This book is an English translation of Essays on Marxs Theory of Value, first published by Isaak Illich Rubin in 1923 in the Soviet Union. Rubins book sparked a fierce value controversy with contemporary Soviet economists during the late 1920s. As such, the present translation is conceived as a variorum edition, including for the first time in English all the essential supplementary materials related to this foundational work in Marxs value theory. In addition to Rubins main work, this edition includes his four most important related publications, as well as ten debate articles written and published by his contemporary proponents and opponents.
List of Figures
PartA
Editorial Foreword by the Translator
PartB Essays on Marxs Theory of Value
Foreword to the Fourth Edition
Foreword to the Third Edition
Introduction
SubpartI Marxs Theory of Commodity Fetishism
Introduction to SubpartI: Marxs Theory of Commodity Fetishism
1 The Objective Basis of Commodity Fetishism
2 The Process of Production and its Social Form
3 The Reification of the Relations of Production of People and
Personification of Things
4 Thing and Social Function (Form)
5 Relations of Production and Material Categories
6 Struve on the Theory of Commodity Fetishism
7 The Development of the Theory of Fetishism in Marx
SubpartII Marxs Theory of Labour Value
Introduction to SubpartII: Marxs Theory of Labour Value
8 Basic Characteristics of Marxs Theory of Value
9 Value as the Regulator of Production
10 The Equality of Commodity Producers and Equality of Commodities
11 The Equality of Commodities and Equality of Labour
12 The Content and Form of Value
[ Supplement 1:
Chapter12 in the Second Edition (Chapter9 in the First
Edition)] Value and Exchange Value (the Content and Form of Value)
13 Social Labour
14 Abstract Labour
[ Supplement 2:
Chapter14 in the Second Edition (Chapter10 in the First
Edition)] Abstract Labour
15 Qualified Labour
16 Socially Necessary Labour
17 Value and Social Need
1Value and Demand
2Value and Proportional Distribution of Labour
3Value and Volumes of Production
4The Equalisation of Demand and Supply
18 Value and Prices of Production
1Distribution and Equilibrium of Capitals
2Distribution of Capitals and Distribution of Labour
3Prices of Production
4Labour Value and Prices of Production
5The Historical Foundation of the Theory of Labour Value
19 Productive Labour
Appendices
Appendix1: On the Terminology of Marx
1Labour and Value
2Crystallisation
3Thing and Social Function
Appendix2: Reply to Critics
1Reply to I.Dashkovsky
2Reply to S.Shabs
3Reply to A.Cohn
4Reply to S.Bessonov
PartC Rubins Journal Articles in Relation to his Main Work
1 Relations of Production and Material Categories (1924)
2 Review on Franz Petry (1924)
3 Abstract Labour and Value in Marxs System (1927)
I.
II.
III.
4 On the History of the Text of the First
Chapter of Capital by K.Marx
(1929)
Chapter I: Value and Exchange Value in Critique and Capital
Chapter II: Marx and Bailey
PartD Documents published in the Soviet Union during the Value Controversy in
the 1920s
1 A.Voznesensky: On the Problem of the Understanding of the Category of
Abstract Labour (1925)
2 I.Dashkovsky: Abstract Labour and the Economic Categories of Marx (1926)
3 S.Shabs: from The Problem of Social Labour in Marxs Economic System A
Critique of Essays on Marxs Theory of Value by I.Rubin (1928)
4 A.Cohn: Some Observations of my Critics in the Light of Marxs Theory
(1928)
5 V.Dunaevsky: The Law of Labour Value in Capitalism in I.Rubins Essays
(1929)
6 A.Greblis, M.Korovai, I.Stepanov: On the Disputable Problems of the Theory
of Value (about I.I.Rubins Book, Essays on Marxs Theory of Value) (1929)
7 M.Saigushkin: Abstract Labour as a Materialistic Category (1929)
8 E.Landye: The Marxist Method and the Foundation of the Theory of Value
(for a Characterisation of the New Variant of Bogdanovshchina) (1929)
9 I.Blyumin: On the Problem of Labour Forming Value (1929)
10 Z.Verner: How Rubins System of Views is Pushing Ahead Under the Guise of
Battle with the Mechanists (1930)
PartE Translators Introductory Essay Rubins Interpretation of Marxs
Theory of Value and the Value Controversy in the Soviet Union in the 1920s
I The Rubin Controversy and its Political Oppression
II The Controversy around Rubins Interpretation of Marxs Theory of Value in
the Soviet Union during the 1920s
Name Index
Susumu Takenaga, Ph.D. (1984), Université de Paris X, is an Emeritus Professor at Daito Bunka University, Tokyo. He has taught the history of economic thought and has published numerous books and articles in Japanese, French, and English, including Ricardo on Money and Finance (Routledge, 2013).
