A shaft is sunk to get at that coal, and once the coal is reached a
first economic value begins to attach to it. Next, further labour,
capital and natural forces are applied to the task of hewing the coal
out and raising it to the surface. This means that yet more economic
values are attached to the ton of coal. These we express by saying that
the ton of coal at the bottom of the mine, just hewed out, is worth so
much--say 15/-; and later at the pit head is worth so much more--say
£1. But the process of production of wealth is not yet completed. The
coal is needed to warm you in your house, and your house is a long way
from the pit head. It must be taken from the pit head to your house,
and for this transport further labour, natural forces and capital must
be used, and these add yet another economic value to the coal.
We express this by saying that the ton of coal _delivered_ (that is, at
your house) is worth not £1, which it was at the pit head, but £1 10s.;
and in this example we see that transport is as much a part of the
production of wealth as other work. We also see a further example of
the truth originally stated that wealth does not consist in the object
itself but in the values attached to it. The ton of coal is there in
your cellar exactly the same (except that it is broken up) as it was
when it lay a thousand feet under the earth with no way of getting
to it. In your cellar it represents wealth. In possessing it you are
possessing wealth to the amount of 30s. You could exchange it against
30s. worth of some other thing, such as wheat. But the wealth you thus
possess is not the actual coal, but the values attaching to the coal.
These economic values are being piled up from the very beginning of the
process of production until the process of consumption begins.
Here is another case which shows how the process of production will add
values to a thing without necessarily changing the thing itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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