Editing Simple commodity production (section)

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'''Simple commodity production''' ({{langx|de|einfache Warenproduktion}}, also translated as '''petty commodity production'''), is a term coined by [[Friedrich Engels]] in 1894 when he had compiled and edited the third volume of Marx's ''Capital''.<ref>[[Friedrich Engels]], "Preface" to Karl Marx, ''Capital, Volume 3'', London: Penguin classics, 1991, p. 103.</ref> It refers to productive activities under the conditions of what [[Karl Marx]] had called the "simple exchange" or "simple circulation" of [[Commodity (Marxism)|commodities]], where independent producers trade their own products to obtain other products of equivalent value. The use of the adjective ''simple'' is not intended to refer to the nature of the producers or of their production,<ref>Jacques M. Chevalier, "There is nothing simple about simple commodity production". ''The Journal of Peasant Studies'', Vol. 10, No. 4, 1983, pp. 153-186.</ref> but rather to the relatively simple and straightforward exchange processes involved, from an economic perspective.

As discussed below, both [[Karl Marx]] and [[Engels]] claimed explicitly that the [[law of value]] applied also to simple exchange, and that the operation of this law is modified (or, as Marx sometimes says, "inverted") by the [[capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]] when all the inputs and outputs of production (including [[means of production]] and [[labor power|labour power]]) become tradeable commodities. Many classical economists were aware of differences between simple commodity exchange and capitalist exchange, but they could not explain the historical transformation of the one into the other. Sometimes their theories confused simple commodity trade with capitalist commodity trade.

According to Marx and Engels, simple commodity production and trade existed for millennia before the advent of industrial capitalism.<ref>Karl Marx, ''Capital, Volume I'', Penguin ed., 1976, pp. 89–90; [[Eric J. Hobsbawm]] (ed.), ''Karl Marx: Pre-capitalist economic formations''. New York: International Publishers, 2007; Friedrich Engels, ''Supplement and addendum to Volume 3 of Capital'', p. 1037 in Karl Marx, ''Capital, Volume 3''. London: Penguin ed., 1991; [[Ernest Mandel]], ''Marxist Economic Theory''. London: Merlin Press, 1968, chapter 2.</ref> From the beginnings of the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois epoch]] in 15th century Europe,<ref>Marx and Engels considered that the "bourgeois epoch" began in 15th century Europe, but in some European countries, the scope of commerce and trade around that time was more developed than in others. Characteristic is the formation of a (mainly urban) bourgeois class of businessmen.</ref> the reach and scope of commodity production began to grow incrementally, although sometimes this process was interrupted by wars, epidemic diseases, power relations and natural disasters. Only with the growth of free [[wage labour]] is commodity production generalized (''verallgemeinert'') to most of the economy, and fully integrated into national and international markets. Obviously, this market growth ''also'' required institutions, conventions and rules, so that the competing [[bourgeois|burghers]] could resolve their trade disputes fairly and efficiently, without destroying the markets and destroying people's livelihoods; through learning from experience as well as from the invention and widespread adoption of new ideas, a "market culture" gradually evolved to make that possible.<ref>Maarten Prak & [[Jan Luiten van Zanden]], ''Pioneers of capitalism: the Netherlands 1000-1800. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023''.</ref> [[Civil society]] could not be "civil", if the burghers defied all religion and authority, and resolved their trading disputes by robbing, physically attacking and killing each other.

Originally production for market sale existed alongside [[Subsistence economy|subsistence]] production (see also [[natural economy]]). That continued for millennia until [[urbanization]], [[Merchant|merchant trade]] and [[industrialization]] began to take off. Through the last six centuries, the share of commodity production in total output grew more and more, together with productivity growth and population growth. It grew steeply in the 19th and 20th centuries, until production for the market represented the largest part of total output value in the majority of countries.<ref>[[Angus Maddison]], ''The world economy: a milennnial perspective''. Paris: OECD, 2006, p. 30; ''Our world in data'' website, "Global average GDP per capita over the long run". World Bank: Maddison database, 2023;[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-average-gdp-per-capita-over-the-long-run#reuse-this-work] Eric D. Beinhocker, ''The origin of wealth. Evolution, complexity, and the radical remaking of economics''. London: Random House, 2007, p. 10. Standard national accounting systems such as [[UNSNA]] provide data for the market and non-market sectors of the national economy, as well as for corporate and non-corporate enterprises.</ref>

To explain this lengthy historical process, Marx and Engels took a nuanced approach. They did not argue crudely that economic categories can only be ''either'' "transhistorical categories" ''or'' "categories specific to one historical period". Instead, they argued that economic categories can and do ''evolve'' from one historical epoch to the next, along with the evolution of the social relations which they express. Transitional phases and forms occurred, and continuities co-existed with discontinuities. Marx and Engels were both very aware that historically there existed ''gradations'' of market integration, and that the achievement of full market integration was a very lengthy and complex historical process. The challenge was to understand dialectically, how the new economic relations could evolve out of the old ones - by retaining some of their content, losing some content, and also gaining some completely new content. Historically, the simple production and exchange of commodities evolved, it took different forms, and showed varying degrees of sophistication.