20 yards of linen =
1 coat =
10 lbs of tea =
40 lbs of coffee = 2 ounces of gold
1 quarter of corn =
2 ounces of gold =
½ a ton of iron =
X commodity A =
In passing from the elementary form to the total form, and from the latter to the general form, the changes are fundamental. On the other hand, there is no difference between the general form and the money form, except that, in the latter, gold has assumed the equivalent form in the place of linen. Gold is in the money form, what linen was in the general form – the universal equivalent.The progress consists in this alone, that the character of direct and universal exchangeability – in other words, that the universal equivalent form – has now, by social custom, become finally identified with the substance, gold.
Gold is now money with reference to all other commodities only because it was previously, with reference to them, a simple commodity. Like all other commodities, it was also capable of serving as an equivalent, either as simple equivalent in isolated exchanges, or as particular equivalent by the side of others. Gradually it began to serve, within varying limits, as universal equivalent. So soon as it monopolises this position in the expression of value for the world of commodities, it becomes the money commodity, and then, and not till then, does the money form become distinct from the general form, and the general form of value become changed into the money form.
