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use of the one who desires it, its distinctive feature, under capitalism, is its exchange value. A thing is a commodity only so long as it has exchange value, and it is no longer a commodity when its use value asserts itself, i.e., when appropriated for use in whatever form or degree by the consumer. The use value of a thing is inherent in the thing itself in relation to the person using it, whereas the exchange value is a definite economic relation, it is essentially a social product, and depends for all its peculiar attributes on the prevalent mode of production. "One cannot tell, by the taste of wheat, whether it has been produced by a Russian serf or French peasant or English capitalist." Its use value remains the same, however produced. But its exchange value in a given society will depend on the forms of production prevalent in that society.
Capitalist wealth is an aggregation of exchange values, and in order to understand capitalism, the nature of exchange value and the distribution of commodities must be explained. Take any factory product which is the characteristic form of production under capitalism. It was produced in a factory by a large number of working men, hired by an employer or manufacturer. It was then sent to the wholesale dealer, whence it went to the retailer, who sold it to the consumer. There may have been more or less middlemen between the production and the use of the things by the consumer, but all who took part in its production and distribution did so, not because of any need or love of the thing itself, but in order to make a profit for themselves. Whence did this profit for each of them come? We assume, of course, that all concerned are quite honest, and that each paid the fair market price for the article. Each received his share from the purchase price paid by the consumer or from the exchange value of the article. The exchange value of the article first manifests itself in the price paid for it by the wholesaler to the manufacturer. Value ,it must be remembered, is the cause of price, but is not identical with it, and they do not even always coincide in amount. Things may be bought cheap or dear, that is below or above their value, for whilst value is determined by the social conditions of producton, price is determined by individual motives, the given
