The value-form or form of value is a concept in Karl Marx’s critique of the political economy of capitalism. It refers to one characteristic of a commodity (an object traded in markets). It is introduced in the first chapter of Das Kapital.
The value-form is often regarded as a difficult, obscure or even esoteric idea by scholars, and there has been considerable debate about its real theoretical significance. Probably the difficulty is mainly due to the fact that, abstractly, economic value refers at the same time to quantitative and qualitative dimensions, which can be stated according to both absolute and relative criteria, and expressed both as a relationship and as an attribute or an object in its own right. From the use of the expression "value" it may therefore not be immediately clear what kind of valuation or expression is being referred to. Marx himself rarely if ever defended his finished theory of value in scientific debate, and left it to his followers to clarify issues and problems in his unfinished manuscripts.
In addition, typically official economics simply assumes that the exchange processes on which markets are based already exist and will occur, and that prices already exist, or can be imputed. This assumption is overturned only there where markets still have to be brought into being.
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