Exchange value

In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value (German: Tauschwert) refers to one of the four major attributes of a commodity, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market, the other three attributes being use value, economic value, and price. Thus, a commodity has the following:

• a value, represented by the socially necessary labour time to produce it (Note: the first link is to a non-Marxian definition of value);
• a use value (or utility);
• an exchange value, which is the proportion at which a commodity can be exchanged for other entities;
• a price (an actual selling price, or an imputed ideal price).

These four concepts have a very long history in human thought, from Aristotle to David Ricardo, and became more clearly distinguished as the development of commercial trade progressed but have largely disappeared as four distinct concepts in modern economics.

This entry focuses on Karl Marx's summation of the results of economic thought about exchange value.