Abstract
This study explores the principle of numeration of value as a problem in the theoretical standpoint of economics, and in the process of the examination re-considers Marxian labor theory of value critically. Numerical value is determined at a market, and value changes depending on measures. Then, we present a new principle of numeration of value wherein profits are added at exchange. Profit at exchange is unobservable and absolutely indivisible from value, but was not included in Marx’s conception of economics. Profit at exchange implies that labor is not the sole origin of surplus value. Then the long-standing transformation problem is settled. Next, examining prices as a structure from structuralism, we refer to the point where the value turns into prices as a singular point. In the singular point, value and prices are discontinuous. Our analysis concludes that a price is not a natural phenomenon but an artifact of human culture.
Keywords : Transformation problem, Fundamental Marxian Theorem, Measurement, Profit at Exchange, Structuralism, Retroactive Causal Recognition
JEL codes : A13, B14, B40