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Front Page Titles (by Subject) 3. Defects of the Total or Expanded form of value. - Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production
3. Defects of the Total or Expanded form of value. - Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production [1867]Edition used:Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production, by Karl Marx. Trans. from the 3rd German edition, by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, ed. Federick Engels. Revised and amplified according to the 4th German ed. by Ernest Untermann (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co., 1909).
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- Editor's Note to the First American Edition By Ernest Untermann
- Author's Prefaces to the First and Second Editions, By Karl Marx
- I.—TO The First Edition.
- II.—TO The Second Edition.
- Editor's Prefaces, to the First English Translation and Fourth German Edition By Frederick Engels
- Editor's Preface to the First English Translation.
- Editor's Preface to the Fourth German Edition.
- Volume I. The Process of Capitalist Production.
- Book I. Capitalist Production.
- Part I. Commodities and Money.
- Part I, Chapter I Commodities.
- Section 1.—THE Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-value and Value (the Substance of Value and the Magnitude of Value).
- Section 2.—THE Twofold Character of the Labour Embodied In Commodities.
- Section 3.—THE Form of Value Or Exchange Value.
- A. Elementary Or Accidental Form of Value.
- 1. the Two Poles of the Expression of Value: Relative Form and Equivalent Form.
- 2. the Relative Form of Value.
- (a.) the Nature and Import of This Form.
- (b.) Quantitative Determination of Relative Value.
- 3. the Equivalent Form of Value.
- 4. the Elementary Form of Value Considered As a Whole.
- B. Total Or Expanded Form of Value.
- 1. the Expanded Relative Form of Value.
- 2. the Particular Equivalent Form.
- 3. Defects of the Total Or Expanded Form of Value.
- C. the General Form of Value.
- 1. the Altered Character of the Form of Value.
- 2. the Interdependent Development of the Relative Form of Value, and of the Equivalent Form.
- 3. Transition From the General Form of Value to the Money Form.
- D. the Money Form.
- Section 4.—THE Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.
- Part I, Chapter Ii Exchange.
- Part I, Chapter Iii Money, Or the Circulation of Commodities.
- Section 1. The Measure of Values.
- Section 2.—THE Medium of Circulation.
- A. the Metamorphosis of Commodities.
- B. the Currency 82 of Money.
- C. Coin and Symbols of Value.
- Section 3.—MONEY.
- A. Hoarding.
- B. Means of Payment.
- C. Universal Money.
- Part II. the Transformation of Money Into Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter Iv the General Formula For Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter V Contradictions In the General Formula of Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter Vi the Buying and Selling of Labour-power.
- Part III. the Production of Absolute Surplus-value.
- Part Iii, Chapter Vii the Labour-process and the Process of Producing Surplus-value.
- Section 1.—THE Labour-process Or the Production of Use-values.
- Section 2.—THE Production of Surplus-value.
- Part Iii, Chapter Viii Constant Capital and Variable Capital
- Part Iii, Chapter Ix the Rate of Surplus-value.
- Section 1.—THE Degree of Exploitation of Labour-power.
- Section 2.—THE Representation of the Components of the Value of the Product By Corresponding Proportional Parts of the Product Itself.
- Section 3.—SENIOR'S "last Hour."
- Section 4.—SURPLUS Produce
- Part Iii, Chapter X the Working Day
- Section 1—the Limits of the Working Day
- Section 2.—THE Greed For Surplus Labor, Manufacturer and Boyard
- Section 3.—BRANCHES Of English Industry Without Legal Limits to Exploitation
- Section 4.—DAY And Night Work. the Relay System
- Section 5.—THE Struggle For a Normal Working Day. Compulsory Laws For the Extension of the Working Day From the Middle of the 14th to the End of the 17th Century
- Section 6.—THE Struggle For the Normal Working Day. Compulsory Limitation By Law of the Working Time. the English Factory Acts, 1833 to 1864.
- Section 7.—THE Struggle For the Normal Working-day. Re-action of the English Acts On Other Countries.
- Part Iii, Chapter Xi Rate and Mass of Surplus-value.
- Part IV. Production of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xii the Concept of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xiii Co-operation.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xiv Division of Labour and Manufacture.
- Section 1.—TWOFOLD Origin of Manufacture.
- Section 2.—THE Detail Labourer and His Implements.
- Section 3.—THE Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture: Heterogeneous Manufacture, Serial Manufacture.
- Section 4.—DIVISION Of Labour In Manufacture, and Division of Labour In Society.
- Section 5.—THE Capitalistic Character of Manufacture.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xv Machinery and Modern Industry.
- Section 1.—THE Development of Machinery.
- Section 2.—THE Value Transferred By Machinery to the Product
- Section 3.—THE Approximate Effects of Machinery On the Workman.
- A. Appropriation of Supplementary Labour-power By Capital. the Employment of Women and Children.
- B. Prolongation of the Working-day.
- C. Intensification of Labour
- Section IV.—THE Factory
- Section 5.—THE Strife Between Workman and Machine
- Section 6.—THE Theory of Compensation As Regards the Workpeople Displaced By Machinery.
- Section 7.—REPULSION And Attraction of Workpeople By the Factory System. Crisis In the Cotton Trade.
- Section 8.—REVOLUTION Effected In Manufacture, Handicrafts. and Domestic Industry By Modern Industry.
- A. Overthrow of Co-operation Based On Handicraft and On the Division of Labour.
- B. Re-action of the Factory System On Manufacture and Domestic Industries.
- C. Modern Manufacture.
- D. Modern Domestic Industry.
- E. Passage of Modern Manufacture, and Domestic Industry Into Modern Mechanical Industry. the Hastening of This Revolution By the Application of the Factory Acts to Those Industries.
- Section 9.—THE Factory Acts. Sanitary and Education Clauses of the Same. Their General Extension In England.
- Section 10.—MODERN Industry and Agriculture.
- Part V. the Production of Absolute and of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part V, Chapter Xvi Absolute and Relative Surplus-value.
- Part V, Chapter Xvii Changes of Magnitude In the Price of Labour-power and In Surplus-value.
- 1. Length of the Working Day and Intensity of Labour Constant. Productiveness of Labour Variable.
- II. Working-day Constant. Productiveness of Labour Constant. Intensity of Labour Variable.
- III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour Constant. Length of the Working-day Variable.
- IV.— Simultaneous Variations In the Duration, Productiveness, and Intensity of Labour.
- (1). Diminishing Productiveness of Labour With a Simultaneous Lengthening of the Working-day.
- (2) Increasing Intensity and Productiveness of Labour With Simultaneous Shortening of the Working-day.
- Part V, Chapter Xviii Various FormulÆ For the Rate of Surplus-value.
- Part VI. Wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xix the Transformation of the Value (and Respectively the Price) of Labour-power Into Wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xx Time-wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xxi Piece-wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xxii National Differences of Wages.
- Part VII. the Accumulation of Capital.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxiii Simple Reproduction.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxiv Conversion of Surplus-value Into Capital.
- Section I.—CAPITALIST Production On a Progressively Increasing Scale. Transition of the Laws of Property That Characterise Production of Commodities Into Laws of Capitalist Appropriation.
- Section 2.—ERRONEOUS Conception By Political Economy of Reproduction On a Progressively Increasing Scale.
- Section 3.—SEPARATION Of Surplus-value Into Capital and Revenue. the Abstinence Theory.
- Section 4.—CIRCUMSTANCES That, Independently of the Division of Surplus-value Into Capital and Revenue, Determine the Amount of Accumulation. Degree of Exploitation of Labour-power. Productivity of Labour. Growing Difference In Amount Between Capital Empl
- Section 5.—THE So-called Labour Fund.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxv the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation.
- Section 1.—THE Increased Demand For Labour-power That Accompanies Accumulation, the Composition of Capital Remaining the Same.
- Section 2.—RELATIVE Diminution of the Variable Part of Capital Simultaneously With the Progress of Accumulation and of the Concentration That Accompanies It.
- Section 3.—PROGRESSIVE Production of a Relative Surplus-population Or Industrial Reserve Army.
- Section 4.—DIFFERENT Forms of the Relative Surplus-population. the General Law of Capitalistic Accumulation.
- Section 5.—ILLUSTRATIONS Of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation.
- ( A. ) England From 1846-1866.
- (b). the Badly Paid Strata of the British Industrial Class.
- C. the Nomad Population.
- (d). Effect of Crises On the Best Paid Part of the Working Class.
- (e.) the British Agricultural Proletariat.
- (1.) Bedfordshire.
- (2.) Berkshire.
- (3.) Buckinghamshire.
- (4.) Cambridgeshire.
- (5.) Essex.
- (6.) Herefordshire.
- (7.) Huntingdon.
- (8.) Lincolnshire.
- (9.) Kent.
- (10.) Northamptonshire.
- (11.) Wiltshire.
- (12.) Worcestershire.
- (f.) Ireland.
- Part VIII. the So-called Primitive Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxvi the Secret of Primitive Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxvii Expropriation of the Agricultural Population From the Land.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxviii Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated, From the End of the 15th Century. Forcing Down of Wages By Acts of Parliament.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxix Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxx Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution On Industry. Creation of the Home Market For Industrial Capital.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxi Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxii Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxiii the Modern Theory of Colonisation. 70
- Works and Authors Quoted In "capital"
3. Defects of the Total or Expanded form of value.
In the first place, the relative expression of value is incomplete because the series representing it is interminable. The chain of which each equation of value is a link, is liable at any moment to be lengthened by each new kind of commodity that comes into existence and furnishes the material for a fresh expression of value. In the second place, it is a many-coloured mosaic of disparate and independent expressions of value. And lastly, if, as must be the case, the relative value of each commodity in turn, becomes expressed in this expanded form, we get for each of them a relative value-form, different in every case, and consisting of an interminable series of expressions of value. The defects of the expanded relative-value form are reflected in the corresponding equivalent form. Since the bodily form of each single commodity is one particular equivalent form amongst numberless others, we have, on the whole, nothing but fragmentary equivalent forms, each excluding the others. In the same way, also, the special, concrete, useful kind of labour embodied in each particular equivalent, is presented only as a particular kind of labour, and therefore not as an exhaustive representative of human labour generally. The latter, indeed, gains adequate manifestation in the totality of its manifold, particular, concrete forms. But, in that case, its expression in an infinite series is ever incomplete and deficient in unity.
The expanded relative value form is, however, nothing but the sum of the elementary relative expressions or equations of the first kind, such as
20 yards of linen=1 coat 20 yards of linen=10 lbs. of tea, etc.
Each of these implies the corresponding inverted equation,
1=coat=20 yards of linen 10 lbs. of tea=20 yards of linen, etc.
In fact, when a person exchanges his linen for many other commodities, and thus expresses its value in a series of other commodities, it necessarily follows, that the various owners of the latter exchange them for the linen, and consequently express the value of their various commodities in one and the same third commodity, the linen. If then, we reverse the series, 20 yards of linen=1 coat or=10 lbs. of tea, etc., that is to say, if we give expression to the converse relation already implied in the series, we get,
C. The General form of value.
| 1 coat 10 lbs. of tea 40 lbs. of coffee 1 quarter of corn 2 ounces of gold ½ a ton of iron x com. A., etc. | } | =20 yards of linen |
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