The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an 'immense collection of commodities'; the individual commodity appears as its elementary form

<ul><li>Use-value</li><li>Exchange-value</li></ul>

The Two Factors Of Commodities:

Use-value of a commodity is the aspect of a thing that satisfies human needs.It makes no difference what the nature of the need is or how the commodity satisfies it.A thing can also be useful in more than one way, depending on what is known about it.Use-values constitute the material content of wealth.

Use-value

Exchange-value appears as the proportion in which a use-value of one kind is exchanged for a use-value of another kind, e.g. a certain quantity of wheat for a certain quantity of iron.

Exchange-value

Learn about the two aspects of commodities. 

'A groundbreaking work of economic analysis. It is also a literary masterpice' Francis Wheen, Guardian One of the most notorious and influential works of modern times, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis. Arguing that capitalism would cause an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the working class'. Translated by BEN FOWKES with an Introduction by ERNEST MANDEL

philosophy

Philosophy

books

Books

politics

Politics

'A groundbreaking work of economic analysis. It is also a literary masterpice' Francis Wheen, Guardian One of the most notorious and influential works of modern times, Capital is an incisive critique of private property and the social relations it generates. Living in exile in England, where this work was largely written, Marx drew on a wide-ranging knowledge of its society to support his analysis. Arguing that capitalism would cause an ever-increasing division in wealth and welfare, he predicted its abolition and replacement by a system with common ownership of the means of production. Capital rapidly acquired readership throughout the world, to become a work described by Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels as 'the Bible of the working class'. Translated by BEN FOWKES with an Introduction by ERNEST MANDEL

Capital

KARL MARX

The Two Factors Of Commodities:

Use-value

Exchange-value

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CURATOR'S NOTE

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