The form of value and its historical development.
1.1. Elementary or Accidental Form of Value.
1.2. Total or Expanded Form of Value.
1.3. The General Form of Value.
1.4. The Money-Form of Value.
The appearance of money. The essence and functions of money
2.1. The measure of Values
2.2. The medium of Circulation
2.3. The mean of hoarding
2.4. The means of Payment
2.5. Universal Money
The Fetishism of Commodities.
The form of value and its historical development.
Commodities come into the world in the shape of use values, articles, or goods, such as iron, linen, corn, &c. This is their plain, homely, bodily form. They are, however, commodities, only because they are something twofold, both objects of utility, and, at the same time, depositories of value. They manifest themselves therefore as commodities, or have the form of commodities, only in so far as they have two forms, a physical or natural form, and a value form.
The simplest value-relation is evidently that of one commodity to some one other commodity of a different kind. Hence the relation between the values of two commodities supplies us with the simplest expression of the value of a single commodity.
Elementary or Accidental Form of Value.
X commodity A = Y commodity B, or
X commodity A is worth Y commodity B.
20 yards of linen = 1 coat, or
