Tauschwert

Tauschwert, or exchange value, is a concept in economics that describes the value of a good or service in relation to other goods in a market. It denotes the quantity of other commodities for which the item can be traded, i.e., the rate at which it is exchanged. This stands in contrast to Gebrauchswert, the use value or utility of the good, which is independent of its exchangeability. The term is common in German-language discussions of classical political economy and Marxian theory.

In classical economics, the Tauschwert of a commodity is linked to its value, defined as the socially necessary labor time required for its production. The Tauschwert of A in terms of B is the ratio Value(A)/Value(B). In Karl Marx's analysis, Tauschwert is the exchange ratio that emerges from the system of commodity production, though the underlying Wert is rooted in labor time. The concept helps distinguish what a good is worth when exchanged from its use or utility.

In a barter economy, Tauschwert is concrete: it is the actual number of units of one good exchanged for a unit of another. In a money-based economy, prices express the Tauschwert in monetary terms. Prices can diverge from the Tauschwert due to supply and demand, market imperfections, or monetary factors, so the observed price may differ from the pure labor-value ratio, though long-run tendencies may align with value-based explanations rather than purely marginal utility.

Tauschwert is thus a theoretical concept linking exchange ratios to underlying assessments of value; it complements, but is not identical to, price, value, and use value.