A Contribution to the Critique of Political EconomyMarx, Karl
Philosophy
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
Marx, Karl
Economics; Marxian economics
[66] “Di due sorte è la moneta, ideale e reale; e a dui diversi usi
è adoperata, a valutare le cose e a comperarle. Per valutare è buona
la moneta ideale, cosi come la reale e forse anche più. L’altro uso
della moneta è di comperare quelle cose istesse, ch’ella apprezza ...
i prezzi e i contratti si valutano in moneta ideale e si eseguiscono
in moneta reale.” Galiani, l. c., p. 112 sq. (“Money is of two kinds,
ideal and real; and is adapted to two different uses: to determine
the value of things and to buy them. For the purpose of valuation
ideal money is as good as real and perhaps even better. The other
use of money is to buy the same things which it appraises ... prices
and contracts are determined in ideal money and are executed in real
money.”)
[67] This, of course, does not prevent the market price of commodities
to be above or below their value. However, this consideration is
foreign to simple circulation and belongs to quite another sphere to be
considered later, when we shall investigate the relation between value
and market price.
[68] How deeply some beautiful souls are wounded by the merely
superficial aspect of the antagonism which asserts itself in buying
and selling, may be seen from the following abstract from M. Isaac
Pereire’s: “Leçons sur l’industrie et les finances,” Paris, 1832. The
fact that the same Isaac in his capacity of inventor and dictator
of the “Credit mobilier” has acquired the reputation of the wolf of
the Paris Bourse shows what lurks behind the sentimental criticism
of economics. Says Mr. Pereire at the time an apostle of St. Simons:
“C’est parceque tous les individus sont isolés, séparés les uns des
autres, soit dans leur travaux, soit pour la consommation, qu’il y a
echange entre eux des produits de leur industrie respective. De la
nécessité de l’échange est derivée la nécessité de determiner la valeur
relative des objets. Les idées de la valeur et de l’échange sont donc
intimement liées, et toutes deux dans leur forme actuelle exprime
l’individualisme et l’antagonisme.... Il n’y a lieu a fixer la valeur
des produits que parcequ’il y a vente at achat, en d’autres termes,
antagonisme entre les divers membres de la societé. Il n’y a lieu à
s’occuper du prix, de valeur que là où il y avait vente et echat, c’est
à dire, où chaque individu était obligé de lutter, pour se procurer
les object nécessaires a l’entretien de son existence” (l. c., p. 2,
3 passim). (“Since individuals are isolated and separated from one
another both in their labors and in consumption, exchange takes place
between them in the products of their respective industries. From the
necessity of exchange arises the necessity of determining the relative
value of things. The ideas of value and exchange are thus intimately
connected and both express in their actual form individualism and
antagonism.... The determination of values of products takes place
only because there are sales and purchases, or, to put it differently,
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