MORE ON JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES AND YAP STONE MONEY

Keynes does reference the phenomenon of Yap money in a footnote on pg. 292 of the second volume of A Treatise on Money (McMillan and Co. 1950, first published 1930). In the relevant passage, Keynes was making a point about how the function of gold in modern monetary management had been increasingly confined to a standard of value. Paradoxically, while gold was revered by its supporters as a tangible commodity, its actual monetary significance was henceforth to serve as an abstraction. As Keynes wrote about gold in his typically arch style:

I think Keynes had his ideas, and the stone money of Yap simply provided him with yet another deft way to illustrate his argument. There is also a highly interesting discussion of the Yap example on the blog Moneyness: http://jpkoning.blogspot.com/2013/01/yap-stones-and-myth-of-fiat-money.html

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 : John Maynard Keynes and Yap Stone Money (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n36a16.html)

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