sonal use for it and never intended to use it,—but for its exchange-value, and as soon as it is ready in exchangeable form he offers it for sale or exchange. He sells it, again, to somebody who has absolutely no personal use for it and does not intend to use it himself, but buys it just as the manufacturer manufactured it, because of the exchange-value there is in it, and which, by the way, for some reason or other, he expects to be more than what he pays for it.
On this first manifestation of the exchange-value of the factory-produced commodity the manufacturer gets in exchange for it a certain sum of money or other commodities, the price obtained on its sale or exchange. The exchange value of the commodity has realized itself in his hands in the form of its price.
We must not, however, confound price with value. Value is something which the commodity possesses when placed upon the market and before any price is paid for it, and it is because of this value that the price is paid for it. The value is the cause of the price. Furthermore, value and price do not always coincide in amount. The price of an article may be greater or less than its value, according to circumstances. The proof of this is the fact that things may be bought-"cheap" or "dear," that is to say, for a price above or below their value. If the price of a thing and its value were the same, nothing could be bought either cheap or dear, because the price paid would be its value. The fact that we speak of things as being bought or sold "cheap" or "dear" proves that our valuation of the thing is something outside of the price, and therefore something with which the price may be compared and proved either too high or too low. It is, therefore, manifest that value and price are not only not identical in their nature, but that they do not always even coincide in amount. And this, notwithstanding the fact that value is the cause of price. The reason for it is easily discovered. Value is a social relation and is therefore determined by social conditions, whereas price is an individual valuation and is therefore
