This question <561-2|563-5> overall <563-1|563-3> Yenom: <561-6|579>. graded A

Question 370: The empirical appearance of the processes of sale and purchase encourages a naive mistake, which makes it difficult to understand the metamorphosis of the commodity. Which mistake?

[563-2] Yenom: “If one looks at the market transactions from their form side one must avoid the following mistake: It is tempting to consider the surface activities by which the social metabolism is mediated as exchanges.” (Annotations pp. 246) Two commodities are exchanged empirically, but they are not the same sort of commodity one is an actual commodity and the other is a money commodity. “Marx stresses that they are not exchanges as in a barter situation between two ordinary commodities.” (Annotations pp. 246) Marx calls the process rather a metamorphosis; a commodity changes into its pure value form, its price, and then that value is transformed into the use-value the actor desires.

If it is considered a simple barter between two ordinary commodities (C-C) Marx's insight into the power of money that the metamorphosis (C-M-C) demonstrates is lost. Also the later chapters delve into how the transformation is corrupted into starting with money and ending with money through the intermediary of a commodity (M-C-M).

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