Capital II, Chapter 6 - Part 12

In short, transport constitutes a commodity in its own right, and where the buyer is remote from the source of supply, the buyer has to purchase this additional commodity.

Consider it from the opposing viewpoint. Suppose I purchase the commodity of watching the FA Cup Final. For the same ticket, I will pay the same price as someone who lives in walking distance of the stadium. But, to get to consume the commodity I have to move my location, as moving the location of the stadium is not practical. Yet, in terms of space-time relativity, me moving to the stadium is the same as the stadium moving to me. But, moving myself involves a transport cost of say £100 for a train ticket. The exchange value of the FA Cup Ticket has not changed, and why would it, the price of production is not and cannot be affected by where I am located!

I have simply had to purchase an additional commodity – a train journey – to be able to consume it. Otherwise, we end up with the ridiculous situation in which the same commodity, at the same time, has a multitude of different exchange values determined by the costs of different consumers being able to consume it due to their varying locations.

Mutatis Mutandis, however, most of what Marx then goes on to say about transport holds. That is that the same laws that apply in relation to other forms of production apply. So,

“The productivity of labour is inversely proportional to the value created by it. This is true of the transport industry as well as of any other. The smaller the amount of dead and living labour required for the transportation of commodities over a certain distance, the greater the productive power of labour, and vice versa.” (p 153)

Where Marx says,

“The absolute magnitude of the value which transportation adds to the commodities stands in inverse proportion to the productive power of the transport industry and in direct proportion to the distance travelled, other conditions remaining the same.” (p 154)

I would say,

“The absolute magnitude of the value of the product of transport stands in inverse proportion to the productive power of the transport industry and in direct proportion to the distance travelled, other conditions remaining the same.”

And where he says,

“The relative part of the value added to the prices of commodities by the costs of transportation, other conditions remaining the same, is directly proportional to their cubic content and weight, and inversely proportional to their value.” (p 154)

I would instead say,

“The value of the product of transport is equal to the average socially necessary labour-time required to transport the objects being moved from their current to their new location.”

That includes the aspects that Marx describes, that higher value articles have higher costs of transport, because more labour-time is required to ensure their safe transport.

“The capitalist mode of production reduces the costs of transportation of the individual commodity by the development of the means of transportation and communication, as well as by concentration — increasing scale — of transportation. It increases that part of the living and materialised social labour which is expended in the transport of commodities, firstly by converting the great majority of all products into commodities, secondly, by substituting distant for local markets.” (p 154-5)

For the reasons described above, I would, therefore, modify Marx's final comment.

“The circulation, i.e., the actual locomotion of commodities in space, resolves itself into the transport of commodities. The transport industry forms on the one hand an independent branch of production and thus a separate sphere of investment of productive capital. On the other hand its distinguishing feature is that it appears as a continuation of a process of production within the process of circulation and for the process of circulation.” (p 155)

The physical movement of commodities is an independent branch of production and sphere of investment for productive capital. That is true whether it is pottery being transported by pack horse, clay by canal barge, coal by steam locomotive, tea by sailing clipper, or software via the Internet.

The product of this industry, transport, is a commodity in its own right, and bought and sold as such, separate from the objects being transported, be they commodities themselves, or passengers. It is only because it moves commodities as well as passengers that it APPEARS to be a continuation of a process of production within the sphere of circulation. In fact, it is a separate act of production in its own right.

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