Every product of labour is, in all states of society, a use-value; but it is only at a definite historical epocha society s development that such a product becomes a commodity, viz., at the epoch when the labourspent on the production of a useful article becomes expressed as one of the objective qualities of thatarticle, i.e., as its value. It therefore follows that the elementary value-form is also the primitive formunder which a product of labour appears historically as a commodity, and that the gradual transformationf such products into commodities, proceeds pari passu with the development of the value-formWe perceive, at first sight, the deficiencies of the elementary form of value: it is a mere germ, whichmust undergo a series of metamorphoses before it can ripen into the price-formThe expression of the value of commodity A in terms of any other commodity B, merely distinguishesthe value from the use-value of A, and therefore places a merely in a relation of exchange with a singledifferent commodity, B: but it is still far from expressing A's qualitative equality, and quantitativeproportionality, to all commodities. To the elementary relative value-form of a commodity, thereorresponds the single equivalent form of one other commodity. Thus, in the relative expression of valueof the linen, the coat assumes the form of equivalent, or of being directly exchangeable, only in relationto a single commodity, the linenNevertheless, the elementary form of value passes by an easy transition into a more complete form. Itrue that by means of the elementary form, the value of a commodity A, becomes expressed in terms ofone, and only one, other commodity. But that one may be a commodity of any kind, coat, iron, corn, oranything else. Therefore, according as a is placed in relation with one or the other, we get for one andthe same commodity, different elementary expressions of value. [24] The number of such possibleexpressions is limited only by the number of the different kinds of commodities distinct from it. Theisolated expression of A's value, is therefore convertible into a series, prolonged to any length, of thedifferent elementary expressions of that value

1. The Expande d Relative form of valueThe value of a single commodity, the linen, for example, is now expressed in terms of numberless otherelements of the world of commodities. Every other commodity now becomes a mirror of the linensvalue. [25] It is thus, that for the first time, this value shows itself in its true light as a congelation ofundifferentiated human labour. For the labour that creates it, now stands expressly revealed, as labourthat ranks equally with every other sort of human labour, no matter what its form, whether tailoringploughing, mining, &c, and no matter, therefore, whether it is realised in coats, corm, iron, or gold. Thelinen, by virtue of the form of its value, now stands in a social relation, no longer with only one otherkind of commodity, but with the whole world of commodities. As a commodity, it is a citizen of thatworld. At the same time, the interminable series of value equations implies, that as regards the value of acommodity, it is a matter of indifference under what particular form, or kind, of use-value it appearsIn the first form, 20 yds. of linen= I coat, it might, for ought that otherwise appears, be pure accident,that these two commodities are exchangeable in definite quantities In the second form, on the contrary,we perceive at once the background that determines, and is essentially different from, this accidentalrelation between two individual commodity-owners disappears It becomes plain, that it is not theQ orappearance. The value of the linen remains unaltered in magnitude, whether expressed in coats, coffee,iron, or in numberless different commodities, the property of as many different owners. The accidentaxchange of commodities which regulates the magnitude of their value; but, on the contrary, that it is themagnitude of their value which controls their exchange proportions2. The particular Equivalent formEach commodity, such as, coat, tea, corn, iron, &c, figures in the expression of value of the linen, as anequivalent, and, consequently, as a thing that is value. The bodily form of each of these commoditiesfigures now as a particular equivalent form, one out of many In the same way the manifold concreteuseful kinds of labour, embodied in these different commodities, rank now as so many different forms ofhe realisation, or manifestation, of undifferentiated human labour3. Defects of the Total or Expanded form of valueIn the first place, the relative expression of value is incomplete because the series representing it isinterminable. The chain of which each equation of value is a link, is liable at any moment to beengthened by each new kind of commodity that comes into existence and furnishes the material for afresh expression of value. In the second place, it is a many-coloured mosaic of disparate and independentexpressions of value. And lastly, if, as must be the case, the relative value of each commodity in turn,becomes expressed in this expanded form, we get for each of them a relative value-form, different inevery case, and consisting of an interminable series of expressions of value. The defects of the expandedrelative value-form are reflected in the corresponding equivalent form. Since the bodily form of eachsingle commodity is one particular equivalent form amongst numberless others, we have, on the whole,nothing but fragmentary equivalent forms, each excluding the others. In the same way, also, the specialconcrete, useful kind of labour embodied in each particular equivalent, is presented only as a particularkind of labour, and therefore not as an exhaustive representative of human labour generally. The latter.indeed, gains adequate manifestation in the totality of its manifold, particular, concrete forms. But, in thatcase, its expression in an infinite series is ever incomplete and deficient in unityThe expanded relative value-form is, however, nothing but the sum of the elementary relativeexpressions or equations of the first kind, such as:20 yards of linen= I coat20 yards of linen= 10 Ibs. of tea, etcEach of these implies the corresponding inverted equation,I coat=20 yards of linen10 Ibs. of tea= 20 yards of linen, etcseries of other commodities, it necessarily follows, that the various owners of the latter exchange them9In fact, when a person exchanges his linen for many other commodities, and thus expresses its value infor the linen, and consequently express the value of their various commodities in one and the same thirdcommodity, the linen. If then, we reverse the series, 20 yards of linen= I coat or= 10 Ibs. of tea, etc.that is to say, if we give expression to the converse relation already implied in the series, we get,