Format
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Reading Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year. This will repeat yearly until communism is achieved. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included, but comrades are welcome to set up other bookclubs.) This works out to about 6Β½ pages a day for a year, 46 pages a week.
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I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Discuss the week's reading in the comments.
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Use any translation/edition you like.
Resources
(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)
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Harvey's guide to reading it: https://www.davidharvey.org/media/Intro_A_Companion_to_Marxs_Capital.pdf
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A University of Warwick guide to reading it: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/worldlitworldsystems/hotr.marxs_capital.untilp72.pdf
This is really good.
In defining exchange value, you point to the way that commodities gain value but I think it could be a little more exact. Apologies in advance for emoji use but I find it easier to follow visually.
Exchange-value is a relation between two commodities, e.g. β2 π = 1 πβ. That entire equation is an exchange value. This equation implies two things:
That third thing, the common substance is value. Value is the thing being expressed in an exchange value.
As an analogy, instead of exchange value and value, think about weight and mass. Mass is the substance of an object which is expressed through its weight. When you put two objects on a scale, you abstract from the qualitative difference of the things and consider them only as masses.
thank you for the explanation! the emojis really did help πβ₯οΈπ
i know I'm skipping ahead in our reading here, but do we still use the term exchange value when talking about money?
When Marx wants to emphasize that he is talking about money in particular, he will use the term price (exchange value in terms of the money commodity). But he will sometimes write exchange value when that distinction does not matter. He has a helpful tendency to repeat things, so he might say βsuch and such is the price, or exchange value with respect to money, of so-and-soβ¦β