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common by the values of all commodities; it therefore becomes directly exchangeable with all
and every of them. The substance linen becomes the visible incarnation, the social chrysalis state
of every kind of human labour. Weaving, which is the labour of certain private individuals
producing a particular article, linen, acquires in consequence a social character, the character of
equality with all other kinds of labour. The innumerable equations of which the general form of
value is composed, equate in turn the labour embodied in the linen to that embodied in every
other commodity, and they thus convert weaving into the general form of manifestation of
undifferentiated human labour. In this manner the labour realised in the values of commodities is
presented not only under its negative aspect, under which abstraction is made from every concrete
form and useful property of actual work, but its own positive nature is made to reveal itself
expressly. The general value form is the reduction of all kinds of actual labour to their common
character of being human labour generally, of being the expenditure of human labour power.
The general value form, which represents all products of labour as mere congelations of
undifferentiated human labour, shows by its very structure that it is the social resumé of the world
of commodities. That form consequently makes it indisputably evident that in the world of
commodities the character possessed by all labour of being human labour constitutes its specific
social character.
2. The Interdependent Development of the Relative Form of Value, and of
the Equivalent Form
The degree of development of the relative form of value corresponds to that of the equivalent
form. But we must bear in mind that the development of the latter is only the expression and
result of the development of the former.
The primary or isolated relative form of value of one commodity converts some other commodity
into an isolated equivalent. The expanded form of relative value, which is the expression of the
value of one commodity in terms of all other commodities, endows those other commodities with
the character of particular equivalents differing in kind. And lastly, a particular kind of
commodity acquires the character of universal equivalent, because all other commodities make it
the material in which they uniformly express their value.
The antagonism between the relative form of value and the equivalent form, the two poles of the
value form, is developed concurrently with that form itself.
The first form, 20 yds of linen = one coat, already contains this antagonism, without as yet fixing
it. According as we read this equation forwards or backwards, the parts played by the linen and
the coat are different. In the one case the relative value of the linen is expressed in the coat, in the
other case the relative value of the coat is expressed in the linen. In this first form of value,
therefore, it is difficult to grasp the polar contrast.
Form B shows that only one single commodity at a time can completely expand its relative value,
and that it acquires this expanded form only because, and in so far as, all other commodities are,
with respect to it, equivalents. Here we cannot reverse the equation, as we can the equation 20 yds
of linen = 1 coat, without altering its general character, and converting it from the expanded form
of value into the general form of value.
Finally, the form C gives to the world of commodities a general social relative form of value,
because, and in so far as, thereby all commodities, with the exception of one, are excluded from
the equivalent form. A single commodity, the linen, appears therefore to have acquired the
character of direct exchangeability with every other commodity because, and in so far as, this
character is denied to every other commodity.
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The commodity that figures as universal equivalent, is, on the other hand, excluded from the
relative value form. If the linen, or any other commodity serving as universal equivalent, were, at
the same time, to share in the relative form of value, it would have to serve as its own equivalent.
We should then have 20 yds of linen = 20 yds of linen; this tautology expresses neither value, nor
magnitude of value. In order to express the relative value of the universal equivalent, we must
rather reverse the form C. This equivalent has no relative form of value in common with other
commodities, but its value is relatively expressed by a never ending series of other commodities.
Thus, the expanded form of relative value, or form B, now shows itself as the specific form of
relative value for the equivalent commodity.
3. Transition from the General form of value to the Money form
The universal equivalent form is a form of value in general. It can, therefore, be assumed by any
commodity. On the other hand, if a commodity be found to have assumed the universal
equivalent form (form C), this is only because and in so far as it has been excluded from the rest
of all other commodities as their equivalent, and that by their own act. And from the moment that
this exclusion becomes finally restricted to one particular commodity, from that moment only, the
general form of relative value of the world of commodities obtains real consistence and general
social validity.
The particular commodity, with whose bodily form the equivalent form is thus socially identified,
now becomes the money commodity, or serves as money. It becomes the special social function
of that commodity, and consequently its social monopoly, to play within the world of
commodities the part of the universal equivalent. Amongst the commodities which, in form B,
figure as particular equivalents of the linen, and, in form C, express in common their relative
values in linen, this foremost place has been attained by one in particular – namely, gold. If, then,
in form C we replace the linen by gold, we get,
D. The Money-Form
20 yards of linen
=
1 coat
=
10 lbs of tea
=
40 lbs of coffee
=
1 quarter of corn =
2 ounces of gold =
½ a ton of iron
=
x Commodity A =
= 2 ounces of gold
In passing from form A to form B, and from the latter to form C, the changes are fundamental. On
the other hand, there is no difference between forms C and D, except that, in the latter, gold has
assumed the equivalent form in the place of linen. Gold is in form D, what linen was in form C –
the universal equivalent. The progress consists in this alone, that the character of direct and
universal exchangeability – in other words, that the universal equivalent form – has now, by
social custom, become finally identified with the substance, gold.
Gold is now money with reference to all other commodities only because it was previously, with
reference to them, a simple commodity. Like all other commodities, it was also capable of serving
as an equivalent, either as simple equivalent in isolated exchanges, or as particular equivalent by
the side of others. Gradually it began to serve, within varying limits, as universal equivalent. So
soon as it monopolises this position in the expression of value for the world of commodities, it