THE FETISHISM OF THE EQUIVALENT AND MONEY FORM IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF “THE CAPITAL” BY KARL MARX

Abstract

Throughout this text we will try to elucidate the basis and the manifestation of the fetishism of the commodity as it appears in the first chapter of Capital. The process of constituting the relationship between the relative form of value and the equivalent form culminates in the universal citizenship of the money form. The equivalent form goes through a successive movement of metamorphoses that culminates in the fetishism of money. The fetishism of money is preceded by fetishism in the equivalent form that sheds its skin and becomes the universal equivalent of all commodities. Thus, the social hieroglyph whose core is the commodity is unveiled from the analysis of its internal movement in the midst of the social relationship based on the system of capital. To operate the critical investigation of the anatomy of the fetishism of merchandise and money, the research loans presented by Jadir Antunes in his article, “Marx and the fetish of the money merchandise”, will be used.