Costas
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If this question 'loses its meaning', do we have to go for a
determination of the price level by the Quantity of Money? Or
aggregate demand? But then, what does the labour theory of value
have to do with it? Is there any way of holding on to the critique of
the Quantity Theory, the labour theory of value, and the direct
symbolisation of value by money?
Paul
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I agree that there are big problems with trying to work through
this using Marx's theory of commodity money.
I would prefer a determination of the price level by something
analogous to aggregate demand.
We know that
total commodity sales x Money equiv of Value
must equal
total money expenditure on commodities
We also know that
total commodity sales (in value) + change in unsold stocks =
current gross value output = total hours worked + value of
capital consumption
Thus if we know the change in unsold stocks, and we know
the total money expenditure on commodities, then we know that
this must determine the monetary equivalent of value. However,
determining total money expenditure and determining the variation
in stocks is non-trivial.