A Quiet Prologue Concerning the Cells of Capital (1867)
The commodity Marx addresses in Volume I, Chapter I, Section 1 of Capital is positioned as the smallest unit of wealth in capitalist society. Wealth appears not as a monolithic mass, but as the aggregate of countless commodities. The commodity possesses a dual nature: a concrete aspect as use-value and a social aspect as exchange-value, its value measured by socially necessary labor time. Marx believed this duality was the key to unlocking the entire structure of capitalism. Phenomena like factory operations and market fluctuations should be traced back to this cell, the commodity, for understanding. Grasping the commodity's characteristics enables a systematic analysis extending to money, capital, exploitation, and accumulation, revealing the foundation of capitalism's movement. The commodity, placed at the beginning of the 1867 work, is not merely an object of trade but the gateway to the vast world of capitalism.
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