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• Appendix a Critique of Böhm-bawerk’s Reasoning In Support of His Time Preference Theory
• Glossary
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V

Value (i.e., Subjective economic value as contrasted with objective usevalue, q.v.). The importance that acting man attaches to ultimate ends. Means (factors of production, q.v.) acquire value as man ascribes to them a usefulness in facilitating the attainment of an ultimate end. Value is not intrinsic; it is not in things. It is within the human mind; it reflects the way in which man reacts emotionally to the conditions of his environment. Value is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act. Value is always relative, subjective and human, never absolute, objective or divine. See “Marginal theory of value” and “Subjective-value theory.”

Value judgments. See “Judgment of value.”

Vandals. A group of Teutonic (German) tribes, who, during the fifth century, fought their way west ward across the Rhine (406) and the Pyrenees (409). Led by their hero king, Genseric (d. 477), from 428 to 477, they went on to Africa where they captured Carthage (439) and made it their capital. From this base, they attacked Constantinople and Rome, plundering and destroying all in their way. With Genseric’s death, their power declined rapidly.

Although the Vandals were probably no worse than their contemporaries, their name has become a synonym for wanton and willful destroyers of the property of others, particularly works of art.

Vassal. A feudal tenant who, in return for military service or its equivalent, occupies and manages a feudal estate or fief at the pleasure of a superior lord, king or emperor. See “Feudalism.”

Velocity of circulation. A term which purports to explain the declining purchasing power of the monetary unit by the speed or velocity of its use in transactions. But this puts the cart before the horse. The speed at which market participants spend and reduce their holdings of cash is not responsible for its decline in purchasing power, but it is the conscious decisions and actions of market participants that are responsible for that speed. Mises pointed out that the demand for money depends on a subjective element whose intensity is entirely determined by individual value judgments. If market participants expect the quantity of money to be increased, they will anticipate a decline in its purchasing power. They will, as a result, be eager to spend their money promptly and reduce their holdings of cash. Those who fail to understand this relation between the quantity of money, its anticipated purchasing power, and the actions of buyers and sellers, attribute the fall in money’s purchasing power to its velocity or “turnover.” But it is not the velocity or speed at which monetary units travel in a community that causes their value to fall, but the conscious decisions of traders who, acting on the basis of their subjective values, are eager to reduce their holdings of cash. (Human Action, pp. 426–28.)

Verstaatlicht, (German). Nationalized.

Verstehen, (German). Understanding. See definition of “Understanding.”

Vested interests. Established or entrenched positions; existing claims, right or privileges.

Vicissitudes. Rapid, unpredictable and often violent changes which completely alter the previously existing situation.

Villa, Villae, (Latin). Villa(s), farmhouses.

Vikings. Scandinavian seafaring adventurers who, starting about 788, ravaged European coastlands for two centuries. Operating from seaport bases they repeatedly raided the countryside before being gradually absorbed in the local populations. They originally plundered and finally settled along the coastal areas of what are now Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, Eire, Spain, Portugal and along the western and northern shores of the Mediterranean as far east as northern Italy.

Vitiate. Impair, injure, render ineffective, destroy the validity or force.

Volkswirtschaft -en, n. volkswirtschaftlich -e, adj., (German). National political economy in the sense of a nation’s politically directed or controlled economy or even national socialism. The term implies that the welfare or interests of the nation or society are somehow different from, superior to, and often opposed to those of the nation’s individual inhabitants.

Volonté générale, (French). General will.

Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins, (German). Lectures on the inner (mental) consciousness of time.