On the art of innuendo: J. M. Keynes' plagiarism of Silvio Gesell's monetary economics

Abstract

Keynes' allegedly revolutionary theory of money was in truth inspired, if not borrowed, from the early intuitions of a German social reformer by the name of Silvio Gesell, a forgotten figure traditionally classed amongst the anarchist dissenters of the early XXth century. This paper explores this connection and thereby attempts to re-establish some balance in the book of intellectual paternity, by laying emphasis on the original monetary themes of Gesell, and on the Keynesian recasting of those self-same themes into the 1936 classic, The General Theory. It is here argued that Keynes appropriated Gesell's insights into the nature of money and interest, and stripped them of their radical implications, so as to fashion an explanation of the crisis that would pose no threat to the foundations of the capitalist order.

Citation

Preparata, G.G. (2002), "On the art of innuendo: J. M. Keynes' plagiarism of Silvio Gesell's monetary economics", Zarembka, P. (Ed.) Confronting 9-11, Ideologies of Race, and Eminent Economists (Research in Political Economy, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 217-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-7230(02)20007-3