Equivalent Form

One of the forms of appearance of value of the commodity exchange, i.e., the form that allows for direct exchange with another commodity. It is in the position of “the commodity in which value is expressed” in the same expression of value, and constitutes the other pole in opposition to the pole of the relative form of value. The equivalent form and the relative form of value are two moments which belong together, mutually condition each other, but, at the same time, they are mutually exclusive or opposite extremes.

Under the conditions of private property commodity economy, commodities in the equivalent form have three major characteristics: (1) use-value becomes the form of appearance of its opposite, i.e., value. Value is the human labor in general congealed in the commodity, which can neither be seen nor touched. A commodity in the equivalent form expresses the value of another commodity not in terms of its value, but in terms of the natural form of the tangible body of the commodity, i.e., its use-value. (2) Concrete labor becomes the form of appearance of its opposite, i.e., abstract labor. The use-value of a commodity, which serves as an equivalent, is the product of a certain concrete labor. (3) Private labor becomes the form of its opposite, i.e., labor in the immediate social form, and private labor manifests itself as immediate social labor.

The form of value develops as the commodity economy develops, and to the extent that it develops itself, its extremes, i.e., the relative form of value and the equivalent form, develop with it.