Episode 12

On the other hand,because as a result of their alienation as use-values all commodities are converted into linen,linen becomes the converted form of all other commodities,and only as a result of this transformation of all other commodities into linen does it become the direct reification of universal labour-time ,i.e.,the product of universal alienation and of the supersession of all individual labour.While commodities thus assume a dual form in order to represent exchange-value for one another,the commodity which has been set apart as universal equivalent acquires a dual use-value.In addition to its particular use-value as an individual commodity it acquires a universal use-value.This latter use-value is itself a determinate form,i.e.,it arises from the specific role which this commodity plays as a result of the universal action exerted on it by the other commodities in the exchange process.The use-value of each commodity as an object which satisfies particular needs has a different value in different hands,e.g.,it has one value for the person who disposes of it and a different value for the person who acquires it.The commodity which has been set apart as the universal equivalent is now an object which satisfies a universal need arising from the exchange process itself,and has the same use-value for everybody --that of being carrier of exchange-value or a universal medium of exchange.Thus the contradiction inherent in the commodity as such,namely that of being a particular use-value and simultaneously universal equivalent,and hence a use-value for everybody or a universal use-value,has been solved in the case of this one commodity.Whereas now the exchange-value of all other commodities is in the first place presented in the form of an ideal equation with the commodity that has been set apart,an equation which has still to be realised;the use-value of this commodity,though real,seems in the exchange process to have merely a formal existence which has still to be realised by conversion into actual use-values.The commodity originally appeared as commodity in general,as universal labour-time materialised in a partieular use-value.All commodities are compared in the exchange process with the one excluded commodity which is regarded as commodity in general,the commodity ,the embodiment of universal labour-time in a particular use-value.They are therefore as particular commodities opposed to one particular commodity considered as being the universal commodity.[The same term is used by Genovesi.(Note in author's copy.)]The fact that commodity-owners treat one another's labour as universal social labour appears in the form of their treating their own commodities as exchange-values;and the interrelation of commodities as exchange-values in the exchange process appears as their universal relation to a particular commodity as the adequate expression of their exchange-value;this in turn appears as the specific relation of this particular commodity to all other commodities and hence as the distinctive,as it were naturally evolved,social character of a thing.The particular commodity which thus represents the exchange-value of all commodities,that is to say,the exchange-value of commodities regarded as a particular,exclusive commodity,constitutes money .It is a crystallization of the exchange-value of commodities and is formed in the exchange process.Thus,while in the exchange process commodities become use-values for one another by discarding all determinate forms and confronting one another in their immediate physical aspect,they must assume a new determinate form they --must evolve money,so as to be able to confront one another as exchange-values .

Money is not a symbol,just as the existence of a use-value in the form of a commodity is no symbol.A social relation of production appears as something existing apart from individual human beings,and the distinctive relations into which they enter in the course of production in society appear as the specific properties of a thing --it is this perverted appearance,this prosaically real,and by no means imaginary,mystification that is characteristic of all social forms of labour positing exchange-value.This perverted appearance manifests itself merely in a more striking manner in money than it does in commodities.

The necessary physical properties of the particular commodity,in which the money form of all other commodities is to be crystallised --in so far as they direct]y follow from the nature of exchange-value --are:unlimited divisibility,homogeneity of its parts and uniform quality of all units of the commodity.As the materialisation of universal labour-time it must be homogeneous and capable of expressing only quantitative differences.

Another necessary property is durability of its use-value since it must endure through the exchange process.Precious metals possess these qualities in an exceptionally high degree.Since money is not the result of deliberation or of agreement,but has come into being spontaneously in the course of exchange,many different,more or less unsuitable,commodities were at various times used as money.When exchange reaches a certain stage of development,the need arises to polarise the functions of exchange-value and use-value among various commodities --so that one commodity,for example,shall act as means of exchange while another is disposed of as a use-value.The outcome is that one commodity or sometimes several commodities representing the most common use-value come occasionally to serve as money.Even when no immediate need for these use-values exists,the demand for them is bound to be more general than that for other use-values,since they constitute the most substantial physical element in wealth.