The theory that the value of a commodity is created by undifferentiated human labor congealed in that commodity, i.e., abstract labor. The thought that value is created by labor was first put forth by the British economist William Petty. Adam Smith and David Ricardo also made significant contributions to the labor theory of value. But the classical school of labor theory of value did not solve the problem of what labor creates value and how it creates value. Moreover, they have not consistently carried through the labor value theory to the end. Marx made a revolutionary transformation of the bourgeois classical school’s labor theory of value and founded the scientific labor theory of value. The Marxist labor theory of value is the theoretical basis not only for the theory of surplus-value, but for the entire Marxist edifice…
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