El temporalismo de Marx y las revoluciones en el valor de las mercancías

Abstract

This article explores some aspects of Marx’s method for calculating the value of commodities in simple dynamic situations. His method is considered «temporalist» because it pays careful attention to the temporal sequence in which social labor-time is spent in the production sphere. This contrasts with the interpretation of Marx’s calculation proposed by Bródy, Morishima and others for whom value is determined by means of simultaneous equations. For these authors, constant capital is equal to the «replacement cost» of the inputs, instead of being the monetary representation of the «past labor» spent in a previous stage of production. It is argued that simultaneism disregards the set of conditions that Marx actually takes into account in his calculation, specially the existence of stocks of both inputs and outputs as well as ongoing production processes. In addition, simultaneism neglects the continuity of the reproduction process, the existence of capital in its three forms —as money, productive and commodity capital— and the correlative intertwining of the three circuits of capital. Textual evidence concerning this issue is discussed and a numerical example contrasting both methods is presented.