Marx’s Theory of Value in Chapter 1 of Capital

“Professor Moseley’s deep knowledge of Marx’s texts is on full display in this work. Critics and defenders should agree: this book is an immensely important contribution to the debate that deserves a wide audience.”

—Tony Smith, Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, Iowa State University, USA 


“Fred Moseley´s book is a timely and indispensable contribution to Marx studies. Moseley makes a strong case for a production-centered understanding of value as a historically-specific social form, with emphasis on the quantitative issue of the magnitude of value.”


—Guido Starosta, Professor of History of Economic Thought, National University of Quilmes, Argentina 

“Fred Moseley’s book shows that, for Marx, exchange follows and is determined by production rather than vice versa as Heinrich’s value-form interpretation maintains. This logic is a necessary prerequisite for Marx’s theory of exploitation and the concomitanttask of overthrowing capitalism.”

—Stavros Mavroudeas, Professor of Political Economy, Panteion University, Greece 

Chapter 1 is the most important chapter in Capital, as well as the most difficult and the most controversial. An influential interpretation of Chapter 1 in recent decades has been the so-called “value-form interpretation” of Marx’s theory in general and Chapter 1 in particular.  The most important proponent of the value-form interpretation today, both in Germany and in the English-speaking world, is Michael Heinrich, and Heinrich’s work has emphasized the first chapter. Heinrich’s latest book in English is a detailed commentary of the first seven chapters of Volume 1 of Capital. The publication of an English translation of Heinrich’s book is an important event in Marxian scholarship and it is important to critically engage with this important book in order to advance our understanding of this critical foundational chapter. This book emphasizes the quantitative issue of whether the magnitude of value and socially necessary labour-time are determined in production or also depend on exchange and demand, which has been the main issue in the controversy over the value-form interpretation. 

Fred Moseley is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College, USA, and author of Money and Totality (2017).