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becomes the money commodity, and then, and not till then, does form D become distinct from
form C, and the general form of value become changed into the money form.
The elementary expression of the relative value of a single commodity, such as linen, in terms of
the commodity, such as gold, that plays the part of money, is the price form of that commodity.
The price form of the linen is therefore
20 yards of linen = 2 ounces of gold, or, if 2 ounces of gold when
coined are £2, 20 yards of linen = £2.
The difficulty in forming a concept of the money form, consists in clearly comprehending the
universal equivalent form, and as a necessary corollary, the general form of value, form C. The
latter is deducible from form B, the expanded form of value, the essential component element of
which, we saw, is form A, 20 yards of linen = 1 coat or x commodity A = y commodity B. The
simple commodity form is therefore the germ of the money form.
Section 4: The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret
Thereof
A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows
that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological
niceties. So far as it is a value in use, there is nothing mysterious about it, whether we consider it
from the point of view that by its properties it is capable of satisfying human wants, or from the
point that those properties are the product of human labour. It is as clear as noon-day, that man,
by his industry, changes the forms of the materials furnished by Nature, in such a way as to make
them useful to him. The form of wood, for instance, is altered, by making a table out of it. Yet,
for all that, the table continues to be that common, every-day thing, wood. But, so soon as it steps
forth as a commodity, it is changed into something transcendent. It not only stands with its feet on
the ground, but, in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head, and evolves out of its
wooden brain grotesque ideas, far more wonderful than “table-turning” ever was.
26a
The mystical character of commodities does not originate, therefore, in their use value. Just as
little does it proceed from the nature of the determining factors of value. For, in the first place,
however varied the useful kinds of labour, or productive activities, may be, it is a physiological
fact, that they are functions of the human organism, and that each such function, whatever may be
its nature or form, is essentially the expenditure of human brain, nerves, muscles, &c. Secondly,
with regard to that which forms the ground-work for the quantitative determination of value,
namely, the duration of that expenditure, or the quantity of labour, it is quite clear that there is a
palpable difference between its quantity and quality. In all states of society, the labour time that it
costs to produce the means of subsistence, must necessarily be an object of interest to mankind,
though not of equal interest in different stages of development.
27
And lastly, from the moment
that men in any way work for one another, their labour assumes a social form.
Whence, then, arises the enigmatical character of the product of labour, so soon as it assumes the
form of commodities? Clearly from this form itself. The equality of all sorts of human labour is
expressed objectively by their products all being equally values; the measure of the expenditure
of labour power by the duration of that expenditure, takes the form of the quantity of value of the
products of labour; and finally the mutual relations of the producers, within which the social
character of their labour affirms itself, take the form of a social relation between the products.
A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s
labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because
the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social
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relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour. This is the
reason why the products of labour become commodities, social things whose qualities are at the
same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses. In the same way the light from an object
is perceived by us not as the subjective excitation of our optic nerve, but as the objective form of
something outside the eye itself. But, in the act of seeing, there is at all events, an actual passage
of light from one thing to another, from the external object to the eye. There is a physical relation
between physical things. But it is different with commodities. There, the existence of the things
quâ commodities, and the value relation between the products of labour which stamps them as
commodities, have absolutely no connection with their physical properties and with the material
relations arising therefrom. There it is a definite social relation between men, that assumes, in
their eyes, the fantastic form of a relation between things. In order, therefore, to find an analogy,
we must have recourse to the mist-enveloped regions of the religious world. In that world the
productions of the human brain appear as independent beings endowed with life, and entering
into relation both with one another and the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with
the products of men’s hands. This I call the Fetishism which attaches itself to the products of
labour, so soon as they are produced as commodities, and which is therefore inseparable from the
production of commodities.
This Fetishism of commodities has its origin, as the foregoing analysis has already shown, in the
peculiar social character of the labour that produces them.
As a general rule, articles of utility become commodities, only because they are products of the
labour of private individuals or groups of individuals who carry on their work independently of
each other. The sum total of the labour of all these private individuals forms the aggregate labour
of society. Since the producers do not come into social contact with each other until they
exchange their products, the specific social character of each producer’s labour does not show
itself except in the act of exchange. In other words, the labour of the individual asserts itself as a
part of the labour of society, only by means of the relations which the act of exchange establishes
directly between the products, and indirectly, through them, between the producers. To the latter,
therefore, the relations connecting the labour of one individual with that of the rest appear, not as
direct social relations between individuals at work, but as what they really are, material relations
between persons and social relations between things. It is only by being exchanged that the
products of labour acquire, as values, one uniform social status, distinct from their varied forms
of existence as objects of utility. This division of a product into a useful thing and a value
becomes practically important, only when exchange has acquired such an extension that useful
articles are produced for the purpose of being exchanged, and their character as values has
therefore to be taken into account, beforehand, during production. From this moment the labour
of the individual producer acquires socially a two-fold character. On the one hand, it must, as a
definite useful kind of labour, satisfy a definite social want, and thus hold its place as part and
parcel of the collective labour of all, as a branch of a social division of labour that has sprung up
spontaneously. On the other hand, it can satisfy the manifold wants of the individual producer
himself, only in so far as the mutual exchangeability of all kinds of useful private labour is an
established social fact, and therefore the private useful labour of each producer ranks on an
equality with that of all others. The equalisation of the most different kinds of labour can be the
result only of an abstraction from their inequalities, or of reducing them to their common
denominator, viz. expenditure of human labour power or human labour in the abstract. The two-
fold social character of the labour of the individual appears to him, when reflected in his brain,
only under those forms which are impressed upon that labour in every-day practice by the
exchange of products. In this way, the character that his own labour possesses of being socially