Forms of Chinese Commodity Value

As discussed earlier, commodities are a historical economic form: only at a certain stage do products become commodities, and only then does the labor expended in production manifest itself as value. In this chapter I therefore take the law of value as the key for judging whether commodity production is truly capitalist. I examine the Chinese case under three aspects: the multiplication of commodity value, the realization of the multiplied value, and the distribution of the realized surplus value. In China, the creation of surplus value is sustained even where wage labor remains bound by backward arrangements; the realization of surplus value is obstructed by comprador commerce, usury, and primitive market conditions; and surplus value is segmented through circulation and even within production itself. Hence China’s commodity circulation has never been fully governed by the normal law of value. This inquiry into value forms provides a basis for understanding money, capital, wages, and profits in the broader Chinese economy.