Seigniorage

Seigniorage /ˈseɪnjərɪdʒ/, also spelled seignorage or seigneurage (from the Old French seigneuriage, "right of the lord (seigneur) to mint money"), is the difference between the value of money and the cost to produce and distribute it. The term can be applied in two ways:

  • Seigniorage derived from specie (metal coins) is a tax added to the total cost of a coin (metal content and production costs) that a customer of the mint had to pay, and which was sent to the sovereign of the political region.[1]
  • Seigniorage derived from notes is more indirect; it is the difference between interest earned on securities acquired in exchange for banknotes and the cost of producing and distributing the notes.[2]

"Monetary seigniorage" is where sovereign-issued securities are exchanged for newly-printed banknotes by a central bank, allowing the sovereign to "borrow" without needing to repay.[3] Monetary seigniorage is sovereign revenue obtained through routine debt monetization, including expansion of the money supply during GDP growth and meeting yearly inflation targets.[3]

Seigniorage can be a convenient source of revenue for a government. By providing the government with increased purchasing power at the expense of public purchasing power, it imposes what is metaphorically known as an inflation tax on the public.

Examples

Seigniorage is the positive return, or carry, on issued notes and coins (money in circulation). Demurrage, the opposite, is the cost of holding currency.

An example of an exchange of gold for "paper" where no seigniorage occurs is when a person has one ounce of gold, trades it for a government-issued gold certificate (providing for redemption in one ounce of gold), keeps that certificate for a year, and redeems it in gold. That person began with and ends up with exactly one ounce of gold.

In another scenario, instead of issuing gold certificates a government converts gold into non-gold standard based currency at the market rate by printing paper notes. A person exchanges one ounce of gold for its value in currency, keeps the currency for one year, and exchanges it for an amount of gold at the new market value. If the value of the currency relative to gold has changed in the interim, the second exchange will yield more (or less) than one ounce of gold (assuming that the value, or purchasing power, of one ounce of gold remains constant through the year). If the value of the currency relative to gold has decreased, the person receives less than one ounce of gold and seigniorage occurred. If the value of the currency relative to gold has increased, the person receives more than one ounce of gold; seigniorage did not occur.

Ordinary seigniorage

Ordinarily, seigniorage is an interest-free loan (of gold, for example) to the issuer of the coin or banknote. When the currency is worn out the issuer buys it back at face value, balancing the revenue received when it was put into circulation without any additional amount for the interest value of what the issuer received.

Historically, seigniorage was the profit resulting from producing coins. Silver and gold were mixed with base metals to make durable coins. The British pound sterling was 92.5 percent silver; the base metal added (and the pure silver retained by the government mint) was, less costs, the profit – the seigniorage. Before 1933, United States gold coins were 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper. To make up for the lack of gold, the coins were over-weighted. A one-ounce Gold American Eagle will have as much of the alloy as needed to contain a total of one ounce of gold (which will be over one ounce). Seigniorage is earned by selling the coins above the melt value in exchange for guaranteeing the weight of the coin.

Under the rules governing the monetary operations of major central banks (including the Federal Reserve), seigniorage on banknotes is the interest payments received by central banks on the total amount of currency issued. This usually takes the form of interest payments on treasury bonds purchased by central banks, putting more dollars into circulation. If the currency is collected, or is otherwise taken permanently out of circulation, the currency is never returned to the central bank; the issuer of the currency keeps the seigniorage profit by not having to buy back worn-out currency at face value.

Solvency constraints of central banks

The solvency constraint of a standard central bank requires that the present discounted value of its net non-monetary liabilities (separate from monetary liabilities accrued through seigniorage attempts) be zero or negative in the long run. Its monetary liabilities are liabilities in name only, since they are irredeemable. The holder of base money cannot insist on the redemption of a given amount into anything other than the same amount of itself, unless the holder of the base money is another central bank reclaiming the value of its original interest-free loan.

Seigniorage as a tax

Economists regard seigniorage as a form of inflation tax, returning resources to the currency issuer. Issuing new currency, rather than collecting taxes paid with existing money, is considered a tax on holders of existing currency.[4] Inflation of the money supply causes a general rise in prices, due to the currency's reduced purchasing power.

This is a reason offered in support of free banking, a gold or silver standard, or (at a minimum) the reduction of political control of central banks, which could then ensure currency stability by controlling monetary expansion (limiting inflation). Hard-money advocates argue that central banks have failed to attain a stable currency. Orthodox economists counter that deflation is difficult to control once it sets in, and its effects are more damaging than modest, consistent inflation.

Banks (or governments) relying heavily on seigniorage and fractional reserve sources of revenue may find them counterproductive.[5] Rational expectations of inflation take into account a bank's seigniorage strategy, and inflationary expectations can maintain high inflation. Instead of accruing seigniorage from fiat money and credit, most governments opt to raise revenue primarily through formal taxation and other means

Contemporary use

The 50 State Quarters series of quarters (25-cent coins) began in 1999. The U.S. government thought that many people, collecting each new quarter as it rolled out of the United States Mint, would remove the coins from circulation.[6] Each complete set of quarters (the 50 states, the five inhabited U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia) is worth $14.00. Since it costs the mint about five cents to produce one quarter, the government made a profit when someone collected a coin.[7] The Treasury Department estimates that it earned about $6.3 billion in seigniorage from the quarters during the program.[8]

일부 국가의 민트들은 그들의 정부에 제공된 시니어리지의 양을 보고하고 있다; 로열 캐나다 조폐국은 2006년에 캐나다 정부를 위해 시니어리지로 9천3백만 달러를 벌어들였다고 보고했다.[9] 시니어리지의 최대 수혜자인 미국 정부는 2000년에 약 250억 달러를 벌었다.[10] 미국 재무부는 2011 회계연도 동안 달러당 45센트를 발행받았다.[11]

때때로 중앙은행들은 수집을 위해 특이한 액면 금액의 고액권 지폐를 제한적으로 발행해 왔다. 이 액면가는 대개 국가적 의미가 있는 기념일과 일치할 것이다. 이러한 인쇄물의 잠재적 편향은 한정되어 있는데, 이는 비정상적인 단위가 지폐의 유통을 더욱 어렵게 하고 상대적으로 적은 수의 사람들만이 고부가가치 지폐를 수집하기 때문이다.

2008년 짐바브웨 정부 수입의 절반 이상이 시니어라고 한다.[12] 우리나라는 2008년 7월 연간 약 24,000%의 초인플레이션(가격은 46일마다 두 배씩 상승)을 경험했다.[13]

국제순환

국제 지폐 유통은 시니어리지의 수익성 있는 형태다. 비록 지폐를 인쇄하는 비용은 미미하지만, 외국 기업은 지폐의 액면가로 재화와 용역을 제공해야 한다. 그 지폐는 기업이 지역화폐보다 가치를 더 중시하기 때문에 가치저장소로 유지된다. 외국인의 유통은 일반적으로 고액권 지폐를 수반하며, 사적 거래에 이용될 수 있다(일부는 불법이다).

미국 화폐는 20세기 대부분 동안 전세계적으로 유통되어 왔으며, 제2차 세계 대전 동안 유통되는 화폐의 양은 몇 배 증가했다. 미국의 100달러 지폐의 대규모 인쇄는 1991년 소련이 해체되면서 시작되었다. 생산량은 4배로 증가했고, 지폐의 첫 인쇄는 1조달러였다. 2008년 말, 공공 유통 중인 미국 화폐는 8,240억 달러에 달했고, 통화 공급의 76%가 100달러 지폐(미국 시민 1인당 100달러 지폐 20장) 형태였다.[14] 미국 화폐가 해외에서 유통되는 액수가 논란이 되고 있다. 포터와 저드슨에 따르면 1990년대 중반에는 53~67%가 해외에 있었다.[15] Feige는[16] 약 40%가 해외에 있다고 추정한다. 골드버그는[17] 뉴욕 연방준비제도이사회(FRB)의 한 간행물에서 "전체 지폐의 약 65%(5800억 달러)가 국외에서 유통되고 있다"고 쓰고 있다. 이러한 수치는 2009년 3월 말 미국 통화의 3,130억 달러(36.7%)가 해외에서 열렸음을 나타내는 연방준비제도이사회(FRB)의 자금 흐름 통계와 크게 상반된다.[18][19] Feige는 1964년 이후 "외국인이 보유한 통화로 인해 미국에 누적되는 시니어리지 수익은 1,67억~1,850억 달러에 달하며 지난 20년간 외국인으로부터의 시니어리지 수입은 연평균 6~70억 달러에 달한다"고 계산한다.[This quote needs a citation]

미국의 100달러 지폐는 500유로 지폐와 경쟁하여 더 많은 양의 돈을 운반할 수 있다. 100달러 지폐 100만 달러는 무게가 22파운드(10kg)로 서류 가방과 신체 보안 없이는 이만큼의 돈을 들고 다니기 어렵다. 500유로 지폐의 동일한 양은 3파운드(1.4kg) 미만으로, 주의를 끌거나 보안 장치를 경보하지 않고도 의복과 짐에 분산될 수 있다. 불법 영업에서는 화폐 운송이 크기와 무게 때문에 코카인을 운송하는 것보다 물류적으로 더 어렵고, 지폐를 쉽게 운반할 수 있어 중남미 마약 카르텔에 유로를 매력적으로 만든다.[20]

1000달러가 약간 넘는 스위스 프랑크 지폐는 아마도 본국 밖에서 유통되고 있는 유일한 다른 지폐일 것이다. 그러나, 비 스위스에 대한 500유로 지폐에 비해 큰 이점은 없다. 500유로 지폐의 20배가 유통되고 있으며, 그것들은 더 널리 인식되고 있다. 외환보유액으로 공식 외환보유액 통화 구성의 약 0.1%를 차지한다.[citation needed]

정부는 대형 지폐의 발행에 있어 다양하다; 2009년 8월, 유통되고 있는 1,000달러 지폐의 수는 스위스 인구의 3배가 넘었다. 비교하자면, 50파운드 지폐의 유통 수는 영국 인구의 3배에도 약간 못 미친다; 1,000프랑 지폐는 약 600파운드의 가치가 있다. 영국 정부는 제2차 세계대전 당시 베른하르트(Bernhard)의 위조지폐 제작 이후 대형 지폐를 경계해 영국은행이 5파운드 이상의 지폐를 모두 회수했다. 이 은행은 1960년대 초(10파운드), 1970년(20파운드), 1981년 3월 20일(50파운드)까지 다른 화폐를 재도입하지 않았다.

참고 항목

References

  1. ^ "Quarterly Review" (PDF). Minneapolisfed.org. 1997. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  2. ^ Bank of Canada (March 2012). "Backgrounders: Seigniorage" (PDF). Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  3. ^ a b Neumann, Manfred J.M. "Seigniorage in the United How Much Does the U.S. Government Make from Money Production?" (PDF). Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  4. ^ Snowdon, Brian; Vane, Howard R. (11 April 2018). An Encyclopedia of Macroeconomics. Edward Elgar. ISBN 9781840643879. Retrieved 11 April 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Tara McIndoe-Calder, Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe: Money Demand, Seigniorage and Aid shocks, Central Bank of Ireland; University of Dublin - Institute for International Integration Studies, May 1, 2009
  6. ^ United States Mint 50 State Quarters® Design Use Policy, Usmint.gov, Retrieved December 5, 2013
  7. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". The 50 State Quarters Program of the United States Mint. United States Mint. Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  8. ^ "50 State Quarters Program Earned $6.3 Billion in Seigniorage - Coin Update". news.coinupdate.com. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  9. ^ "Canadian Coins - Circulation, Collecting Coins & Coin Sets - the Royal Canadian Mint" (PDF). Mint.ca. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-11-04. Retrieved 2009-10-31.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ United States Mint FY 2013 President’s Budget Submission United States Treasury
  12. ^ Gerson, Michael (2008-02-20). "Dying Silently In Zimbabwe". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-06-17. Retrieved 2010-01-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ Edgar L. Feige. ""New estimates of overseas U.S. currency holdings, the Underground economy and the "Tax Gap" Forthcoming in Crime, Law and Social Change". Ideas.repec.org.
  15. ^ Porter and Judson, 1996, R. D. Porter and R. A. Judson, The location of U.S. currency: How much is abroad? Federal Reserve Bulletin 82 (1996), pp. 883–903
  16. ^ E. L. Feige (1997). Revised estimates of the underground economy: Implications of U.S. currency held abroad, in O. Lippert and M. Walker (ed.) The Underground economy: Global evidence of its size and impact. pp. 151–208.
  17. ^ Goldberg, 2010, L. S. Goldberg, Is the International Role of the Dollar Changing? Federal Reserve Bank Of New York, Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 16(1) (2010) pp. 1–7.
  18. ^ "The Fed - Financial Accounts of the United States - Z.1 - Current Release". Federalreserve.gov. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  19. ^ Edgar L. Feige. ""New estimates of overseas U.S. currency holdings, the Underground economy and the "Tax Gap"". Ideas.repec.org.
  20. ^ "Latin American drug cartels find home in West Africa". CNN. September 21, 2009.

External links