Section 1
Marx begins his analysis of Capital with an analysis of the
commodity.
This is because, as he says in The Preface, although its easier to
make a visual analysis of a whole body than it is to make a
microscopic analysis of the cells that make up the body, unless you
do the latter its impossible to get an understanding of how the whole
body works. Commodities are like the cells of a body they are the
basic building blocks of Capital. As he says,
“The
wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production
prevails, presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities,
its unit being a single commodity.”
What is a commodity? Marx describes it in terms of the heading of
the Chapter (The Substance of Value and the Magnitude Of Value). It
combines two different things. Firstly, anything, in order to be a
commodity must satisfy some human want. That doesn't mean it has to
be generally considered useful. For example, it might be generally
considered that crack-cocaine is not socially beneficial or useful,
but the fact that some individuals want it, and are prepared to pay
for it, qualifies it as being wanted. For those who want it, it has
what Marx describes as
Use Value
or what orthodox Economics calls Utility. This is one of the
elements then of a commodity, its Use Value.
As Marx describes it, it is the Substance of Value, and its nature
resides in its Quality rather than Quantity. Just as its not
possible to compare apples with oranges, so we cannot compare the
quality, the Use Value of any commodity to that of another. For one
thing, what is useful to you may not be to me.
It may be difficult to see the usefulness of some commodities at
first. As Marx says, though, we are not bothered what purpose people
want to put these commodities to. History shows the various uses
commodities are put to. For example, no one originally had a use for
lasers. Now they are used in surgery, in CD's and DVD's and so on.
Commodities are also not just wanted by final consumers. Commodities
are wanted by Capitalists too. Coal is a commodity which is wanted
by final consumers to burn, to provide them with warmth. But, coal
is also wanted by capitalists to burn in power stations, or to fire
kilns.
In short, the first requirement of a commodity is that it is wanted
by somebody for something. It does not have to be a physical thing
either. Entertainment provided by a singer, an actor or a dancer is
wanted by some people to fulfil a need. But, the utility, the
usefulness, the quality of the Use Value, cannot be separated from
the Use Value itself. The utility of generating heat provided by
coal cannot be separated from the coal itself – though, of course a
different heat can be produced by different Use Values, for example,
gas, wood, oil and so on. The utility provided by the entertainment
of a singer cannot be separated from the singer. The utility
provided by a recording of the singer is a different utility than
that of a live performance. In both cases the utility is a function
of the quality and quantity. A high quality coal providing more heat
than a poor quality coal. A larger quantity of coal more heat than a
smaller quantity of the same coal, for example.
Being a Use Value is a necessary condition for being a commodity, but
not all Use Values are commodities. Commodities are also things
produced to be sold. But, if a parent sings to a child, that is a
Use Value, but it is not a commodity. If I dig coal or peat from my
land to burn, it is a Use Value, but it is not a commodity, because
in both cases they have not been produced to be sold. There are
other things which are Use Values, which are not commodities. For
example, air is a Use Value. Without it we could not live. But, it
is not a commodity because it does not have to be bought, but is
freely available. However, there was someone recently who was
selling bottled fresh air. Here what is being sold is not air in
general, but some specific air, to meet a specific need, however
deluded we might think that need to be!
For most of man's history what has been produced is Use Values that
were not commodities. They were useful items, including
entertainment and the like, which were produced to be consumed
directly rather than to be sold or exchanged. Throughout Man's
history, it has been the quality and quantity of these Use Values,
produced and accumulated, that has been the measure of true wealth.
It is only when these Use Values begin to be traded extensively that
the other element within the commodity – the Exchange Value –
manifests itself. Moreover, the more society organises itself to
produce for the purpose of exchange, rather than direct consumption,
the more it is this Exchange Value that becomes dominant and becomes
the measure of wealth. It is to understanding the nature of this
Exchange Value that Marx then turns.
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