Karl, Marx. 1867. “Capital” Pp. 451-472; 492-512 in Karl Marx: Selected Writings, edited by David McLellan, Oxford University Press.

• Notes based on version in 2nd Edition, published in 2000 (original in 1977)

Project: Commodities are given value based on use-value, which determines exchange-value, all appearing from raw materials, which require the natural human ability to commit to labour.

OVERVIEW

Use-values are commodities when used; a commodity acquires this use-value, which pertains to the utility of a commodity that is weaved into its production based on human needs, from raw material. A commodity is what is produced from raw materials; they are considered one and the same; the commodity is the material product that is assigned a value or use upon its creation. Prices are exchange-values of commodities, which relies on the value of the commodity and its use-value that humans assign. Labour is a universal skill of the human and is necessary, part of our nature.

BULLETED NOTES

Commodities: Use-Value and Exchange-Value

• Every useful thing can be viewed in terms of quantity or quality…
• Use-values only become of value upon consumption.
• Equation: 1 qtr of corn = x cwt. Iron (proportions in which they are exchangeable) (459)
• All labour comes down to human labour. Things valuable only because “…human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialized in it” (460) (gives example of a written article)
• Diamonds are valuable because they are rare on earth and require extensive labour-time for their discovery.
• A use-value can be without value if “…its utility to man is not due to labour” (462). All the while, the labour carried out to create a use-value is referred to as useful labour. This seems to imply that labour is only useful if it produces a useful commodity, a use-value.
• Useful labour is a necessary condition for the existence of the human race (464).
• 20 yards of linen = 1 coat (“A single commodity cannot…assume…both forms”) (468)
• “Linen = coat is the basis of the equation” (468). – meant to imply that both are one and the same
• Human labour creates value but is not itself value! (469)
• The product of labour is no more than what it was prior to the labour process… just as one wearing a luxurious uniform is no different than one in a robe…
• The linen acquires value through the labour process that it did not have prior.
• Relative value may vary, “although its value remains constant” (472).

The Production of Surplus Value, Constant and variable Capital, and The Rate of Surplus Value

• Man opposes himself to nature as part of it…
• By changing the natural world around him, he changes his own nature (493).
• The world we have shaped and changed around us also reflects back onto us…
  • It shapes our ideas, and we also form opinions about them. This is where ideas for renovation come in. Labor processes are a part of this process and bring it to fruition.
• We have desires for joy, but our ability to labour is fundamental to us. It is a universal trait of human kind and has always existed in our relationships, interactions, and evolution.
• The labour animals act on is without thinking and do not produce anything new, just what they need in the moment (one-sidedly). Humans produce universally and without physical need like animals.
• Worker, tools, and materials are what are needed for the labour process.
• We transform nature into the image of the human–our ideas into physical objects.
• We create within certain social conditions.
• “Labour uses up its material factors, its subject and its instruments, consumes them, and is therefore a process of consumption” (497).
• Individual consumption: for our own sustenance, and we realize the use-value of the commodity
• Productive consumption: labourer consumes commodities within the context of the production of new commodities…
• Individual consumption is always the product of productive consumption. 
• The worker is still only a worker for the capitalist and not for himself.
• There is an emphasis on reducing the amount of time people had to work in a day, especially children, during this time!
• c – the constant capital advanced by the capitalists, used to pay for production process
• v – variable capital advanced by the capitalists, the money they need to pay for the labour process
• C – total capital advanced by the capitalists, pay for means of production and labour power
• C = c+v
• s – surplus value (created during surplus labour)
• c’ – total for all
• Necessary Labour: time needed for labour to reproduce itself

QUESTIONS

• Has it ever been said that Karl Marx could just be overthinking or overanalyzing notions that already exist and are running their natural courses through our perceivable world, and that, thus, all of his conclusions are invalid? I don’t believe this personally, but it just occurred to me as I read, haha.
• Why does Marx have several single-quoted sentences without attributing them to anyone or anything? For example, “‘As values, all commodities are only definite masses of congealed labour time’” (461).