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2021 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

5. Fetishism of Money, Capital, Interest-Bearing Capital and Commodities

verfasst von : Desmond McNeill

Erschienen in: Fetishism and the Theory of Value

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

I suggest that in order to comprehend commodity fetishism it is helpful to begin by analysing the fetishism of money, capital and interest-bearing capital. I therefore draw on a selection of quotations from Marx’s writings, mainly from Capital Volume III and Theories of Surplus Value. With commodity fetishism, Marx asserts that relations between producers appear ‘as what they really are, material relations between persons and social relations between things’ (my stress). This contrasts with the self-serving mystification of ‘higher’ forms of fetishism, most notably expressed in the Trinity Formula, which leads me to distinguish my position from that of Analytical Marxists, most notably Cohen.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Fetishism: A Preliminary Exegesis

Nächstes Kapitel The Form of Value: The Scylla of Bailey and the Charybdis of Hegel

According to Elster, in Marx’s personal copy of the book he replaced the word “Gold” by “Geld” (Elster 1985: 1987).

One could cavil at the description of money as “a physical object with distinct properties”—certainly in contemporary society, where it may be no more than an entry in a computer.

But Marx notes that “it was the common expression of all values in money that alone led to the establishment of their character as values. It is, however, just this ultimate money form of the world of commodities that actually conceals, instead of disclosing, the social character of private labour, and the social relations between the individual producers” (Marx 1954).

The Devil and Commodity Fetishism (Taussig 1980) is the title of an interesting and much-referenced study of peasants in Colombia and Bolivia as they “enter the ranks of the proletariat”, but I suggest that the phenomenon he describes might be better termed fetishism of money.

It is interesting to note that here again Marx stresses the hidden connecting links. There are several places in his writings where he uses the term “obliteration” in association with his analysis of how fetishism operates.

In portraying interest-bearing capital as the perfect fetish, Marx draws a comparison with the other two categories of the Trinity Formula: “The land or nature as the source of rent, i.e., landed property, is fetishistic enough. Labour as the source of wages … this is pretty enough” (Marx 1973: 454). But he does not, in fact, employ the terms that are thus implied: ‘fetishism of rent’ and ‘fetishism of wages’.

It is not entirely clear where he stands. He states, in a footnote that the economic fetish “has the power, but not inherently” (Cohen 1978: 115, my stress) but then goes on (as noted above) to talk of “the appearance of power” in the economic fetish.

And Ricardo was criticised by Engels, in his Preface to (Marx 1956), for failing to analyse “what labour it was that produced value” (Marx 1956: 16). Again, see Chap. 6.

Some would regard this as a very minor difference. Cohen himself does not consider there to be a significant contrast between the two formulations (personal communication).

Elster, also an ‘analytical marxist’, claims, on the basis of arguments “from Marx and others”, “that there is a natural tendency for the exploited to believe in the inevitability of exploitation” (Elster 1985: 487).

It is surely inadequate to resort to “natural” tendencies in seeking to explain such a very social phenomenon. Yet Elster also states “that the exploiting classes can be victims of similar illusions” (Elster 1985: 487). And his understanding of fetishism seems in some respects quite similar to my own:

We are dealing here with a generalized form of fetishism, that is structurally induced illusions about how the economy works. … The—systematically distorted—beliefs about the structure (1) are to be explained by the structure and (2) enter into the explanation of its persistence. (Elster 1985: 127)

Cohen, G. (1978). Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence. Oxford: Clarendon.

Cohen, G. (1980). Reply to Elster. Political Studies, Vol. 28.

Elster, J. (1985). Making Sense of Marx. Cambridge: University Press.

Marx, K. (1954). Capital (Vol. I). Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1956). Capital (Vol. II). Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1959). Capital (Vol. III). Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1963). Theories of Surplus Value, Part I. Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1970). A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1971). Theories of Surplus Value, Part III. Moscow: Progress.

Marx, K. (1973). Grundrisse. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Rubin, I. I. (1982). Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value. Montreal: Black Rose Books.

Titel: Fetishism of Money, Capital, Interest-Bearing Capital and Commodities
verfasst von: Desmond McNeill
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Fetishism and the Theory of Value
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56122-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-56123-9

Copyright-Jahr: 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56123-9_5