The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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KARL MARX. 25 corresponding. Value in use depends solely on the intensity of the need. A loaf of bread which can feed me for a day has a constant value as an article of consumption, but as an article of exchange it varies with the amount of the harvest and the price of grain. Glasses which suit my eyesight may have a high value for me, while perhaps they would have no value in exchange, because they might not suit any other eyes than mine. As regards value in use, all articles differ from one another by reason of their qualities and the wants they are intended to satisfy. As regards value in exchange, all articles have in common the capability of being bartered one for the other or for a certain sum of money. In respect of use, it would be difficult to establish a relation between the sheep that we eat and the horse that we ride ; in respect of exchange, however, we may say that a horse is worth twenty sheep, if for a horse we get;¿’40, and for a sheep In primitive communities, as in India, according to Sir Henry Maine, or during the Middle Ages, it is value in use that is principally considered, for as each group of families produces almost all they consume, there is very little buying and selling. Take a hamlet under Charlemagne, or a village community in Russia or Servia : the men procure the articles of food and the textile materials, make the tools, the agricultural implements, and the house furniture, while the women prepare the food and the clothes, spin the wool, hemp, and flax, and even make the boots. There is almost no exchange. In com munities, when division of labour and of trades has taken place, value in exchange is the principal thing ; for as nobody pro duces what he consumes, each must sell in order to buy. Every product becomes an object for the market, and the important point to discover is what it is that gives value to these objects intended for exchange. To this question Marx does not hesitate to reply, with Adam Smith and Ricardo, that it is labour alone.* * For an account of the theories of Karl Marx, the following writers may he consulted :—Heinrich von Sybel, Die Lehren det heutigen Soctaltsmus ; Fugen Jaeger, Der Moderne Socialismus ; Schæffle, Der Socialtsmus und

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