the measure of values with regard to money as the measure of values, the values of commodities are: ...
TRANSCRIPT
The measure of values
With regard to money as the measure of values, the values of commodities are:
presented as qualitatively equal (all in gold);
quantitatively comparable.
However,
it is not money that makes commodities commensurable (they are commensurable as values);
rather, money is the necessary form of appearance of the values of commodities.
The price form and the measure of prices
The price formThe value of commodities is ideally expressed in the money commodity. Real money is not required. A price tag is sufficient for communicating prices.
The measure of pricesA certain gold weight, which serves as the unit of measurement for the amount of gold, for example 1 ounce.
Value and price
Price is the money-name of the labour objectified
in a commodity.(pp. 195–96)
However, price and value are not identical!
Valueexpresses the relation between individually expended labour time and the total labour of society.
Priceexpresses the exchange relation between a commodity and the money commodity.
C M
Transformation of commodity into money: sale
Complications in the metamorphosis of the commodity
C – M – C = The process of exchange
Transformation of money into commodity: purchase
M C
C M
M C
Economic characters
C – M – C = The process of exchange
seller buyer
buyer seller
C C
The exchange of products and commodity circulation
Exchange of products
Commodity circulationC M C
The circulation of commodities differs from the direct exchange of products not only in
form, but in its essence.(p. 207)
The possibility of crisis
These forms [the poles of the metamorphosis of the commodity]
therefore imply the possibility of crises, though no more than the possibility. For the development
of this possibility into a reality a whole series of conditions is required, which do not yet
even exist from the standpoint of the simple circulation of commodities.
(p. 209)
The circulation of money
vP M=
the quantity of money functioning as the circulating medium
sum of commodity prices
speed of money’s turnover
=
Coins and symbols of value
Paper bills issued by the state, as a replacement for gold coins (legal tender)
Gold coins, which function as money
Money as money
hoarding
means of payment
international currency
C M
Hoarding
M C
The seller becomes a hoarder
C promise to pay
Money as means of payment
creditor debtor
money = means of payment
Another possibility of crisis
There is a contradiction immanent in the function of money as
the means of payment. When the payments balance each other, money functions only
nominally, as money of account, as a measure of value. But when actual payments have to be made,
money does not come onto the scene as a circulating medium […], but as the […] universal
commodity. This contradiction bursts forth in that aspect of an industrial and commercial crisis which is known
as a monetary crisis.(pp. 235–36)
International currency
When money leaves the domestic sphere of circulation it loses
the local functions it has acquired there, as the standard of prices, coin, and small
change, and as a symbol of value, and falls back into its original form as precious metal
in the shape of bullion. (p. 240)