From: Michael Schauerte (yk3mk3@MY.EMAIL.NE.JP)
Date: Tue Apr 24 2007 - 21:14:29 EDT
I should have added the following paragraph that precedes the longer passage from Kuruma I pasted in my last email: Generally speaking, the value of a commodity is always expressed through the use-value of another commodity that is posited as equal to it; which is to say, in the form of a thing. Developed further we arrive at the money-form, the form of price that is actually visible, where the values of all commodities are expressed in the form of a certain quantity of gold. We express the values of all commodities as gold of such-and-such yen, but the term "yen" is originally the unit-name for the weight of a certain amount of gold qua money. Under the Coinage Law in Japan, yen was the name given to 2 fun (0.750g) of gold money. In other words, yen, in terms of being gold of such-and-such yen, is nothing more than a quantity of gold expressed using this weight unit-name yen that is only used in the case of money, taking the place of usual weight unit-names, such as the measurement units fun (0.375g) and momme (3.75g) used in Japan. It is through this quantity of gold that the value of a! commodity $B!= (Jits value character and magnitude of value $B!= (Jis expressed in reality. Here we have the riddle of money. A quantity of gold qua thing expresses the value of a commodity. But what exactly makes this possible?
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