Finances

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Finances ( plural of the word finance , which is only used as a confix ; English finances , French finances ) is the general term for finance and finance , specifically public finances ( state finances , municipal finances ). Colloquially , this refers to the funds and creditworthiness of economic entities ( private households , companies , the state , foreign countries ).

etymology

"Finantien" first appeared in a German text in Cologne in 1341, with the old German distrust of any kind of modern use of capital as "money business in the bad sense or usury ". The Cologne city book wrote in the original text "Döt is the morning language of woichger and finantien". Around 1549 the “financier” was considered usury or a cunning deceiver. The lexicographer George Henisch described in 1616 "Finantz" as latin "pecunia publica, summa rei quaestoriae" , or "public funds, the main thing the Quaestors ". In terms of usury, it remained as “finance” until the 18th century. If payments were made to the state treasury, there was talk of "finantia" and assumed the meaning of "state income, the state's monetary system". In 1695 Kaspar von Stieler defined them as "taxes, income from a royal and princely chamber". The early terms can be traced back to the Latin finare (“to pay a fixed fee”) and the Latin finis (“end”).

The historian Dietrich Hermann Hegewisch defined finances in 1804 as follows: “In the narrower sense, it is understood to mean ... the means that a state uses to generate income, the use it makes of this income and the method and order it uses With regard to both considered ”(translated into today's German language). In a broader sense, he also included money and coinage under finance. In his study of Roman finances, he came to the conclusion that finances had a major impact on Rome's constitution and the common good. He considered finances to be in order when income was earmarked . For Joseph Schumpeter , the historically alternating financial crises in 1918 were "one of the best points of attack for the investigation of social mechanisms, especially, but not exclusively, political ones". In the socialist GDR propaganda, there was a "link between overproduction (especially overaccumulation), mass unemployment and inflation , combined with acute deficits in public finances, strong balance of payments imbalances and severe shocks to the international capitalist monetary system created after the Second World War " in capitalist finances . This distracted from the systemic problems of socialism , which a decade later led to its decline. In today's mass media there is often a "finance" section, which presents business news.

Today's meaning

Today the focus of the term finance is still in the state area ( Federal Ministry of Finance ), state finance is often used as a synonym. In colloquial language, finance is also used in other economic subjects. Outside of public finances, however, the term is imprecise, as finance describes assets or debts , profits or losses , financing , equity or debt financing , balance sheets or annual accounts , financial planning or private financial planning , liquidity or simply cash, depending on the focus of the analysis .

The basic theme that runs through all three levels (government, companies and private households) is the most sensible way of dealing with assets or, on the borrower's side, covering a financing requirement.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge, Etymological Dictionary of the German Language , 1883, p. 198
  2. ↑ Hans Schulz / Otto Basler, German Foreign Dictionary , 2004, p. 891 f.
  3. ↑ Georg Henisch, Teütsche Sprach und Weissheit , 1616, Col. 1095 f.
  4. ↑ Quaestors were entrusted with the administration of the state treasury and the collection of taxes and rents in the Roman Empire
  5. ↑ Kaspar von Stieler, Zeitungs Lust und Nutz , 1695
  6. ↑ Gerhard Köbler, Etymological Legal Dictionary, 1995, p. 129
  7. ^ Dietrich Hermann Hegewisch, Historical attempt on Roman finances , 1804, p. V
  8. ↑ Joseph Schumpeter, The Crisis of the Tax State, 1918/1976, p. 332
  9. ^ State printing office of the German Democratic Republic, Institute for International Politics and Economy of the GDR , IPW reports, Volume 8, 1979, p. 16