Karl's Quotes - On the Valorization of Capital

The capitalist sells dearer than he has bought. Vulgar economists have tried to use this fact to show that profit comes from the wily, clever capitalist who thus earns and deserves his wealth. Marx writes, “The capitalist must indeed ‘sell dearer than he has bought’, but he manages to do this only because the capitalist production process enables him to transform the cheaper, because less valuable, commodities that he has bought into more valuable and hence dearer ones. He sells dearer, not because he sells above the value of his commodities, but because he sells commodities of a value greater than the sum of values of the ingredients required to produce them. The greater the difference between the capitalist’s supply and his demand, i.e. the greater the additional commodity value that he supplies over the commodity value that he demands, the greater the rate at which he valorizes capital. His goal is not simply to cover his demand with his supply, but to have the greatest possible excess of supply over demand. (Capital Vol II, p197). Note that it is the ‘capitalist production process’ that allows him to sell dearer than the sum of the ingredients and that it is the worker who makes that process work.

J. Ayers