CHAPTER II 
The Theory of Value 
t. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM OF VALUE. 
2 SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE VALUE; DEFINITIONS. 
~ UriLity AND VALUE (sus JECTIVE). 
4. THE MEASURE OF VALUE AND THE UNIT VALUE. 
t.. The Importance of the Problem of Value. 
THE problem of value has constituted a fundamental ques- 
tion of political economy since the earliest days of the science. 
All other questions, such as wage-labour, capital, rent, ac- 
Cumulation of capital, the struggle between large-scale and 
Petty operation, crises, etc., are directly or indirectly involved 
in this fundamental question. 
“The theory of value stands, as it were, in the centre of the 
entire doctrine of political economy,” Bohm-Bawerk rightly 
observes. (Grundziige der Theorie des wirtschaftlichen Giiter- 
Werts, p. 8.) This is not hard to understand; price, and there- 
fore the standard determining price—which is value—is the 
fundamental all-embracing category in the production of com- 
Modities in general and in the capitalist production of com- 
Modities in particular, whose child is political economy. The 
Prices of commodities regulate the distribution of the produc- 
tion forces of capitalist society; the form of exchange, whose 
Presupposition is the category of price, is the form of distri- 
bution of the social product among the various classes. 
The movement of prices leads to an adaptation of the supply 
of goods to demand, since the rise and fall of the rate of profit 
Causes capital to flow from one branch of production to an- 
Other. Low prices are the weapon by which capitalism cuts 
its path and finally conquers the world; it is low prices that 
®hable capital to eliminate artisan production, to supplant 
Petty operation with large-scale operation. 
The contract between the capitalist and the worker—the 
first condition for the enrichment of the capitalist—assumes 
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