Origin, essence and functions of money. What is use and exchange value?

When producing goods, there is a transformation of labor and materials in them. Therefore, a product is the result of these actions, which can be exchanged for other products. It is not intended for personal consumption. Each product has a value, which is divided into two categories: consumer and exchange. It depends on the funds invested. Let's take a closer look at what it is exchange value.

A product has properties that determine its value. It is intended to satisfy the needs of society, but not those who produce it. It is the properties that satisfy certain needs that are the components of consumer value.

The properties of goods may change taking into account new production requirements. But in order for these properties to be acquired marketable condition, labor needs to be done. The result is a product designed to satisfy the needs of other people. Thus, the exchange value of the commodity is complementary.

It can be said that consumer properties- this is an abstract concept. In contrast, exchange value is finished goods, for the production of which a certain amount of labor was expended. Such a product can be exchanged for other results of labor in those volumes and proportions that are established using other market instruments.

In other words, exchange value is a certain amount of use value of a good in which it can be exchanged for a certain amount of use value of another good.

Here it is necessary to note the existing trend. Some equal ratios are set, which fluctuate within average limits for all products. However, such equality cannot be attributed to the consumer value of goods, because they are different in their qualities and functions.

Exchange value is established in accordance with the amount of labor expended on the production of goods. This is due to the fact that this indicator is quantifiable.

During the production process it appears total cost goods. But it is discovered only as a result of exchanging it for another product. Exchange value plays a big role here.

The properties that a product has determine the cost of the product. They are internal factor. TO external factor it is necessary to attribute their manifestation in the process of exchange, which constitutes exchange value.

The dependence of consumer value on exchange value is significant. We can say that the last indicator directly depends on the properties of the product. In conditions modern market this is the most important factor which increases exchange value.

It is on the market that a product meets other similar products. This is how competition arises. The qualities and properties of the product play an important role here. It is necessary that it more fully meet the needs of society. So it rises use value goods.

If a product, by its properties, is able to more fully satisfy the buyer’s needs, then it is exchanged for other products at a higher exchange value.

Therefore, the result of any activity should be a higher exchange value of the product.

But the level of profit of production is influenced not only by consumer cost. It is important to consider many factors here. It is necessary to rationally use the resources and labor expended in the production of goods. Then the high exchange value will bring more effect.

Exchange value has been manifested since the origins of commodity relations. Subsequently, money became the general equivalent of exchange.

Product- is a product of labor that satisfies some human need and is intended for sale.

A product of labor becomes a commodity only when it has utility and can satisfy certain needs of people, that is, it has use value.

Use value- this is the ability of a product to satisfy any human needs, its usefulness for a person.

In order to be a use value, a product does not necessarily have to take the form of a thing or be a material good. Use values ​​also include services that are intangible in nature: services of education, medicine, culture, everyday life, science, transport, etc. Goods can satisfy not only the personal needs of people (bread, butter, meat, clothing, shoes, etc.) , but also production and other needs of society (machines, tools, raw materials, fuel, weapons, etc.).

The ability of a product to satisfy people's needs arises due to the combination of mechanical, physical, chemical and other properties that it possesses. It is these properties that determine the natural-material side of the product. Use values ​​constitute the material content of the wealth of human society, regardless of its social form.

Since the product is intended to satisfy the needs not of the commodity producer, but of other people, society, then the use value of the product exists not for its producer, but for society, i.e. is a social use value. Only in this case the product labor will pass through exchange relations, will become a commodity. The producer of a commodity is interested in use value only insofar as it is related to the ability of the commodity to be exchanged for other goods. Use value is the bearer of the exchange value of a commodity.

Exchange value- this is the ability of goods to exchange for each other in a certain proportion, in a certain quantitative ratio.

The ratios in which goods are exchanged are not accidental and are determined by the general quality that is equally inherent in all goods and independent of the methods of expressing exchange value and the physical form of goods. Such a general quality cannot be physical, chemical or any other natural properties, since they differ from product to product.

The common quality of all goods, underlying exchange proportions, is the labor that created them. As a result of the expenditure of human labor in general, regardless of its specific form, all goods are qualitatively homogeneous and quantitatively comparable.

“If we ignore the use value of commodity bodies,” wrote K. Marx, “then they have only one property left, namely, that they are products of labor. Like crystals of this social substance common to all of them, they are the essence of values—commodity values.”

Cost of goods- this is the social labor spent on the production of goods and embodied in it. Value is manifested in the exchange of goods, its external manifestation, the form is exchange value.

The differences between use value and cost are as follows.

The use value of a product is determined by its natural properties, while its value is determined by social relations. There is nothing real about the value of goods. Value is a social property of goods.

“...The price,” noted K. Marx, “does not include a single atom of natural matter. You can touch and look at each separate product

, do whatever you want with it, it remains elusive as value.” Use value reflects a person's attitude towards product of labor

, value - relationships between people.

Use value exists in every society; value exists only in commodity production and commodity-money relations.

Use value differentiates goods; value makes them comparable.

“Since no commodity,” noted K. Marx, “can relate to itself as an equivalent and, therefore, cannot make its natural appearance an expression of its own value, then it must relate to another commodity as an equivalent, or the natural appearance of another make the commodity its own form of value.”

Labor theory of value The views that labor underlies value (price) originated in Ancient Greece . Aristotle already pointed out that “just equality is established in such a way that the farmer relates to the shoemaker, as the work of the shoemaker relates to the work of the farmer.” These ideas were developed by many other thinkers, including John Locke, William Petty. Adam Smith took a significant step forward in explaining the nature of value. He separated"use value" (value for the consumer, usefulness) from"exchange value" (the value that regulates the exchange relationship). David Ricardo consistently developed a position on labor as the only source of value. Further development theory of value received from Karl Marx. In its main economic labor

“Capital”, exploring labor power as a specific commodity, Marx identified and analyzed surplus value, which generates profit. Unlike the obvious usefulness of a product, its value cannot be determined by examining the item in isolation. Value manifests itself in the form of price solely in the process of exchange for other goods. Ricardo distinguished the natural price ( monetary value

value) and market value (deviates from natural value under the influence of supply and demand). Due to changes in economic conditions in a society, the value of goods may change, even if in a particular separate production nothing has changed. Marx noted that the value of goods depends not so much on the expenditure of labor time in their direct production, but on the expenditure of labor time for production under current conditions.

The value of any commodity - and, consequently, of the commodities that make up capital - is determined not by the necessary labor time that lies within it, but by the labor time socially necessary for its reproduction. …price work force, like any other product, is determined by the labor time necessary for its reproduction.

Typically, the cost per unit of production decreases over time. However, one should not confuse the cost, expressed in the number of hours of working time, with the price of the product, expressed in the amount of money. The cost mainly depends on labor productivity. The price depends on many factors, including changes in the value of money itself, a fall in which can lead to inflation.

Other theories of value

Being a fundamental economic category, value is extremely difficult to understand and analyze. Many economists today deny labor character cost. They emphasize the utility (use value) of a product as the main motive for exchange. They believe that the proportion of exchange is dictated by utility And rarity, For example:

Notes

See also

Wikimedia Foundation.

• 2010.
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Mennonites

See what “Exchange value” is in other dictionaries: EXCHANGE VALUE - (exchange value) Quantitative ratio , expressing the value of one product through the value of another. For example, if a pair of shoes can be exchanged for two chairs, then this means that the exchange value of a pair of shoes is two chairs, and the exchange value ... ...

Exchange value Political science. Dictionary. - in a broad sense, the ability of a good or service to be exchanged for other goods or services. In English: Value in exchange See also: Value Value of assets Financial Dictionary Finam. Exchange value Exchange value current value of rights... ...

See what “Exchange value” is in other dictionaries: Financial Dictionary - see EXCHANGE VALUE. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ...

Encyclopedia of Sociology - exchange value market price Dictionary of Russian synonyms...

Exchange value Synonym dictionary - in a broad sense, the ability of a good or service to be exchanged for other goods or services. the present value of rights to future income. Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001...

See what “Exchange value” is in other dictionaries: Dictionary of business terms - according to Marxist economic doctrine, the ability of a commodity to be exchanged for another commodity in a certain proportion, which is expressed in monetary value , in the price of the goods. It differs from the use value that characterizes the product... ...

Exchange value- (value in exchange) is the amount of money or purchasing power (in the form of goods or services) for which real estate can most likely be sold. Exchange value is thus synonymous with objective value or market value... Glossary of terms on expertise and real estate management

See what “Exchange value” is in other dictionaries:- (exchange value) see Use value and exchange value... Large explanatory sociological dictionary

Exchange value- see art. Price … Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia of Sociology- Syn: market value... Thesaurus of Russian business vocabulary

Books

• A study of the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. (Complete work in one volume). Per. from English, Smith, Adam. Before the reader is a seminal work on classical economics, written more than two centuries ago by the outstanding economist and philosopher Adam Smith and which had a huge influence on…

Unlike use value, which is essentially a commodity body, value cannot be materially detected. To give a scientific explanation modern forms value, it is necessary to return to the analysis of exchange, forms of value or in exchange value. Value can only be determined through the relationship of one product to another.

In developed commodity production, all goods are equated to money, which reflects the value of all other goods. But before the value of a particular product found its expression in monetary form, it passed a long and difficult path development.

The question of the origin and nature of money has long attracted the attention of economists.

This is the first time Scientific research was done by A. Smith. Later great attention K. Marx devoted an analysis of this issue. He found that the cost in its historical development acquired the following forms: simple, single, or random; complete, or expanded; universal and monetary. Each next form characterizes the highest stage of development commodity production and exchange.

The first of these forms of value arose along with exchange and contains the secret of all other forms of value. A simple exchange relationship in which x of commodity A is exchanged for V product B has next view: X product A = product B. In this sequence, product A expresses its value in product B and is in active relative form of value, and the commodity, which expresses the value of commodity A, appears in the passive equivalent form of value. At this stage of development of exchange, the role of equivalent is assigned to one particular product.

As we see, relative form value and equivalent mutually determine and at the same time exclude each other, i.e. are poles of the same expression of value, and the relative form of value characterizes both the qualitative side of the goods exchanged (the internal homogeneity of clumps of abstract labor) and the quantitative side (the corresponding number of objects that contain equal amounts of abstract labor). In the process of exchange, the owner of commodity A is interested in the use value of commodity B. But the use value of commodity A is the result of specific, private labor. Therefore, the equivalent form of value is characterized by three features, the essence of which is that:

a) the use value of an equivalent product becomes the material for expressing the value of product A, another use value;

b) concrete labor, as the creator of the equivalent of a commodity, acts as a form of manifestation of the abstract labor of commodity A;

c) private labor, embodied in an equivalent product, becomes a form of expression of its opposite - social labor.

As we see, value, abstract and social work externally separated from use value, concrete, private labor. In addition, the product not only satisfies the corresponding need, but also fulfills public function- role of equivalent.

Since in the conditions of manifestation of a simple form of value it was important to directly determine the homogeneity of many goods, and quantitative proportions were formed randomly, this form of value satisfied economic needs society as long as the exchange itself was random.

With the development of production and the social division of labor, rapid growth occurs commodity masses. The exchange becomes regular, and places where commodity producers meet are determined. The transition to regular exchange led to a transition from a simple to a complete, or expanded, form of value.

Characteristic of this form of exchange is that the value of one commodity can be expressed in many other commodities, and the number of random proportions is reduced. But as a result of the emergence of ever new types of goods, the number of equivalents increases, and the relative expression of the value of the goods remains incomplete. The direct exchange of goods itself becomes more complicated. And therefore, commodity producers resort to third goods, which are most often found on the market as intermediaries. In this case, the main goods (intermediary goods) are separated from the total mass of goods, to which all others are equated. Thus, the cost of ordinary goods began to be expressed in the living cost of an intermediary product. Gradually, the latter turned into general equivalents within local markets, and the direct exchange of goods grew into their turnover.

The emergence of these exchange relations means the transition to general form cost.

Appearance universal equivalent resolved the contradiction of the general form of exchange to the extent that each seller of a commodity already had the opportunity to exchange his commodity for another with the help of a commodity - a universal equivalent, which significantly stimulated the exchange of goods, and through it production.

At the stage when the role of universal equivalent was assigned to one particular product, arose monetary form cost. The use value of the equivalent product did not matter here. Acted as money miscellaneous goods. Only at the highest stage of development of commodity production and circulation, with the development international trade the role of universal equivalent was assigned to gold.

Gold, as a universal equivalent, distinguished itself from a number of other goods due to its properties, which made it most suitable for performing the social functions of a universal equivalent, namely: homogeneity, divisibility, portability, attractiveness, etc.

Gold as money in relation to the entire world of goods is always in an equivalent form of value: the concrete labor spent on it is the direct embodiment of the abstract general human labor, and the private labor spent on its production is the direct embodiment of social labor.

Distribution commodity world on goods and money, he discovered a complete form of external manifestation of internal contradictions - the contradictions between goods and money. Only a product, exchanged for money, like the product itself private labor, receives public recognition.

With the advent of money, it becomes possible to measure values various goods, and the development of forms of value reaches its completion. Further history exchange is associated with the use of paper, credit money, electronic, etc., which operate in parallel with money commodity or without it.

Money, like any commodity, has use value and value. their use value lies in the fact that, firstly, they perform the social function of a universal equivalent and, secondly, they are used for personal and public consumption like any other commodity.

To the product and its properties each scientific school came with its own methodology. IN historically Two approaches to the analysis of goods can be distinguished: based on the labor theory of value and from the position of the theory of marginal utility (otherwise, the non-labor theory of value).

First of all, let us consider the basic provisions of the labor theory of value. Its development was carried out by representatives of classical bourgeois political economy. A great contribution to the development of the labor theory of value was made by K. Marx, who systematized the works of his predecessors, presented it consistently and comprehensively, and revealed its key elements in their unity and interconnection.

2.2. Use and exchange values.

Within the framework of the labor theory of value, two properties of a commodity are clearly distinguished: use value and exchange value. Aristotle, A. Smith, D. Ricardo, K. Marx and other economists paid attention to the difference between use and exchange value.

Use value is a collection useful properties goods, thanks to which it has the ability to satisfy any need of society or an individual (it can serve as food, clothing or other useful item). A product must have not just a use value, but a social use value, when it is designed to satisfy the needs not of the producer himself, but of other members of society to whom it reaches in the process of exchange. The significance of use value lies in the fact that it constitutes the material content of the wealth of any society. Product quality and competitiveness, the importance of which is increasing in modern conditions, are associated with use value.

Not every social use value is a commodity, since a commodity must have one more property - the property of being exchanged for another commodity. This property of goods is called exchange value. Exchange value- this is the property of a product to be exchanged in certain proportions for other goods. The fact that goods are exchanged in a certain proportion means that in them, regardless of their specific form, there is something in common. The general objective property of goods is that social labor is spent on their production: as use values, goods are different, but as the embodiment of social labor they are homogeneous. Social labor embodied in a commodity constitutes the value of the commodity. Thus, exchange value is the external manifestation of value and underlies the exchange of goods.

Only a thing that represents a use value can have value, but not every useful thing, not every use value has a value (objects to which no human labor has been applied have no value). On the other hand, labor costs in themselves do not yet make a product value (products of labor produced for one’s own consumption do not acquire the property of value).

In the labor process, use value and value are created. This circumstance follows from the fact that the labor of every producer is dual character, acts as concrete labor and as abstract labor. The discovery and analysis of the dual nature of labor is the main contribution of K. Marx to labor theory cost.

Specific work- This useful work, spent in a certain form and qualitatively different from all other types of labor (for example, the work of a carpenter, baker, tailor, etc.). Specific labor creates a specific use value. Difference use values due to the fact that they act as products completely different types specific labor. The specific nature of the concrete labor of each commodity producer gives rise to its difference from other commodity producers.

Abstract work- this is labor, which acts as the cost of labor in general (human energy, muscular strength, nerves, brain function), regardless of its specific form. It is abstract labor that creates value. Its specific feature is that it manifests its social nature in the market, in the process of exchange.

In the conditions of commodity production, the dual nature of labor expresses the contradiction between the private and social work. The specific labor of each producer is a private matter; it is not consistent with the labor of other producers; it is carried out spontaneously, at one’s own peril and risk, without prior knowledge of the needs of society for of this kind goods.

On the other hand, the social division of labor determines the existence of a comprehensive connection between isolated producers, since, by producing products not for their own consumption, but for others, they essentially work for each other. Consequently, the labor of each commodity producer is not only private, but also social.

However, the social nature of labor manifests itself only on the market in the process of exchange: only here is it revealed whether the labor of a commodity producer is useful for others, needed by society whether it receives public recognition. Successful implementation production of goods by some producers often violates the interests of others who have not sufficiently adapted to the needs of society and market conditions. As a result, some producers get rich, others go bankrupt.

The contradiction between private and social labor is reflected in the contradiction between concrete and abstract labor. The product, being the unity of use value and value, at the same time contains a contradiction between them.

The contradiction between private and social labor is the fundamental contradiction of simple commodity production. Under capitalism it becomes even more acute and transforms into a contradiction between social character production and the private capitalist form of appropriation (the main contradiction of capitalism).

Accounting for labor costs in the market occurs spontaneously. If value represents labor embodied in a commodity, then its value can be determined by the amount of labor socially necessary for its production. Obviously, the value is measured by working time. However, different commodity producers can spend on the production of the same product different time, And different quantities labor. This depends on the skill of the worker, on the perfection of the means of labor, and the level of labor productivity. Consequently, not all labor, but only socially necessary labor, is the measure of value. Accordingly, the value is determined by socially necessary labor time.

Socially necessary work time- this is the working time that is spent on the production of goods under: 1) a socially normal (prevailing) state of production; 2) average qualification (skill) of workers; 3) average labor intensity. This is the amount of time most manufacturers usually spend when creating a product, i.e. average time.

The value of the cost is influenced by a number of factors, the main of which are the following:

· Labor productivity, which is understood as its efficiency and fruitfulness. Labor productivity is measured by the number of use values ​​produced per unit of time or the amount of time spent on a unit of production. An increase in labor productivity leads to a decrease in the working time required to produce a product, and, consequently, to a decrease in its value. (Example: If in 8 hours of working time, instead of 100 m of fabric, 200 m of fabric are produced, then the cost of these 200 m of fabric will be measured by the same 8 hours of labor, although its productivity will double and the cost of each meter of fabric will correspondingly decrease.)