Ideal value
An ideal value is generally a subjective one - i.e. H. Here: the value form (s) related to the individual - value form which, due to an emotional connection to the relevant ( concrete or abstract ) object, may represent a far higher value than under economic-financial or material (`` material '' as Antonym to 'ideal') is actually the case.
In the general understanding of the term, the ideal value differs from the mostly measurable material value .
Description and time of origin
The ideal value is already described by Plutarch when he says:
“Some people ask: What do we actually have? What do we not have? The one fame and honor , the other house and farm, another a dear wife or a loyal friend. "
“Fame and honor”, “a dear wife” or a loyal “friend” are to be understood here as ideal values, while “house and yard” represent use values or exchange values . So here Plutarch equates ideal values to use and exchange values - but initially only for the private sector. Shortly afterwards he goes on to say:
- “But don't forget how painful it hurts to lose such goods when you've owned them. Because it is not the case that they only acquire size and value at the moment of loss, but before that they mean nothing. ”“ Not being cannot give any thing a value. ”“ But it is also a contradiction if we initially consider these things so important that we strive for them and tremble fearfully at their loss, as if they were irreplaceable, but when we, as happy owners, place little value on them and despise them as insignificant. "
The ideal value was already known in antiquity . It probably also appeared in the definition of precious metals as money , because it is more than likely that this determination was made because of the general appreciation of these metals , that is, because of their ideal value, to which they are known as a “general equivalent, even beyond narrow regional borders “ Made usable to replace the previously used, but poorly transportable cattle . See John Locke in “Some Considerations etc.” in: Works Ed.1777, Vol.II, page 15:
- "Since people have agreed to give gold and silver an imaginary" [literally: "imaginary"] "value" [= ideal (exchange) value] "to give ..."
Relationship with trade
In antiquity, trading profit was not yet based on the dealers' expenses for storage , transport , etc., but increased around the new value . The decisive factor was the appreciation of the goods on the part of consumers and therefore also the ideal value, which essentially depended on their rarity. Marx writes about this in Volume III of " Capital ":
- “As long as commercial capital mediates the exchange of products in undeveloped communities , commercial profit” [= trade profit ] “does not appear only as overreaching and cheating, but largely arises from it”.
What Marx describes here as “cheating and cheating” is the sale of goods at their ideal value instead of their exchange value. This is exactly what Herodotus reports using a historical example:
- “But then a Sami ship” [= a ship from the island of Samos ], “whose owner was a certain Kolaios and that went to Egypt,” ended up on this platea ”[ the name of another island in the Mediterranean ] and as the Samians learned the whole story from Korobios, they leave him supplies for a whole year < on the island >. They themselves set sail from the island and headed for Egypt, but were driven off their course by an easterly wind. And they drove through the pillars of Heracles, - because the strong wind did not let up - and came to Tartessus, and that was God's company. This trading center was still untouched at the time, so that on their return home these people actually made the greatest profit of all the Hellenes, of whom we know it with accuracy ... ”( namely 60 talents, as can be seen from the Herodotus follows ).
This practice persisted at least into the Middle Ages , as Adam Smith suggests when quoted by Marx:
- "The inhabitants of the trading cities imported refined manufactured goods from rich countries - and expensive luxury items, thus offering food to the vanity of the great landowners who eagerly bought these goods and paid for them in large quantities of raw produce from their lands".
At the time of mercantilism , the rule of commercial capital within the bourgeoisie, Etienne-Bonnott de Condillac emphasized the subjective character of exchange value in his work "Le Commerce et le Gouvernement" in 1795 and traced it back to the personal judgment that was based on
- the usefulness and
- the rarity
of the goods. He even made a distinction between “present” and “future” needs, which is not surprising in view of the long transport times at the time. A similar determination can be found around the same time with the Italian economist Count Verri.
Today's meaning
In Germany , ideal value is often equated with lover's value . In the event of loss or damage in accordance with Section 251 of the German Civil Code, however, only the property damage actually incurred , which also includes the lost profit ( Section 252 of the German Civil Code) and the mercantile depreciation ( Section 249 of the German Civil Code).
Marxist theory of value
From the point of view of Marxism, at least one of the following two conditions must be met for an ideal value to appear :
- Either a more highly developed society meets a society of a lower cultural level and trades with it (e.g. glass beads for gold);
- a relatively highly developed society is not yet able or unwilling (or no longer) able to calculate the exchange value exactly.
See also
References and comments
- ↑ Compare this with the “vulgar economic” view that the value (not the price ) of a commodity is determined by its rarity, according to which non-existent commodities must have the highest value.
- ↑ Quoted from: Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” Volume I (MEW 23), page 139, continuation of footnote 80 from page 138, text edited
- ↑ see Aristotle 's demand for a fair price
- ↑ Karl Marx "Das Kapital" Volume III (MEW 25), page 343 (text edited)
- ↑ Herodotus "Historien" IV, 152 (text edited)
- ↑ Karl Marx "Das Kapital" Volume III (MEW 25) page 341 footnote 47 (text edited)
- ↑ According to Nikolai Bukharin “The misery of the subjective theory of values”, page 31
- ↑ Heinz Hübner, General Part of the Civil Code , 1996, p. 252