Labour Theory of value and Circuit of Capital : On the Embodied-labour Version and the Abstract Labour One

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the theoretical relationship between the embodied-labour version and the abstract labour one, two representative types of labour theory of value, and to show the new mission and possibility of labour theory of value. The embodied-labour version is the labour theory of value developed by Karl Marx, and the most prevailing theoretical type of it nowadays. This theory insists that the magnitude of commodity's value is determined by the quantity of labour used in its production. In the embodied-labour version, the substance of commodity's value is regarded as abstract human labour used and embodied in its production. Here, the abstract human labour is as sort of a human's physiological energy outlaid in the all kinds of labour. In this case, abstract human labour is considered to exist really in the dimension of production. In contrast to it, the abstract labour version insists that labour producing commodity, more directly speaking the concrete useful labour producing its use value, translate into abstract labour, when the commodity is realized as money in the process of circulation (that is the market). In the case of the abstract labour version, the private, concrete labour producing the commodity's use value can be socialized and abstracted, and also it can be realized as the abstract labour producing the commodity's value, when the commodity translates into money (C-M) in the market. The problem to be treated here is the theoretical relation between these two labour theories of value and the circuit of capital. The total movement of capital consists of following three circuits: (1) Money capital: M-C…P…C'…M' (in short M…M') (2) Productive capital: P…C'-M'-C…P (P…P) (3) Commodity capital: C-M-C…P…C' (C'…C') Marx analysed the social reproduction process from the viewpoints of two circuits of capital mainly: productive capital (P…P) and commodity capital (C'…C'). Then the labour theory of value that Marx based on was the embodied-labour version. By these ways, what he could recognize is a social organization (distribution) of concrete useful labours being realized ex post. It was a result of the long term and the average analysis. However if we analyzed the social reproduction process from the viewpoint of circuit of money capital (M…M'), the situation in sight would be different. The first stage of the circuit of money capital (M-C…P…C'-M') is a procurement process of the productive capital by the money capital (M-C{lp + mp}). The scale of the social organization of concrete useful labours is dependent on the number of labour power(lp_1, lp_2,…lp_n) procured by the money capital here. On the other hand, the last stage of the circuit of money capital (C'-M') is a place of commodity's salto mortale in which labours producing commodities are judged whether they are realized as labours producing their values. At this moment, the organization of concrete useful labours formed through the movement of social aggregate capital is judged whether it can get a social acceptance and validity also. If we wished to know the structure of social reproduction ex post recognized by the long term and the average analysis, the embodied-labour theory of value would be an effective tool. However, if we want to understand the process itself of the social organization of labours brought about by movement of money, it would be necessary for us to analyse the social reproduction process from the viewpoint of circuit of money capital. The abstract labour version is a very value theory that will be able to response to such a task. It is a value theory that can achieve its mission elucidating the process of the social organization of human labour, in another dimension and by logic different from the embodied-labour version.