The mercantile form of value and its place in Marx's theory of the commodity

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23211538
AutoresPablo Pérez-Ahumada (0000-0002-0410-0725, Lincoln University, autor de correspondencia), P Ahumada
Año2012
Volumen36
Número4
Páginas843-867
Fecha de publicación2012-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCambridge Journal of Economics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0309-166X • E-ISSN: 1464-3545
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/cje/bes015
OpenAlexW2157752413
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas28

This paper reinterprets Marx's theory of the form of value in the context of his theory of the commodity. Building on the unresolved tension between Marx's concept of value and the specific character of the labour constituting itself as value in his theory of commodity production, it is argued that Marx's is actually a theory of the mercantile form of value. Thus, it becomes evident that the process of realisation of material production in commodity production and the process giving rise to money are the same, and that they are only the material manifestation of the process of realisation of private and independent work as social labour. This characterises commodity production as the unity-in-difference of a material and a social moment, showing that Marx's mercantile form of value is the conceptualisation of Adam Smith's invisible hand. The paper also argues that Marx's is not the theory of a money commodity. Copyright 2012, OUP.

Commodity · Context (archaeology) · Economics · Labor theory of value · Market economy · Microeconomics · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Prices of production · Production (economics) · Production theory · Realisation · Use value · Value (mathematics) · Value theory · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Political Economy and Marxism · Social and Economic Solidarity