What does Marx mean when he refers to “magnitude”? Take, for example, the following passage: “Whatever their exchange relation may be, it can always be represented by an equation in which a given quantity of corn is equated to some quantity of iron, for instance 1 quarter of corn == x cwt of iron. What does this equation signify? It signifies that a common element of identical magnitude exists in two different things, in 1 quarter of corn and similarly in x cwt of iron.”

Does “magnitude” here refer to the amount of usefulness, or something else?

Thank you in advance.

  • Muad'DibberA
    3•4 years ago

    I always tend to think in labor time as a way to simplify things, and to use as a common account, rather than trying to differentiate between use-value, exchange-value, and price.

    In that case the magnitude / amount of X corn which would equal X iron, would be the labor time necessary to harvest / process it. So 1 lb of corn might be 0.1 labor hours, and 1 lb of iron might be 1 labor hour.

    In Capital, Marx works from the other direction, showing that at the end of the exchange process, we see underlying quantities of human labor time that determine the exchange rates.