Value, Money and Capital in Hegel and Marx

Abstract

Some years ago I was surprised to receive a package in the mail from a former student.¹ It took me a moment to recognize what was inside, a green ceramic ΔM. I had a good laugh. From our study of Capital, the student had gotten the idea loud and clear how preoccupied Marx is with ΔM, or what he calls ‘surplus value’. In thinking over Hegel’s treatment of property, contracts of exchange and civil society in the Philosophy of Right and earlier writings, I am struck by a simple fact: Hegel just does not seem to be interested in ΔM.² Hegel is aware that ‘gain’ or ‘profit’ motivate what he calls the ‘reflective estate’ of trade and industry. And he recognizes that civil society is naturally expansive, with firms developing products and technologies in order to accumulate wealth. But the topic of surplus value simply does not move Hegel on grounds either of science — where does ΔM come from? — or social justice — what justification can be offered for ΔM?