exchange it,—sell it—he will not be concerned a bit whether the commodity he produced and is about to exchange is white, black, orange, or any other color; whether it is square, round, pointed or any other shape; sweet, sour, fragrant or otherwise; hard or soft, or whether it possesses any other quality which may determine its particular usefulness. But he will care how much labor it contains! This can readily be seen in our "advanced" methods of doing business when goods are "ordered," that is, sold—exchanged—before they are produced. In making the sale-exchange the producer will comply with any request as to shape, color, taste, or any other natural quality which affects the usefulness of the commodity with alacrity, as it is a matter of complete indifference to him. But he will stand out against anything that will require him to put into the commodity more labor. In taking your order—exchanging in prospecto his goods for yours—he will "abstract" from any and all natural qualities upon which the usefulness of the commodity depends, but he will absolutely refuse to "abstract" from labor, and will doggedly insist on considering it when making valuations. Further, he will gladly "abstract" from the kind of labor. If he is willing to give you for a certain price the labor of, say, one hundred men for ten days, he will just as soon give you the product of the labors of tailors as of shoemakers. But he will make a stand on the question of the quantity of labor. He wouldn't give you any more than he can help.
These actual "experiences" of the exchange relation which we have recounted are perfectly represented in Marx's "logical" analysis, with which Böhm-Bawerk finds fault. It is true that as regards both labor and usefulness, we "abstract" in the exchange relation from the particular, the particular labor and the particular usefulness, and leave only the general labor and the general usefulness. But in abstracting from the particular utility we have abstracted from the quality of the utility and have shown the exchange-relation to be a purely quantitative relation. But general
