The reality of the law of value

Abstract

In the wake of Böhm-Bawerk’s criticism that Marx’s law of value runs contrary to empirical facts, Marxian economics has developed mainly in two different directions: one based on the simple commodity production and the other on the mathematical identity of value with prices of production (the transformation problem). The author agrees with neither, arguing that Marx intended to base the law of value on the production process of capital, as in Capital Volume 1, independently of Capital Volume 3. However, the notion of this process and the law of value have not been sufficiently explained in Volume 1. Marx presents the value of a commodity as socially necessary labour objectified in Chapter 1 on the commodity, and later applies this rule to capitalist commodity products in Chapter 7. Pointing out the defects of this method, this article relocates the presentation of the dual nature of labour to the Labour Process (Chapter 7, Section 1), and the proof of the substance of value or the law of value to the Valorization Process (Chapter 7, Section 2). The Labour Process plays a key role in Volume 1, but it contains a fatal flaw. Consequently, Section 2 ends up with insufficient explanation. By reconstructing the Labour Process and the Process of Creating Value and Surplus value, the author confirms the meaning and reality of the law of value in Chapter 7, Section 2.

The Value Form and the Fetishism of the Commodity

“…Ever since the publication of Uno’s Genron [ The Principles of Political Economy ], volume 1, 1950, in Japan, 1 Uno’s new method criticizing some parts of Marx’s Capital has caused a great controversy not only in Japan but also worldwide, particularly over his claim that the theory of circulation forms or the value form should not be based on abstract human labor (Uno and Sakisaka 1948). In 2021, Elena Lange published a voluminous work titled Value without Fetish criticizing Uno’s method, mainly based on Marx’s text.…”

“…Uno reformulates Capital into three “doctrines.” The first doctrine of circulation presents an analysis of the three circulation forms—commodity, money, and capital—abstracted from production and the substance of value, abstract labor. The second doctrine analyzes the production, circulation, and reproduction process of capital based on the law of value (Nagatani 2022: 578–81). Finally, the third doctrine examines the distribution of surplus value as profit, ground rent, and interest.…”

“… 10 “The Reality of the Law of Value” (Nagatani 2022: 572–77) explains that abstract labor is created in the labor process, and forms the value of a commodity in the value formation process. …”