“Start to Finish” is a series where I bring you through the entire process of production for a handcrafted item in my shop.

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For December, we are looking at the “Autumn Holly” colorway for the Busy Body Book Cover.

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Each “Start to Finish” video will feature an excerpt from a book I’m reading as it relates to commodity production and trade, the role of fiber arts in American history, or environmental history and ethics. Today’s video features an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Karl Marx’s “Capital.”

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Thanks for watching!

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Music: https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videos

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Artist: : Aventure

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Excerpt Reading

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Karl Marx, Capital

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Commodities

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The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as “an immense" accumulation of commodities,” its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.

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A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference. Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.

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Every useful thing, as iron, paper, etc. may be looked at from the two points of view of quality and quantity. It is an assemblage of many properties, and may therefore be of use in various ways. To discover the various uses of things is the work of history. So also is the establishment of socially-recognized standards of measure for the quantities of these useful objects. The diversity of these measures has its origin partly in the diverse nature of the objects to be measured, partly in convention.

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Use Value

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The utility of a thing makes it a use value. But this utility is not a thing of air. Being limited by the physical properties of the commodity, it has no existence apart from that commodity. A commodity, such as iron, corn, or a diamond, is therefore, so far as it is a material thing, a use value, something useful. This property of a commodity is independent of the amount of labor required to appropriate its useful qualities.

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These Busy Body Book Covers’ utility is that they can hold a book and highlighters, pens, pencils, and/or sticky notes. Beyond this, the use value of the cotton is its capacity to build up to a fabric in order to make these book covers. Apart from the cotton, and the sewn-together final piece, these different components—the yarn, the thread, the interfacing, etc.—have no particular use value. It requires labor to put these things together into a form that creates a use value.

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When treating of use value, we always assume to be dealing with definite quantities, such as dozens of watches, yards of linen, or tons of iron. The use values of commodities furnish the material for a special study, that of the commercial knowledge of commodities. Use values become a reality only by use or consumption: they also constitute the substance of all wealth, whatever may be the social form of that wealth. In the form of society we are about to consider, they are, in addition, the material depositories of exchange value.

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In other words, when we consider the use value of a product, we are considering the fact that, in my case, approximately 1400 yards of cotton makes roughly 2 yards of fabric, a roughly 9” x 13” cut of interfacing and lining and unknown yards of thread. Those are the definite quantities. However, these things only become useful as the book cover once they are actually used by someone. Finally, it is the fact that they contain this potential for use value, and that the book cover is made up of all these components—plus labor—that creates the exchange value.

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Exchange Value

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Exchange value, at first sight, presents itself as a quantitative relation, as the proportion in which values in use of one sort are exchanged for those of another sort, a relation constantly changing with time and place. Hence exchange value appears to be something accidental and purely relative, and consequently an intrinsic value, i.e., an exchange value that is inseparably connected with, inherent in commodities, seems a contradiction in terms. Let us consider the matter a little more closely.

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The fact that exchange value changes constantly, relative to time and place, is a matter greater than any individual. Concerning time, the most obvious and pertinent example is that of inflation. For example, as the US has overextended its imperial arms, its currency, the dollar, continues to lose value, making things more expensive. With regard to place, this can be seen in things like cost of living and wages. Connecticut is one of the most expensive states to live in the country, so my cost of living—and therefore my wage—is going to differ from someone living elsewhere. We can also consider the industry of fast fashion and broader convenience. Our corporations have shipped their production overseas because it is easier to exploit workers in Global South countries. By paying them less, big corporations’ goods become cheaper. This is why locally made, entirely hand-crafted, non-industrial goods can be more ethical, yet more expensive, than things purchased from Amazon, Temu, or Shein. Exploitation lowers the dollar price, but significantly increases the ethical price.

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Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy learning along with me.

Tune in to the next Start-to-Finish shopcast episode for more behind-the-scenes looks at handwoven textile production, and to learn more about Marx’s theory of capitalism.