New Left Review I/99, September-October 1976

Oscar Braun

‘Value’ in Ricardo and Marx

The resistance of many Marxists towards assimilating the theoretical developments of the so-called ‘Cambridge School’, and particularly the theory of prices developed by Piero Sraffa, [1] Piero Sraffa, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, Cambridge 1963. may be explained by the fact that a certain confusion reigns between the meaning of the word ‘value’, as used by Marx in different parts of Capital, and as used by Ricardo in his Principles. Value has two basic meanings: (a) the quantity of labour directly or indirectly incorporated in a commodity; (b) the power a commodity has to be exchanged for other commodities, i.e. its ability to buy other commodities.

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