Quiz: Value, Price and Profit

14 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. 1. According to Marx, how does the capitalist normally make his profit?

   By buying raw materials below their value By selling commodities at their value, which contains unpaid labour By cheating his customers on weights, measures and the quality of goods By selling commodities above their value, adding a fixed profit on top
2. 2. According to Marx, what is the lasting result of a general rise in the rate of wages?

   A rise in rents at the expense of profits A general fall in the rate of profit, with no permanent change in prices A fall in the amount of national production A general rise in the prices of all commodities, with profits unchanged
3. 3. After the power-loom halved the time needed, what did twenty hours of a hand-loom weaver’s labour represent?

   Only ten hours of socially necessary labour Forty hours, because of his greater effort Twenty hours of socially necessary labour No value at all
4. 4. According to Edward Aveling’s preface, which of these was part of his own contribution to the edition?

   Translating the paper from German Writing the footnotes on Weston Dividing the paper into chapters and naming them Finding the manuscript among Engels’s papers
5. 5. Weston’s simile reminds Marx of which ancient figure?

   Spartacus Menenius Agrippa Tiberius Gracchus Cicero
6. 6. What does Marx say the Ten Hours Bill amounted to?

   A sudden and compulsory rise of wages in the leading industries A measure that ruined English industry, as Senior predicted A fall of wages imposed by the employers A tax on factory profits
7. 7. According to Marx, what does a man who makes an article for his own consumption create?

   Surplus value A commodity, but not a value A product, but not a commodity A value, but not a price
8. 8. To what does Marx compare the demand for equal or equitable pay on the basis of the wages system?

   Clamouring for freedom on the basis of slavery Expecting a rise in wages to raise all prices equally Building a house on sand Asking the sea to stand still
9. 9. Why, according to Marx, were wages relatively high in the United States?

   Immigration had stopped American law fixed a minimum wage in every state of the Union American unions were stronger and better organized than British ones Wage-labourers kept turning into independent farmers
10. 10. What should workers inscribe on their banner instead of “A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work!”?

    “The land for the people!” “Abolition of the wages system!” “Eight hours for work!” “Workers of the world, unite!”
11. 11. From what supposition does Marx say profit must be explained?

    That commodities are, on average, sold at their real values That money loses value over time That workers are always made to buy commodities below their values That capitalists sell commodities above their values, adding a profit
12. 12. What did the anonymous author of An Essay on Trade call the workhouses he proposed?

    Houses of Terror Houses of Correction Houses of Order Houses of Industry
13. 13. Whose “great merit” was it to destroy the fallacy that wages determine prices?

    David Ricardo Thomas Malthus John Stuart Mill Adam Smith
14. 14. How, according to Marx’s general law, do the values of commodities relate to the productive powers of labour?

    They depend only on wages, not productivity They vary directly with them, rising as they rise They vary inversely with them They are unaffected by them