Marxist Interpretations of Marx’s Theory of Price

Since the publication of Capital, there have been a great many interpretations of Marx’s theory of price, both sympathetic and hostile. My concern in this chapter is with the sympathetic interpretations over the last 50 years or so which, because of their sympathetic nature and not the self-descriptors used by the interpreters themselves, I refer to as ‘Marxist’. For analytical convenience I cluster them into two categories; traditional and modern interpretations. It can be argued, without much fear of contradiction, that most attention has been accorded by these interpretations, particularly the modern ones, to Marx’s alleged ‘transformation problem’. This is quite understandable given that it has been seen by all and sundry as the major theoretical defect in his work. My purpose in reviewing these sympathetic interpretations of Marx’s price theory is not to assess their relative merits and demerits per se, but to bring out and further expand on my own interpretation of this theory.