Money, Record-Keeping, and Concentrated Capacity: A Structural Framework for Economic Power

This paper proposes a structural interpretation of economic power based on the articulation between money, record-keeping, and economic capacity, in continuity with the conception of the Market as a natural institution defined by the interaction of Money, Competition, and Trade. Moving beyond functional definitions of money as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value, the analysis conceptualizes money as a system-dependent representation of economic capacity, whose operational validity depends on mechanisms of record and recognition. From this perspective, economic capacity does not acquire structural relevance unless it is recorded, validated, and made persistent within a system. Record-keeping is therefore not a secondary or administrative feature, but a constitutive mechanism that enables the identification, validation, and accumulation of economic capacity. The paper advances the hypothesis that economic power emerges from the structural articulation between money and record-keeping, through which dispersed capacity becomes traceable, accumulable, and systemically recognized. A historical-evolutionary perspective suggests that transformations in record-keeping constitute a central axis of economic development. In this context, inequality is interpreted as a dynamic structural outcome of accumulation processes embedded within systems of validation. The framework further suggests that expansions in record-keeping and validation mechanisms may operate as structurally equivalent forms of economic expansion, functionally analogous—but not reducible—to monetary issuance. This perspective provides a basis for reinterpreting inflation as a phenomenon linked not only to changes in money supply, but also to transformations in the systems that define and validate economic capacity.