For Marx, the law of value is more or less a general articulation of the specific regulatory mechanism of socially necessary labor-time, which is primarily focused on pressuring individual commodity production towards specific average standards via the allocation of the finite sums of social labor-time based on social need. While, the law of value, more or less, regulates the allocation of finite social labor-time based on social need over all spheres of production and the capitalist marketplace, in general. As a result, the law of value is like a homogenizing force the exerts it influence across all spheres of production, right down to the specific socially necessary labor-time that goes into specific branches of commodity production. The law of value, for Marx,“ is simply the same law that is already exhibited by the individual commodity”[ 60 ], translated on a broader scale. This overarching law of value regulates overall production and overall market value across all economic branches, based on overall social need, just as the specific mechanism of socially necessary labor-time regulates what is and is not socially necessary labor-time within individual production itself. In effect, the law of value regulates how much of the total labor-time within a society shall be allocated for each specific sphere of production and each specific commodity-process within these particular spheres. The law of value is the regulating mechanism of socially necessary labor-time on a broader scale. The law of value, according to Marx, dictates how much“ such-and-such a quantity of [ necessary labor-time ] is required in order to satisfy [ a ] social need”[ 61 ], pertaining to an individual commodity and / or a sphere of production, which is based on profit rates, average profits, social need, and what is and is not sold across all spheres of production. The law of value, for Marx, determines that“ under the given conditions of production, society can spend only so much of its total labor-time on one particular kind of product”[ 62 ]. As a result, the law of value is an expansion the specific mechanism of socially necessary labor-time across all spheres of production within capitalist society. The overarching law of value, structures production, consumption and distribution on a general societal scale. It determines necessary labor-time expenditures, what is produced, what is not produced, how things shall be produced, what average price specific species of commodities will possess, what rates of profit can be expected pertaining to individual spheres of production, and more importantly, where capital is apt to be invested throughout the multiple sectors of capitalist society.
In Marx’ s estimation, market prices over an extended period of time eventually congeal with their prices of production, i. e. market value, due to the fact that it is the law of value, lying behind the surface appearance of price and profit, which animates their fluctuations and slowly pulls price and profit into agreement with market value. As per Marx, it is“ the law of value [ that ] governs prices and their movement”[ 63 ]. It is not the reverse. As supply and demand diverge, and they tend to do, market price diverges from market value, i. e. price of production. Vice versa, according to Marx,“ if supply and demand coincide, the market price … corresponds to [ its ] price of production [, i. e. market value, and ] the inner laws of capitalist production”[ 64 ], that is, the regulating mechanism of socially necessary labortime.
Therefore, to paraphrase Marx, it is not price that determines the law of value, but the law of value itself, which is the mechanism of price determinations and fluctuations,“ any rise or fall in prices is an expression of … value”[ 65 ], meaning that behind the structure of prices lies the governing structure of value and / or value-production, expressed in the law of socially necessary labor-time and / or the law of value. It is value-production, i. e. the unseen structure of the law of value, which is the essence of the capitalist modes of production, consumption and distribution. In fact, it is value-production governed by the overarching mechanism of socially necessary labor-time, i. e. the law of value, which gives gravity to market values, i. e. prices of production, pressuring individual market prices through an autonomous gravitational pull to conform to average value / profit standards. Market values are able to exert an equalizing effect on market prices, according to Marx, because“ value and capital [ that is price ]… is determined … by the socially necessary labor-time required for [ their ] reproduction”[ 66 ], meaning that price, capital and / or value are constructed and composed of the same substance, namely labor. And labor