How does simple commodity production differ from capitalism?
Marx uses the formula C-M-C to describe the exchange of commodities under simple commodity production, also called petty commodity production. C denotes commodities and M denotes money. The formula C-M-C shows that money, that is, a commodity’s value form, intervenes in a process in which one set of use values is traded for another. Marx contrasts the role of money in simple commodity production with its role in the formula M-C-M. Here one finds the transformation of money into commodities, and the change of commodities back again into money; or buying in order to sell. Money that circulates in the latter manner [M-C-M] is thereby transformed into, becomes capital, and is already potentially capital. (Karl Marx 1867, Chapter IV) The merchant who buys a commodity in order to sell it again is trying to obtain more money than with which he began. Money, or more generally, the accumulation of capital has become a motive in itself. But what a trader gains in monetary value in a trade anothe
