Yu's ANALYSIS OF CURRENCY 899and labor that went into its production. A single bill of the paper money (ch GO)
of the Sung and Yuan dynasties, by contrast, only cost three to five pieces of
cash to print, and yet it could be used to purchase goods worth a thousand coins!
Ch'iu's reason for why paper was so cheap and so unsuitable as a representa-
tive of value appeared similar to the older critique against multiple-denomina-
tion cash, but he also developed a new monetary theory that bore a remote
resemblance to the concept of a labor theory of value, inspired by Adam Smith,
embellished by Ricardo, and inherited by Marx among othersY Even though
Ch'iu's theory had no relationship to any subsitution of commodity exchange
values as a source of wealth, the division of labor as the key to increased pro-
duction, labor's conflict with capital, and class struggle between the proletariat
and bourgeoisie - none of which existed at the time - Ch'iu did believe that
labor and human effort was indispensable to the creation of value; not only use-
value but exchange-value as well:
Even though the things of the world may be produced in the natural world
[in the realm of Heaven and Earth], everything must be assisted by human
labor [illy6k, Korean pronunciation] before it can achieve its utility [yong]. In
substance [che] it may be large or small, or skillfully or poorly [made], and
the skill used in labor [kongny6k] may be shallow or deep, [according to which]
its pJice may be high or low. If [the price of an object] is as high [in value] as
1,000 pieces of cash, in substance it may not be large in size, but it has to be
made with the kind of skill that would certainly take more than one day. Would
it in any way be possible that one would be able to buy this with a piece of paper
money about a foot square in size that only cost three to five pieces of cash [to
print]? If the common people can think of exploiting others by this means with-
out the ruler being able to prohibit it, the ruler would have lost his function as
ruler - let alone if the ruler thought of doing it for himself!3^3Despite Ch'iu reaching a point close to modem economics, he did not quite
attain a concept of exchange value, let alone a view of the commodity aspect of
currency that fluctuated in price according to its supply and the demand for it.
He could only see the value of paper money in terms of the price of the paper
used to make it, but given his classical education he should not have taken
umbrage at this since the vaunted and hallowed cowry shell of ancient times
was hardly more valuable. In any case, in an age when nickels, dimes, and quar-
ters (i.e., multiple-denomination cash) were regarded as a fraud perpetrated by
charlatans, it was not likely that a hundred or thousand dollar bill could have
earned much respect from Ch'iu Chun.
Paper Money: Paper Money and Drafts. It is obvious from Yu's own pro-
posals for currency policy that Ch'iu Chun's prejudice against paper money
influenced him greatly. Possibly his excessive empirical and historical approach
to the lessons of past behavior had limited his conception about the possible
functions of money and prejudiced him against the adoption of written instru-