Understanding Marx's Capital, a critique of political economy Week 4. Extra reading 4a. Summary of weeks 1 to 4. Marx's aim in chapters 1 to 6 is to unravel the riddle of profit, and to establish the theoretical basis of moving from the level of markets and prices to investigating the organisation of labour.
Every capitalist aims to 'make money', and most capitalists do.
To know how we must understand how money represents commodities. The simple common-sense explanation is that price equals cost of production, that is, the value of the output of capitalist production equals the value of the inputs. The price is set at the level where supply equals demand. But then, also, profit would be inexplicable. The price is as high as it is because at any lower price, though demand would be higher, capitalists would not be ready to supply the goods.