Money as Means of Payment

Abstract

Money is the universal equivalent which is generally acceptable: ‘the form in which all commodities equate, compare, measure themselves’.¹ No money is needed if a commodity containing one hour’s worth of labour time is exchanged for another with equal labour time (in which case, proposes Marx, the exchange is equivalent and the two commodities are convertible into each other because in such a situation exchange value = market value and real value = price).²