AIM Framework glossary
Saleability
Canonical definition
Saleability is the efficiency with which an Object discharges the common-currency function: the readiness with which its holder can dispose of it, at prices corresponding to the general economic situation, across the range of quantities, places and times at which disposal might be sought. It is the aggregate of dyadic acceptances across a population, it is continuous, and every exchangeable Object possesses it in some degree.
Explanation
Some things are easy to hand over at a fair price and some are not. Selling a cow means finding someone who wants a whole cow, near you, now, who will pay the going rate rather than exploit your need to sell. A unit of currency can be handed over in any amount, almost anywhere, at almost any time. That difference is one of degree and not of kind: the cow is already doing the job of money, just very badly.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct. The gradient and its concentrating mechanism were identified by Menger (1892) as saleableness; the account of what the gradient measures, and the denial of the categorical boundary drawn upon it, are supplied by the architecture.
Derivation
Also in the entry
Distinction from scalar-standing. scalar-standing names position at the high-efficiency end of the Saleability gradient, not a separate condition acquired by crossing a threshold. Nothing becomes Money; substrates occupy positions, and the position at the top is rivalrous because a population's transactions concentrate on whichever substrate discharges best and the concentration is self-reinforcing. Treating scalar-standing as membership in a category reintroduces the two-class distinction the framework denies, and predicts a boundary that no measurement of the monetary aggregate has been able to locate.
Related terms
- Money
- Common-Currency Integration
- Blind Pricing
- Mimetic Premium (PM)