in praise of gold

[Richard Fiero]

My point is not to comment on coins, gold or gold digging, but 
to note that these topics are tied together in the archaic mind 
of which there is abundance on this list.
In his review of COINS, BODIES, GAMES, AND GOLD (Leslie Kurke, 
Princeton University Press, 1999), L. Randall Wray makes the 
following points in the March 2001 edition of THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES.
" . . . it has long been established that the first coins were 
issued in Lydia and East Greece, probably no earlier than the 
third or fourth quarter of the seventh century BC.  The dating 
is puzzling, because we also know that money, local markets, 
long-distance trade, and even complex financial instruments 
existed for thousands of years before coins were invented.  If 
precious metal coins were indeed invented to reduce transaction 
costs, one wonders why it took so long for sophisticated 
traders to discover them.
" . . . As Karl Polany warned long ago, the Greek economy was 
'embedded' in other noneconomic institutions, 'the economic 
process itself being instituted through kinship, marriage, 
age-groups, secret societies, totemic associations, and public solemnities.'
" . . . She [Leslie Kurke] begins by quoting an intriguing 
passage form Herodotus:
'The Lydians use customs very similar to those of the Greeks, 
apart from the fact that they prostitute their female 
children.  And first of men whom we know, they struck and used 
currency of gold and silver, and they were also the first 
retail traders.  And the Lydians themselves claim that also the 
games that now exist for them and for the Greeks were their invention.'
"Note how Herodotus juxtaposes prostitution, coinage, retail 
trade, and games--all (inaccurately) attributed to the Lydians, 
who are otherwise supposed to be much like the Greeks. As Kurke 
wonders, 'Why do all these phenomena form a natural class . . .'
" . . . while prostitution, games, and retail trade are 
frequently discussed and linked in the [period] literature, 
coinage is virtually never discussed (at least in a positive 
sense; almost all references are to counterfeiting).  Quite the 
contrary, Kurke insists . . . for concern with what the texts 
_don't_ say. She also notes that the greatest Greek democracy, 
Athens, produced not a single text supportive of 
democracy--rather, all contemporaneous discussion of Athenian 
political theory was written by a hostile elite.
" . . . In her view, 'the minting of coin would represent the 
state's assertion of its ultimate authority to constitute and 
regulate value in all spheres in which general-purpose money 
operated simultaneously--economic, social, political, and 
religious.  Thus, state-issued coinage as a universal 
equivalent, like the civic _agora_ in which it circulated, 
symbolized the merger in a single token or site of many 
different domains of value, all under the final authority of the city.'
"In a sense, the choice of precious metals for coinage was a 
historical accident, a pointed challenge to the elite monopoly 
over precious metal.  By coining precious metal, the _polis_ 
appropriated the highest sphere of gift exchange, and with its 
stamp it asserted its ultimate authority--both inwardly (or 
domestically) but also outward (in long-distance trade): 'For 
every Greek _polis_ that issued its own coin asserted its 
autonomy and independence from every other Greek city, while 
coinage also functions as one institution
among many through which constituted itself as the final 
instance against the claims of an internal elite.'  As the 
_polis_ used coins for its own payments and insisted on payment 
in coin, it inserted its sovereignty into retail trade in the 
_agora_.  Mainstream economists frequently assert that growth 
of the local market was associated with expansion of democracy, 
but Kurke stands the typical Austrian argument on its head by 
noting the critical role played by the _polis_ in wresting 
control away from the elite.
" . . . introduction of coins arose out of a 'seventh/sixth 
century crisis of justice and unfair distribution of 
property.'  Coins appeared at this particular time because the 
_polis_ had gained sufficient strength to rival the _symposia_, 
-hetaireiari_ (private drinking clubs), and other institutions 
and _xenia_ (elite networking) that maintained elite 
dominance.  At the same time, the _agora_ and its use of coined 
money subverted hierarchies of gift exchange, just as a shift 
to taxes and regular payments to city officials (as well as 
severe penalties levied on officials who accepted gifts) 
challenged the 'natural' order that relied on gifts and 
favors.  It is no coincidence that elite literary works 
disparaged the _agora_ as a place for deceit and that coinage 
was always noted for its 'counterfeit' quality.
" . . . Obviously the elite reacted to such developments, 
although in a veiled manner.  When money is discussed in the 
texts, its introduction is invariably attributed to tyrants who 
destroy the _nomos_, the community, and the divine order.  It 
is also interesting that the elite usually attributes invention 
of money to the requirements of scorned retail trade--just as 
modern economics does, albeit without scorn--rather than to the 
struggle to assert sovereignty of the _polis_.  As Kurke 
argues, this 'mystification' of the origins of money is 
ideological--as it remains today--a purposeful rejection of the 
legitimacy of democratic government.
"A major portion of the book is devoted to elite 
representations of games and 'bodies' (prostitution, 
objectification of women, and artistic depiction of the female 
form).  Recall from the quote above that Herodotus linked 
Lydian creation of coinage to invention of games and 
prostitution of female children.  Kurke notes that the whole 
array of Greek games emerged at the same time as coins and 
wonders how games form a natural class with coins in literary 
texts--with games of chance ridiculed while games of order were 
held to be appropriate.  She argues that games of chance served 
as a shorthand for all the vices of a disembedded economy: the 
acquisition of small profits by shameful means and creation of 
random fortunes as opposed to the 'natural' fortuned gained 
through aristocratic birth.
"Just as two classes of games were created, two classes of 
prostitute were invented at the time of coinage. . . . it 
becomes necessary for the elite to distinguish their 
prostitutes from those used by the citizens.  Thus, the 
_hetariai_ (courtesans) who frequented the _symposia_ to 
exchange their services for 'gifts' were distinguished from the 
_pornai_ (whores) who serviced citizens for coins. Kurke notes 
that the _polis_ created cheap public brothels for use by the 
citizens because 'to be a citizen means always having a place 
to put your penis.'"