A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

CHAPTER I.

COMMODITIES.

At first sight the wealth of society under the capitalist system presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities, its unit being a single commodity. But every commodity has a twofold aspect, that of _use value_ and _exchange value_.[2]

A commodity is first of all, in the language of English economists, “any thing necessary, useful or ple...