determined by individual motivation. Value being the cause of price, the chief motive of the individual making the price, will, of course, be the value of the thing priced. This does not mean, however, the actual value of the thing, but his opinion of its value. Whether this opinion will be a correct estimate of the actual value of the thing depends, of course, on a number of individual circumstances and conditions. Besides this chief motive, again, there may be a number of subsidiary motives, all being either directly individual in their character, or individual estimates of social conditions or relations. All this produces what is called the "haggling of the market." As a result of this haggling comes the price actually paid for the article, and the average of the prices paid makes the market price.
This price is purely accidental within certain limits, being the result of individual volitions based on individual estimation. It is so within certain limits only, for it is controlled by its primary cause—value—which sets the standard by which it is measured and to which it naturally tends to conform, and will conform the more the nearer to the truth are the individual estimates of the social relations and conditions, and the freer the individual motivations are from purely personal considerations. Value is the norm about which the "haggling" of the market takes place, and the price which results from this "haggling" naturally gravitates towards its norm-value. Price will be "cheap" or "dear" according to whether it is, in the estimation of the person making the valuation, below or above the actual value of the thing.
What is this social element, this social relation, which gives a commodity its value? A careful search will reveal only one element common to all commodities, which is social in its character and is capable of giving commodities the value which will express the social relations of production, and that is—Human Labor. The production of the typically capitalist commodity, the factory product, is wholly a question of the application of human labor, physical
