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On Tue, 9 May 2000, Ajit Sinha wrote:
> Fred B. Moseley wrote:
>
> > Now, on to David's two passages:
> >
> > > "The mode of production in which the product takes the form of a
> > > commodity, or is produced directly for exchange, is the most general
> > > and most embryonic form of bourgeois production. It therefore makes its
> > > appearance at an early date in history. . ." (Vol. I, p. 82
> > > [International, 1967]).
> >
> > This passage has a somewhat different translation in the Penguin edition:
> >
> > "As the commodity-form is the most GENERAL and the most
> > UNDEVELOPED FORM OF BOURGEOIS PRODUCTION,
> > it makes it appearance at an early date ..." (p. 176)
> >
> > And the continuation of that sentence is:
> >
> > "... though not in the same predominant and therefore
> > characteristic manner as nowadays."
> >
> > In other words, commodities existed prior to capitalism, but the
> > commodity-form Marx is analyzing in Chapter 1 is the "most general and
> > undeveloped FORM OF BOURGEOIS PRODUCTION." I think this passage supports
> > the "commodity-in-capitalism" interpretation of Chapter 1, not the simple
> > commodity production interpretation.
>
> __________________
>
> I think it is too forced an interpretation. In combination with the passage I
> had quoted from ch.6, I think, it leads to the conclusion that commodity and
> commodity exchange could be analyzed independent of any specific historical
> mode of production. Cheers, ajit sinha
Do other people think that this is too forced an interpretation,
especially given all the other textual evidence to support this
interpretation presented by me and others. And there are many more
passages that could be presented in which Marx clearly states that the
commodity he starts with is the product of capitalist production.
Here is one more from "Notes on Wagner":
"What I start out from is the simplest social form in which the
labor-product is presented in CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY."
Marx did not analyze the commodity in Chapter 1 "independent of any
specific historical mode of production."
Comradely,
Fred
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