n and iron. He goes on to elaborate that, there will always be an equation for the exchange of the two commodities, this is the example that is used to help surface his larger point. That is, that all commodities are essentially parallel in that they can always be exchanged for a certain amount of other commodities. This cannot be determined by viewing a commodity; one must see the commodity being exchanged to determine its “exchanged-value”. There is a particular interesting dynamic between individual commodities in that, they are different but cannot have value attached to them without other commodities to exchange them with. The same can be said about the larger concepts of exchange-value and use-value that Marx discusses throughout the first few sections of this volume.
Marx discusses between labor and value as a symbolic relationship of two very important ideas in any economic system. Any change in the quantity of labor will produce a change in the value of a particular article produced by that labor. This direct correlation is shown with Marx’s example of linen versus cloth in a capitalist society. Lenin is, hypothetically, twice as valuable as thread because of the time invested by a worker to produce the same amount of both items. The use-value is determined by the useful labor needed to produce each individual commodity; this is called the labor power of a particular item. The labor power gives each commodity its use-value. Conversely the use-value of an item can drive the labor power of a product through the demand for a finished good or in demand for raw materials lined or grown. However, this was not originally the idea of Marx, but rather David Ricardo, Marx simply restated Ricardo’s theory on labor almost verbatim.
Production is Marx’s obsession throughout the first sections of this volume. There are three important factors in production in Marx’s eyes: the means of production, the mode of production, and the relations of production. Each particular part is wholly dependent on the other to determine its value and importance in systems of production. The means of production are just the forces of production, things like the instruments of production (tools, machines), methods of working (skills, co-operation between groups, division of labor), and applied knowledge (science). The mode of production is the economic structure of society that defines people’s mode of living. It consists of the means of production and the relations of production. The relations are the interactions of people to form material production of an individual good or service. All three of these combine to create every good bought and consumed by the people in a society.