Abstract
In the Preface to the first edition of Capital, Marx drew attention to the fact that the chapter on the commodity, and, more especially, the section on the form of value, is the most difficult (89–90).1 Yet this section is, Marx told Engels, ‘decisive’ for the whole book.2 In this chapter he felt compelled to ‘popularize’ the presentation of certain topics. But the intrinsic difficulty of the section on the form of value prevented this, not because it is complex; rather ‘the value-form, whose fully developed shape is the money-form, is very simple and bare of content’3 (90). The trouble is that it pertains to the most abstract issues of all in ‘the analysis of economic forms’, including the nature of money.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arthur, Christopher J. (1998), Systematic dialectic, Science & Society, 62/3: 447–59; revised version in Christopher J. Arthur, (2002), The New Dialectic and Marx’s ‘Capital’ (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers).
Cartelier, Jean (1991), Marx’s theory of value, exchange and surplus value: a suggested reformulation, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 15/3 (September): 257–69.
Marx, Karl (1962), Das Kapital: Erster Band, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Werke, Band 23 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag).
— (1976), Capital, Volume I (trans. B. Fowkes), (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
— (1976), ‘The Commodity, Chapter One, Volume One of the first edition of Capital’, in Value: Studies by Karl Marx (trans. A. Dragstedt) (London: New Park): pp. 1–40.
— (1983), Das Kapital Erster Band 1867, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), Abteilung II, Band 5 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag).
— (1987), A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in Karl Marx, and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Volume 29 (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
— (1989), ‘On Wagner’ in Karl Marx, and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Volume 24 (London: Lawrence & Wishart).
— (1989), Le Capital 1872–75, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Gesamtausgabe (MEGA) Abteilung II, Band 7 (Berlin: Dietz Verlag).
— (1994), ‘The Value-Form’, in Debates in Value Theory, edited by S. Mohun (London/New York: Macmillan/St Martin’s Press).
— and Frederick Engels (1983), Letters on ‘Capital’ (trans. A. Drummond) (London: New Park Publications).
Reuten, Geert (1993), The difficult labour of a theory of social value: metaphors and systematic dialectics at the beginning of Marx’s Capital, in Fred Moseley (ed.), Marx’s Method in ‘Capital’: A Reexamination (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press): 89–113.
Robles-Baez, Mario (1997), On Marx’s Dialectic of the Genesis of the Money Form, International Journal of Political Economy, 27/3 (Fall): 35–64.
Russell, Bertrand (1972), The Principles of Mathematics (London: George Allen & Unwin).
Smith, Cyril (1996), Hegel, Economics, and Marx’s Capital, in (eds) T. Brotherstone and G. Pilling History, Economic History and the Future of Marxism (London: Porcupine Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arthur, C.J. (2004). Money and the Form of Value. In: Bellofiore, R., Taylor, N. (eds) The Constitution of Capital. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403938640_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403938640_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51044-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-3864-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)