From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2007 - 14:45:00 EDT
When Marx begins to sketch in the first chapter of Cap. Vol. 3 how the law of value would assert itself in capitalism as the unity of production and circulation, he writes: "But the capitalist can sell the commodity at a profit even if he sells it at less than its value. As long as its sale price is above its cost price, even if below its value, a part of the surplus-value contained in it is always realized, i.e. a profit is made (...) The basic law of capitalist competition, which political economy has so far failed to grasp, the law that governs the general rate of profit and the so-called prices of production determined by it, depends, as we shall see, on this difference between the value and the cost price of commodities, and the possibility deriving from this of selling commodities below their value at a profit." (Cap. Vol. 3, Pelican edition, p. 127-128). The "difference between the value and the cost price of commodities" is presumably the (potential) surplus-value they have, and the cutting edge of capitalist competition is to "sell commodities below their value at a profit". The question however is, what "value" does Marx have in mind here? My interpretation is that he means the socially established value for that commodity, namely that value, which represents the average socially necessary labour-time currently required for its production. Is this correct? Jurriaan
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