THE THEORY OF VALUE Cd
planful relation at all between the various phases of produc-
tion, in which the relation is regulated in the last instance by
the social consumption, will inevitably lead to a condition of
affairs that may in a certain sense be designated as “produc-
tion for production”. This circumstance has its effect, on the
one hand, on the psychology of the agents of the capitalist
mode of production (an analysis of this psychology is a
part of Bohm-Bawerk’s task) in a quite different manner than
is assumed by Bohm-Bawerk. Let us now begin with the
estimates of the sellers of the means of production. They are
capitalists whose capital is invested in the branches of produc-
tion which produce means of production. Whereby is the
estimate of the resulting means of production determined on
the part of the owner of the specific enterprise? He by no
means estimates his commodity (“productive commodities”)
by the marginal utility of the product manufactured with its
aid; rather, he estimates his commodity on the basis of the
“price” he can get for it in the market; in Bohm-Bawerk’s
terminology, he values it according to its subjective exchange
value '** Let us now assume that the above-mentioned “pro-
ducer” introduces a new technique and increases production;
he is now in a position to throw a greater number of goods—
means of production—on the market. In what direction will
the evaluation of the individual unit commodity be altered
thereby? It will of course go down. But this decline will
not, in his eyes, be effected by the decline in the prices of the
products manufactured from his wares, but rather by his own
effort to lower prices in order thus to win his competitors’
customers and thus attain higher profits.
Let us now turn to the other party to the transaction, the
purchasers, in the present instance, the capitalists of the branch
of production, producing articles of consumption with the aid
of production commodities purchased from the capitalists of
the first category (production of production commodities).
Their evaluation will of course take into consideration the price
at which the product is offered; yet this assumed price of the
product may at best serve as an upper limit. Actually the
estimate of the production commodities is always lower; and
the amount by which the estimate of the production com-
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