General Equivalent

At a certain stage of the development of the relations of commodity exchange, the commodity that is set apart from the world of commodities to express the value of all other commodities. According to Marx’s analysis of the forms of value, the relations of commodity exchange undergo different stages: the simple form of value, the expanded form of value, the general form of value and the money form. In the expanded form of value, there has been a change in the previous barter between various commodities, and a relation has been formed in which one specific commodity is used to express the value of all other commodities within a certain period of time and in a certain place. Such a commodity then becomes the general equivalent. For example, linen can be used as a general equivalent. All commodities can be exchanged by using linen as long as they are exchangeable with linen. Now, the general equivalent is not attached to one commodity, so that different commodities can be switched to as general equivalents at different times. With the development of the relations of commodity exchange, the general equivalent began increasingly to be attached to one commodity such as gold. Money is a commodity that is fixed to serve as a general equivalent.