Realist Methodology and the Articulation of Modes of Production (ص 216)

غرض

عنوان

Realist Methodology and the Articulation of Modes of Production (ص 216)

المحتوى

In acting as a mediator between the circulation of different
commodities to consumers and producers, the merchant is not
particularly interested in the origin of the commodities.
S/he is not concerned if they originate from capitalist or
non-capitalist forms of production. The main criterion for
merchant capital is that M' is of greater monetary value than
M. The only concern is with immediate profitability. In
acting out this brokerage role, merchant capital most
commonly acts aS a mediator between non-capitalist and
capitalist commodity producers over regional, national and
international boundaries.
In the actual process of exchange the commodity undergoes no
transformation in its basic form. The merchant does nothing
to the commodity in a productive sense. The relationship
between the merchant and consumer is not based on a
relationship of economic exploitation, rather it is based on
unegual exchange. The relationship to the merchant of the
original producer of the commodity is also normally one of
unequal exchange. This essentially means that merchant
capital exchanges commodities at non-equivalent values. This
point is brought out quite clearly by Geoffrey Kay, who
defines the mechanism of unequal exchange in the following
‘terms:
Its [commercial capital's} circuit, M- ¢€ -—-M',
involves two transactions but only one commodity,
and there is nothing merchant capital does to this
commodity between the moment of its purchase and
subsequent sale, which increases its value. The
same commodity is with the same value features in
both exchanges, so that if the two transactions
took place at value, it would be the same value.
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Realist Methodology and the Articulation of Modes of Production

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المنشئ

Alex Pollock

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