[OPE-L:3087] Re: RE: Simple Commodity Production

From: Allin Cottrell (cottrell@wfu.edu)
Date: Wed May 10 2000 - 08:17:15 EDT


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On Wed, 10 May 2000, Michael Williams wrote:

> Well .. what can I say?

I apologize for my intemperate language.

I do think, though, that it's a terrible strain to try to read
the passage I cited from vol. III as saying anything other than:
The exchange of commodities at their values is a phenomenon
found in various pre-capitalist formations.

He describes "the values of commodities" as "not only
theoretically /but also historically/ prius to prices of
production". OK, by itself that could just mean "within the
history of capitalism." But that's /not/ what he means, since
he immediately goes on to say "This applies to conditions in
which the labourer owns his means of production ... in the
ancient as well as in the modern world". It also holds for
conditions "based on slavery and serfdom, and for the guild
organization of handicrafts".

Allin.



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