第一编 货币的本质
第二章 价值的度量
摘要
The classical economists relied on an objective theory of value, and naturally thought that money was a measuring rod of this objective value. Modern economics is based on a subjective theory of value, which traces the source of value to the mind of the individual actor. Value is the significance given to a particular good by a person.
古典经济学家依赖客观价值理论，自然而然地认为金钱是客观价值的衡量标准。现代经济学基于主观价值理论，将价值的来源追溯到个体行动者的心灵中。价值是一个人对特定商品重要性的判断。
Subjective value is bound up with the idea of exchange. Each party to a voluntary trade gives up an item that is lower on his value ranking (or scale of values), in exchange for an item that is higher on his ranking. Exchanges will occur until there are no more mutually beneficial trades. Individuals’ subjective valuations give rise to objective exchange ratios or prices.
主观价值与交换的概念密切相关。自愿贸易的每一方放弃其价值排序（或价值等级）较低的项目，以换取其等级较高的项目。交易将持续发生，直到没有更多的互利交易。个人的主观估值会产生客观的汇率或价格。
The law of diminishing marginal utility states that the value of the last unit of a commodity decreases as the person acquires a greater quantity of the commodity. The various schemes to define an objective measurement of satisfaction—a “util”—cannot get around the fact that value scales involve a ranking (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) and not a measurement of the intensity of value. It is impossible to perform arithmetical operations on the marginal utilities of various units in order to compute the “total utility” or total value of the entire stock of the good. If someone says, “Diamonds are more valuable than water,” what he means is that if forced to give up one diamond or one gallon of water, he would choose to give up the latter.
边际效用递减定律指出，当一个人获得更多的商品时，最后一单位商品的价值会随之下降。定义满意度的客观测量的各种方案 - “效用” - 不能绕过这样一个事实：价值尺度涉及排名（第一、第二、第三等），而不是价值强度的度量。不可能通过对各单位的边际效用进行算术运算来计算商品的“总效用”或总价值。如果有人说“钻石比水更有价值”，他的意思是，如果被迫放弃一颗钻石或一加仑水，他会选择放弃后者。
Knowledge of objective money prices causes people to revise their subjective value scales. Objective money prices provide a “common denominator” for the market exchange values of all the various goods and services available.
对客观货币价格的认识使人们改变了主观价值尺度。客观货币价格为各种商品和服务的市场交换价值提供了一个“公分母”。
However, money prices themselves are constantly changing. That is why Mises and Menger prefer to say that money is an index (not a measurement) of prices, since it is less liable to confusion.
然而，货币价格本身也在不断变化。这就是为什么米塞斯和门格尔更愿意说货币是价格的指数（而不是衡量标准），因为这种说法不太容易混淆。
章节大纲
一、主观使用价值的不可度量性
The classical economists (such as Adam Smith) relied on an objective theory of value, which held that the value of a commodity was based on an objective criterion (such as the amount of labor required for its production). In this mindset, it was natural to view money as a measuring rod of this objective value. Just as a thermometer shows a higher reading on a hot day than on a cold day—reflecting the objectively warmer temperature—so too did the classical economists think that a higher price tag indicated that a more expensive good had a higher objective value than a cheaper good.
古典经济学家（如亚当·斯密）依赖于客观价值理论，该理论认为商品的价值是基于客观标准所的（例如生产所需的劳动量）。在这种心态中，将货币视为这一客观价值的衡量标准是很自然的。就像一个温度计在炎热的日子显示出比在寒冷的日子更高的读数 - 反映了客观温暖的温度 - 古典经济学家也认为更高的价格标签表明昂贵的商品比便宜的商品具有更高的客观价值。
However, modern economics is based on a subjective theory of value, which traces the source of value to the mind of the individual actor. In modern economics, value doesn’t reside in physical things per se, but instead is an attribute ascribed to physical things by subjective preferences. Value is the significance given to a particular good by a person, who can imagine ways to use the good to become more satisfied.
然而，现代经济学基于主观价值理论，将价值的来源追溯到个体行动者的心灵中。在现代经济学中，价值不存在于物理事物中，而是一种主观偏好赋予物质事物的属性。价值是指一个人对某一特定的商品所给予的意义，他可以想象如何使用该商品使自己变得更加满意。
Subjective value is bound up with the idea of exchange. If a man values a piece of iron more than a piece of bread, it means that he would choose the former if faced with a choice between the two. Even Robinson Crusoe, alone on his desert island, reveals his valuations by his “exchanges” with nature. For example, he may value satisfying his hunger more than he values satisfying his desire to lounge on the beach, and that is why he “exchanges” his leisure time for coconuts (by climbing trees).
主观价值与交换的概念紧密相关。如果一个人更重视一块铁而不是一块面包，那就意味着如果面对两者之间的选择，他会选择前者。即使是独自在荒岛上的鲁滨逊·克鲁索，也通过他与自然的“交流”揭示了他的估价。例如，他可能更重视满足他的饥饿感，而不是满足自己在海滩上休息的愿望，这就是为什么他“交换”自己的闲暇时间去摘椰子（爬树）。
With more than one person, valuation guides exchanges made in the marketplace. Each party to a voluntary trade gives up an item that is lower on his value ranking (or scale of values), in exchange for an item that is higher on his ranking. This apparent contradiction—where each person gives up something “less valuable” in exchange for something “more valuable”—is perfectly sensible because value is in the eye of the beholder, i.e., value is subjective.
对于不止一个人时，估值指导市场上的交易。自愿贸易的每一方放弃其价值等级（或价值等级）较低的项目，以换取其价值等级较高的项目。这种明显的矛盾 - 即每个人放弃“价值较低”的东西来换取“更有价值”的东西 - 是完全合情合理的，因为价值是仁者见仁的，即价值是主观的。
In the market, exchanges will occur until there are no more mutually beneficial trades. The underlying subjective valuations driving acts of exchange do not involve a “measurement” of value. (For an analogy, someone can rank his friends in order of importance, without implying that there is an objective unit of friendship that the person measures in each person before constructing the ranking. Someone can report, “Jim is my best friend and Sally is my second-best friend” without being able to say, “Jim is a 24 percent better friend than Sally.”) All that is necessary is that a person be able to look at any two possibilities, and decide which he prefers.
在市场中，交易将持续发生，直到没有更多的互利交易。推动交换行为的潜在主观估值不涉及价值的“衡量”。（类似地，一个人可以按照重要性的顺序对他的朋友进行排名，但不意味着在构建排名之前，给每个人衡量一个客观的友谊单位。有人会说，“吉姆是我最好的朋友，莎莉是我的第二好朋友”，但却不能说，“吉姆比莎莉好24%。”）唯一必要的是，一个人可以考虑任何两种可能性，并决定他喜欢哪一种。
Even though market exchanges are driven by subjective valuations that are themselves nonquantifiable, nonetheless these exchanges in turn give rise to objective exchange ratios or prices. For example, suppose Alice has three pears while Bob has two apples, and that on her value scale Alice ranks “two apples” more highly than “three pears,” whereas Bob has the opposite ranking. These subjective valuations—which do not involve any measurement of the amount of value or utility residing in each combination of fruit—mean that the two people can gain from trading the three pears for the two apples. This mutually beneficial trade then establishes that the objective price of an apple is 1.5 pears, and that the price of a pear is two-thirds of an apple. Thus Alice and Bob’s subjective rankings of apples and pears, allowed for the formation of an objective market price reflected in their exchange. But it would be nonsensical to describe this scenario as one in which “an apple gives 50 percent more value to people than a pear.”
尽管市场交换是由主观估值驱动的，而主观估值本身是无法量化的，但这些交换反过来又会产生客观的汇率或价格。例如，假设爱丽丝有三个梨，而鲍勃有两个苹果，在爱丽丝的价值排序上，“两个苹果”排名高于“三个梨”，而鲍勃的排则名相反。这些主观估价 - 不涉及任何对每种水果组合中的价值或效用的度量 - 意味着两个人可以通过两个苹果与三个梨的交易获益。这一互惠交易随后确定了一个苹果的目标价格是1.5个梨，而一个梨的价格是一个苹果的三分之二。因此，Alice和Bob对苹果和梨的主观价值排序，使得它们在交易所形成了一个客观的市场价格。但将这种情景描述为“苹果带给人们的价值比梨子带给人们的价值高50％”是荒谬的。
The law of diminishing marginal utility states that the value of the last unit of a commodity (in someone’s possession) decreases as the person acquires a greater quantity of the commodity. This follows from the observation that a person will necessarily assign subsequent units of a commodity to those purposes that he deems less and less significant. For example, if a person has only one gallon of water, he will attach a great significance to it, because it is necessary to stave off thirst.
边际效用递减定律指出，当一个人获得更多的商品时，最后一单位商品的价值会随之下降。这是因为观察到一个人必然会将商品的后续单位分配给他认为越来越不重要的目的。例如，如果一个人只有一加仑的水，它会对他有很重要的意义，因为它是止渴的必须品。
As a person’s access to water becomes greater, however, the last (or marginal) gallon of water becomes less significant. The 25th gallon, perhaps, will be devoted to cooking, and is not nearly as important as the 1st through 24th gallons, which were devoted to drinking. And the 1000th gallon might be used to wash the car, a relatively unimportant goal.
然而，当一个人获得更多的水时，最后一加仑（或边际）的水就变得不那么重要了。也许，第25加仑将用于烹饪，而与用于饮用的第1加仑至第24加仑的水相比，它的重要性并不大。而第1000加仑可能用于洗车，这是一个相对不重要的目标。
The various schemes to define an objective measurement of satisfaction—a “util”—cannot get around the fact that value scales involve a ranking (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) and not a measurement of the intensity of value. The renowned Chicago School economist Irving Fisher, for example, devised a clever argument by which he equated the utility of the 100th loaf of bread with the utility derived from the last and second-last units of fuel oil. At the same time, the utility of the 150th loaf of bread was equal to the utility of only the last unit of fuel oil. Fisher concludes that the 150th loaf of bread must have only one-half the utility of the 100th loaf. But this assumes away diminishing marginal utility in the fuel oil.
定义满意度的客观测量的各种方案 - “效用” - 不能绕过这样一个事实：价值尺度涉及排名（第一、第二、第三等），而不是价值强度的度量。例如，著名的芝加哥学派经济学家欧文·费雪（Irving Fisher）就提出了一个聪明的论点，他将第100条面包的效用等同于最后和倒数第二单位燃料油的效用。与此同时，第150条面包的效用等于仅使用最后一单位燃料油的效用。费雪得出结论，第150条面包的效用必须只有第100条面包的一半。但这只是假设燃料油的边际效用减少。
二、总价值
If it is impossible to measure the value in a single unit of a good, it is obviously impossible to perform arithmetical operations on the marginal utilities of various units in order to compute the “total utility” or total value of the entire stock of the good. One problem with this approach is that a free good (such as air) would end up with a total value of zero, since the marginal utility of one cubic meter of air is zero in most circumstances.
如果无法测量一个单位商品的价值，显然不可能对各个单位的边际效用进行算术运算，以计算整个库存商品的“总效用”或总价值。这种方法的一个问题是，免费商品（例如空气）的总价值为零，因为在大多数情况下一立方米空气的边际效用为零。
It must be repeated that utility or value is a concept related to the acts of choice that a particular individual contemplates. If someone says, “Diamonds are more valuable than water,” what he means is that if forced to give up one diamond or one gallon of water, he would choose to give up the latter. But if an individual had to choose between all the water in the world, or all the diamonds, then he would choose to retain the water (at least if he wanted to live longer than a few days). Only in this contrived case can we meaningfully speak of the “total value” of the entire stock of water, because in this situation the “total value” and the “marginal value” are the same; the unit under consideration is all the water in the world.
必须重复的是，效用或价值是一个与特定个体所考虑的选择行为相关的概念。如果有人说“钻石比水更有价值”，他的意思是，如果被迫放弃一颗钻石或一加仑水，他会选择放弃后者。但如果一个人必须在世界上所有的水或所有的钻石之间做出选择，那么他会选择保留水（至少如果他想多活几天的话）。只有在这种人为的情况下，我们才能有意义地谈论整个水资源的“总价值”，因为在这种情况下，“总价值”和“边际价值”是相同的；正在考虑的单位是世界上所有的水。
三、作为价格指数的货币
At this point, it should be clear that money cannot serve as a measuring rod of subjective value. There is a sense in which money is a measure of objective market exchange value, however. For example, if a car trades for 200000 while a motorcycle trades for 100000, then the car has twice as much exchange value. Someone bringing a car to market can obtain “twice as many goods and services” for it, where the amount is measured in money prices.
在这一点上，应该清楚的是，货币不能作为主观价值的衡量标准。然而，从某种意义上说，货币是客观市场交换价值的衡量标准。例如，如果一辆汽车的交易价是20万，而摩托车的交易价是10万，那么这辆汽车的交换价值是摩托车的两倍。将汽车推向市场的人可以获得以货币价格计算的“两倍数量的商品和服务”。
Knowledge of objective money prices causes people to revise their subjective value scales. Someone who despises smoking and loves vegetables may nonetheless place a higher value on an unopened carton of cigarettes than on a tomato, because she can sell the carton for money, and then use the money to buy a tomato as well as many other items. In this way, objective money prices provide a “common denominator” for the market exchange values of all the various goods and services available.
对客观货币价格的了解导致人们修改其主观价值排序。一个鄙视吸烟、喜欢蔬菜的人可能会认为未开封的香烟比番茄具有更高的价值，因为她可以出售香烟换取货币，然后用这些货币购买番茄以及许多其它物品。这样，客观货币价格就为所有可用商品和服务的市场交换价值提供了一个“公分母”。
However, because money prices themselves are determined by the underlying subjective valuations of the traders, they are constantly changing. The various combinations of goods that one motorcycle can “buy” today, may be different tomorrow, not only because the price (quoted in money) of the motorcycle can change, but also because the prices (quoted in money) of all others goods can change. That is why Mises and Menger prefer to say that money is an index (not a measurement) of prices, since it is less liable to confusion.
然而，由于货币价格本身是由交易者的潜在主观估值决定的，因此它们在不断变化。一辆摩托车今天可以“购买”的各种商品组合，明天可能会有所不同，不仅因为摩托车的价格（以货币报价）可以改变，还因为所有其它商品的价格（以货币报价）可以更改。这就是为什么米塞斯和门格尔更愿意说货币是价格的指数（而不是衡量标准），因为这种说法不太容易混淆。
重要贡献
The replacement of the classical economists’ labor (or cost) theory of value, with subjective value theory, was a true revolution in economic theory. The classical theory explained the price of a good by the amount of labor or (more generally) the cost of producing the good. Although such an approach explained the fact that prices and production costs tended to be similar, there were many problems. For example, it was clear that the actual day-to-day prices of goods were not determined by production costs, so at best the cost theory explained long-run tendencies, not the determinants of actual market prices. Worse still, “costs” are themselves prices, and so to explain the price of a good by the costs of producing it, only pushes the problem back one step. By explaining the prices of consumer goods through the interaction of subjective valuations in the market—and then using these consumer prices to explain the prices of the producer goods needed to make them—the subjective value theorists resolved these problems. Although other economists participated in the Subjectivist/Marginal Revolution, it was the Austrian economists who worked out the logical foundations of the new approach, as Mises’s frequent references to Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, and Wieser testify.
用主观价值理论取代古典经济学家的劳动（或成本）价值理论，是经济理论的真正革命。古典理论通过劳动量或（更普遍地说）生产商品的成本来解释商品的价格。虽然这种方法解释了价格和生产成本趋于相似的事实，但也存在许多问题。例如，很明显，商品的实际日常价格并不是由生产成本决定的，因此成本理论最多解释了长期趋势，而不是实际市场价格的决定因素。更糟糕的是，“成本”本身就是价格，因此，通过生产成本来解释商品的价格，只会把问题往后推一步。通过市场中主观估价的相互作用来解释消费品的价格 - 然后利用这些消费者价格来解释制造它们所需的生产商品的价格 - 主观价值理论家解决了这些问题。尽管其他经济学家也参与了主观主义/边际革命，但正如米塞斯经常提到门格尔、庞巴维克和维塞尔所证明的那样，奥地利学派经济学家为这种新方法奠定了逻辑基础。
Irving Fisher was an incredibly influential economist from the Chicago School, and arguably one of the founders of modern, mainstream economics. Although economists paid lip service to the subjectivist revolution in value theory, nonetheless they often fell back into the old habit of viewing utility as a cardinal, measurable substance. Mises’s critique of Fisher is a good illustration of this tendency. Modern Austrian economists also chide their mainstream peers for relying on mathematical models of “utility functions” that can easily lead the economist into forgetting that modern price theory only assumes that individuals can rank various combinations of goods from best to worst. There is no need to assume that a consumer has an intensity of preference for various goods that could be measured by units of utility.
欧文·费雪是芝加哥学派一位极具影响力的经济学家，可以说是现代主流经济学的创始人之一。 虽然经济学家们口头上支持价值理论中的主观主义革命，但他们仍然常常回到把效用视为基本的、可测量物质的旧习惯中。米塞斯对费雪的批评很好地说明了这种倾向。 现代奥地利经济学家也谴责他们的主流同行依赖于“效用函数”的数学模型，而这种数学模型很容易导致经济学家忘记现代价格理论只假设个人可以将各种商品组合从最好到最差进行排序。没有必要假设消费者可以用效用单位来衡量自己对各种商品的偏好程度。
新术语
Free good: A good that has a price of zero, because it is not scarce. There is enough of the good to satisfy all human wants that it can technically fulfill.
免费商品：价格为零的商品，因为它不稀缺。 有足够的商品来满足技术上可以实现的所有人类需求。
Law of diminishing marginal utility: The rule, deducible from the nature of economizing action, that each additional unit of a good or service will have a lower value, because a person will allocate successive units to satisfying ends that are less and less important.
边际效用递减规律：从节约行动的性质中推导出的规则，即商品或服务的每个新增单位具有较低的价值，因为一个人会将连续的单位分配到越来越不重要的满足目的。
Objective theory of value: An explanation of value that relies on the objective properties of a good, such as its cost of production or the amount of labor that went into its construction. (The classical economists, such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, held an objective theory of value.)
客观价值论：依赖于商品客观属性的价值解释，例如生产成本或投入其中的劳动量。（古典经济学家，如亚当·斯密和大卫·里卡多，持有客观的价值理论。）
Scale of values: An analytical tool by which the economist interprets the actions of an individual, who subjectively ranks particular units of goods and services in order from most to least important.
价值尺度：经济学家用来解释个体行为的一种分析工具，个体按照从最重要到最不重要的顺序对特定的商品和服务单位进行主观排序。
Subjective theory of value: An explanation of value that relies on individuals’ subjective rankings of particular units of goods and services. (The so-called Marginal Revolution of the early 1870s—spearheaded by Carl Menger, William Stanley Jevons, and Léon Walras—overturned the objective theory of value and ushered in the subjective theory.)
主观价值论：对价值的一种解释，它依赖于个人对特定商品和服务单位的主观排序。（19世纪70年代早期所谓的边际革命 - 由卡尔·门格尔，威廉·斯坦利·杰文斯和莱昂·瓦尔拉斯率先推翻了客观价值论，并引入了主观理论。）
研究问题
Explain: “In the older political economy, the search for a principle governing the measurement of value was to a certain extent justifiable.”
解释：“在旧的政治经济中，寻求衡量价值的原则在某种程度上是合理的。”Why would an isolated individual still need to engage in a “comparison of values” before taking action with respect to scarce goods?
为什么一个孤立的个体在对稀缺商品采取行动之前还需要进行“价值比较”？Why does an exchange of two items require that the people making the exchange place the items in reverse order on their value scales?
为什么两个项目的交换要求进行交换的人在价值排序上按相反的顺序排列项目？Explain:“The untenability of [Wieser’s] argument is shown by the fact that it would prove that the total stock of a free good must always be worth nothing.”
解释：“维塞尔论证的不可接受表现在这样一个事实上，即它将证明免费商品的总存量必须始终没有价值。”How does money aid the entrepreneur?
货币是如何帮助企业家的？