Profit is the transmuted form of surplus-value. As Marx said, in its capacity of offspring of the aggregate advanced capital, surplus-value takes the transmuted form of profit. In the process of capitalist production, there is not any essential difference between the constant capital used for the means of production and the variable capital used for the purchase of labor-power in the capital advanced in the eyes of the capitalist; both are regarded by him as the cost-price of the produced commodities, and both are capable of bringing him surplus-value. Thus, for the capitalist, the three component parts of the original value of the commodity: c + v + m becomes (c + v) + m, with (c + v) as its cost-price. if a commodity is sold at its value, a profit is realized which is equal to the excess of its value over its cost-price, and therefore equal to the entire surplus-value incorporated in the value of the commodity…
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