(This
is based on and mostly from “Marx’s Capital” written by Ben Fine and Alfredo
Saad-Filho)
(For Part-6, please see
the blog entry dated 16-1-2012)
Chapter-2—Commodity
production
Labour Theory of Value (continuation
of previous study)
In our
earlier study on labour theory of value, we have noted that a crucial feature
of capitalism is that it is a highly developed system of commodity production.
Let us analyse this various aspects of a commodity to understand the labour
theory of value further.
a)
Commodity-its
two fold character
1. Following Adam Smith, Marx
distingusishes use value from exchange value within each commodity.
b)
Use
Value of a commodity
2. The use value of a commodity is
its usefulness, its ability to satisfy human wants. Without the use value, a
commodity cannot be sold and therefore will not be produced.
3. But every use value is not a
commodity. For example sunlight, air etc which are freely available in nature
are use values, but they are not commodities since they are not exchanged for another
use value.
4. Similarly, things produced for
the use of self or family members or for giving to friends or relatives freely
are use values, but they are not exchange values since they are not for
exchange with other use values.
c)
Exchange
value of a commodity is a social relationship
5. A use value becomes a commodity
when it is exchanged in the market for another use value.
6. In the capitalist production,
commodities are regularly exchanged in the market through the medium of money.
7. If one sells his commodity x for Rs 100/- and buys another
commodity for Rs 100/- and buys another commodity y with that Rs 100/-, then the exchange value of x is y.
(say x~y). Then 2x ~2y. If u~v,
then (u and x) ~(y and v) and so on.
8. The question Marx seeks to answer
is if a commodity x is exchanged for
another commodity y (not in a
fortuitious, accidental exchange, but as a part of a systematic wide ranging
exchanges in the market), then what is it that allows these two commodities to
be equivalents in the exchange.
9. It is not any physical or
chemical property common between the two commodities which allow equity in
their exchange. (If it is so, 100 grams of rice should be exchanged for 100
grams of gold, one litre of milk should be exchanged for one litre of petrol,
commodities having equal softness or hardness has to be exchanged.).
10. The physical and chemical
properties of a commodity will give it its use value partly (The other part of
the use value is derived from the culture of consumption and use—for example, a
book has no use value for an illiterate person since he cannot use it.
11. If the physical and chemical
properties of a commodity do not give it its exchange value, then what gives it
its exchange value?
12. If two commodities x and y are exchanged with each other, it indicates that there is some
thing common in both the commodities in equal measure. We already concluded
above that it is not any of their physical or chemical properties. What is common between them that gives
value in equal measure to them is a historically specific social relationship,
a relationship which arises only when use values are produced not for immediate
consumption, but for exchange in the market.
13. Markets are not simply the
mechanisms for exchange of commodities, but they fundamentally reflect the
social relationship existing in those exchanges.
d)
The
nature of the relationship between the producers exchanging their products as
commodities in the market
14. In the market the commodity
having one kind of use value will be exchanged for another commodity having a
different kind of use value. A chair is not exchanged in the market for a
chair. It will be exchanged for another use value, say, a shirt. The underlying
equivalence between these two use values when exchanged as commodities in the
market is a qualitative and quantitative relationship between the producers of
these commodities. Thus it is a social relationship.
15. No society can survive without
producing use values by labour. In capitalist society the use values are
produced not for immediate consumption, but for exchange in the market as
commodities, for profit. What is special about the production and labour in a
commodity producing society?
16. To answer this question, Marx
takes abold step. He defines commodities as use values produced by labour for
exchange. A fundamental property which all commodities share in common is
that they are the products of labour.
17. But the labour that produces
commodities has a two fold character—It has quality and quantity. As a quality,
the labour produces specific use values. For example the labour of a weaver
produces cloth. It is of a specific quality, a concrete labour, producing a specific use value cloth. Similarly the labour of a carpenter is a
different quality, another concrete
labour, producing another specific use value, the table. The labour of the
weaver and carpener are different in their quality, they are different concrete labours producing different
kinds of use values.
18. But when we buy commodities in
the market, we do not know who produced them and how. In commodity production,
there is division of labour where in different kinds of labours (concrete
labours) produce different kinds of use values in different workplaces. But
when these different use values are exchanged in the market as commodities, the
different labours or concrete labours that produced them are brought together
in the market and measured against each other.
Concrete labour, abstract labour
and value
19. Thus in the market, in the
exchange of commodities, what is measured or valued are the different kinds of
labours or concrete labours that produced those commodities.
20. But how different kinds of
concrete labour, say the labour of a weaver and the labour of a carpenter,
which are qualitatively different, can be measured against each other?Only by converting
these qualitatively different labours into a common thing which can be measured.
21. But what is the common thing
between the qualitatively different labours of the weaver and the carpenter?
All labours, what ever may be their quality--whether that of a weaver, a
carpenter, a computer operator or a soft ware engineer—are nothing but human
labour wherein brain and muscle are expended in various proportions. If one day
wage of a soft ware engineer is Rs 1000/- and that of a weaver is Rs 200/-, it
means both are different quantities of the same thing, i.e the same human
labour in abstract, homogenous human labour. Otherwise their labour cannot be measured in
rupees. Therefore concrete labours (different kinds of labour) which produced different
commodities are brought together in the market and measured against each other,
as definite quantities of the same human labour, i.e abstract labour.
22. Tus what is measured or valued
while exchanging the commodities is the homogeneous, abstract human labour
expended by the different kinds of workers while producing different
commodities.Commodities when valued thus are different quantities of the
abstract human labour embodied in them.
23. But how this abstract human
labour that exists in the commodities has to be measured? It is by the abstract
labour time necessary for producing the commodity.
24. But in such case, whether the
product of a worker having less skill and hence takes more time to produce it
will have more value than the product of another worker who has more skill and
hence takes less time in producing it? Does it mean that a product produced by
a worker in less time by using latest technology will have less value than the
product of the worker who takes more time by using old technology?
25. What is measured in exchange
relationship is not the individual labour time, but the socially necessary
labour time required to produce the commodities. Socially necessary labour time
means the labour time required to produce a commodity on the basis of average
of the skills and technologies existing in the given society. Therefore labour
theory of value says that the value of a commodity is equal to the socially
necessary labour time required to produce it. The labour time socially
necessary to produce a commodity includes the indirect labour9dead labour)
hidden in the raw materials, machinery, factory buildings and so on and the
living labour i.e the labour of the worker who works in the factory on the
machene to convert the raw materials into finished product.
26. But this does not mean to say the
commodities are exchanged at their value i.e as per the labour time socially
required to produce them. The market prices will fluctuate around this value based
on several factors like demand and supply, relations between capitalist and
worker, skills, scarcities, monopolies, tastes etc. But inspite of all these
fluctuations, the price of a 100 grams rice will be far less than the price of
100 grams of gold, because the socially necessary labour time required to
extract and refine 100 grams of gold, is far more than the labour time required
to produce 100 grams of rice. If tomorrow a discovery is made so that a diamond
can be produced by some chemical process by expending human labour in one hour,
its value will be very less and negligible.
27. Therefore throughout this study,
unless and otherwise it is specifically mentioned, it will be assumed that
commodities are exchanged at their value.
28. Therefore the essential point to
be understood is that capitalism is a generalised system of commodity
production for profit wherein the concrete labours that produce use values are
brought together and measured against each other in the market as abstract social
labour, when those use values are exchanged in the market as commodities.
29. Thus Marx did not base his
concept of value on a mental construct removed from the real world. It does not
require any arbitrary assumption. His argument is based on the fact that the
reduction of all types of labour to a common standard is a product of the real
world of capitalism itself.
30. The important point is that the
relationship between exchange, prices and values is not exclusively or even
primarily a quantitative relationship. It reflects definite social relations of
production, distribution and exchange, that is, the concrete labours that
produced use values (production) are brought together and measured against each
other as abstract human labour (value) when exchanged as
commodities9distribution and exchange) and the prices fluctuate around the value
(the abstract labour time, the labour time socially required to produce the
commodity) of the commodity.
Thus we
have analysed the commodities to find out the social relations hidden behind
them, and concluded that the value of a commodity is nothing but the socially
necessary labour time required to produce it.We have found that the concrete
labours that produced different use values at different workplaces are brought
together and measured against each other as abstract, socially necessary homogenous
human labour when those use values are exchanged in the market as commodities.
But the
exchange of commodities can occur even without capitalism, when in a society
without there being any capitalist, different artisans exchange their products,
as commodities and it is called as simple commodity production. In capitalist
society, the production is commodity production entirely, that is production of
use values for exchang in the market as commodities to get profit. But what characterises capitalism is not the
exchange of products between independent producers, but the purchase and sale
of worker’s capacity to labour and its use in commodity production for profit.
There is a distinction between the worker from his ability or capacity to work.
This we will discuss in our further study.
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