 ↩︎
20. shortage /ˈʃɔːtɪdʒ/ noun
    [countable, uncountable]
    ​a situation when there is not enough of the people or things that are needed
    不足；缺少；短缺 ↩︎
21. Spanish /ˈspænɪʃ/ adjective
    from or connected with Spain
    西班牙的 ↩︎
22. certain /ˈsɜːtn/ adjective
    used to mention a particular thing, person or group without giving any more details about it or them
    （不提及细节时用）某事，某人，某种 ↩︎
23. token /ˈtəʊkən/ noun
    a round piece of metal or plastic used instead of money to operate some machines or as a form of payment
    （用以启动某些机器或用作支付方式的）代币，专用辅币 ↩︎
24. coinage /ˈkɔɪnɪdʒ/ noun
    [uncountable] the coins used in a particular place or at a particular time; coins of a particular type
    （统称某地或某时期的）金属货币；（某种）硬币 ↩︎
25. note /nəʊt/ noun
     (British English)(also banknote especially in British English)
    (North American English usually bill)
    [countable] a piece of paper money
    纸币；钞票 ↩︎
26. quaint /kweɪnt/ adjective
    ​attractive in an unusual or old-fashioned way
    新奇有趣的；古色古香的 ↩︎
27. function /ˈfʌŋkʃn/ noun
     [countable, uncountable] a special activity or purpose of a person or thing
    作用；功能；职能；机能 ↩︎
28. medium /ˈmiːdiəm/ noun
     a way of communicating information, etc. to people
    （传播信息等的）媒介，手段，方法 ↩︎
29. commodity /kəˈmɒdəti/ noun
    (plural commodities)
    ​(economics) a product or a raw material that can be bought and sold
    商品 ↩︎
30. facilitate /fəˈsɪlɪteɪt/ verb
    facilitate something to make an action or a process possible or easier
    促进；促使；使便利 ↩︎
31. reckon /ˈrekən/ verb
    ​[transitive] to calculate an amount, a number, etc.
    估算；估计；计算 ↩︎
32. comparison /kəmˈpærɪsn/ noun
     [uncountable] the process of comparing two or more people or things
    比较 ↩︎
33. retrieve /rɪˈtriːv/ verb
    (formal) to bring or get something back, especially from a place where it should not be
    取回；索回 ↩︎
34. consume /kənˈsjuːm/ verb
     consume something to use something, especially fuel, energy or time
    消耗，耗费（尤指燃料、能量或时间） ↩︎
35. consumption /kənˈsʌmpʃn/ noun
    the act of buying and using products
    消费 ↩︎