The Mosler-Cantillon-Menger Synthesis: A Complete Theory of the Price Level

We advance the Mosler–Cantillon–Menger Synthesis as a foundational contribution to price theory, arguing that three independently developed bodies of analysis answer complementary sub-problems of the single question of how prices are determined. Mosler (1993) establishes the nominal price anchor at the point of sovereign spending by the currency-issuing monopolist. Cantillon (c.1730) describes the propagation mechanism by which that anchor radiates through the economy, conferring differential distributional effects upon first and subsequent recipients of newly created money. Menger (1871) demonstrates that relative exchange values form through subjective marginal utility at the point of exchange rather than through embodied labour content. These are distinct questions. The synthesis claims that no prior tradition possessed all three answers, that the Austrian defeat of the labour theory of value and Mosler's nominal anchor are fully compatible, and that the persistent failure to distinguish the nominal price-level problem from the relative value problem has generated unnecessary conflict between schools that are, on the claims that belong to their respective domains, correct. We identify the conditions under which the synthesis would be falsified and flag open questions for subsequent investigation.