The measure of values

1. 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.

2. The price form and the measure of prices The price form The 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 prices A certain gold weight, which serves as the unit of measurement for the amount of gold, for example 1 ounce.

3. 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! Value expresses the relation between individually expended labour time and the total labour of society. Price expresses the exchange relation between a commodity and the money commodity.

4. Complications in the metamorphosis of the commodity C M Transformation of commodity into money: sale M C Transformation of money into commodity: purchase C – M – C = The process of exchange

5. Economic characters C M seller buyer M C buyer seller C – M – C = The process of exchange

6. The exchange of products and commodity circulation Exchange of products C C C M C Commodity circulation The circulation of commodities differs from the direct exchange of products not only in form, but in its essence. (p. 207)

7. 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)

8. The circulation of money P = M v the quantity of money functioning as the circulating medium sum of commodity prices = speed of money’s turnover

9. Coins and symbols of value Gold coins, which function as money Paper bills issued by the state, as a replacement for gold coins (legal tender)

10. Money as money hoarding means of payment international currency

11. Hoarding C M M C The seller becomes a hoarder

12. Money as means of payment promise to pay C money = means of payment creditor debtor

13. 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 forthin that aspect of an industrial and commercial crisis which is known as a monetary crisis. (pp. 235–36)

14. 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)