Question:

How should we understand the second form of value: B. The total or expanded form of value?

Answer:

Five jin of rice can be exchanged for more than just two garments; it has more than one exchange-value. We therefore have 5 jin of rice = 2 garments, or = 1 chicken, or = 10 jin of iron, or = 0.5 grams of gold, or = something else. Thus two garments, one chicken, ten jin of iron, and half a gram of gold are all exchange-values of five jin of rice. This is B. The total or expanded form of value.

In this form of value, note that the value of five jin of rice is not determined by these different exchange ratios. On the contrary, those ratios are determined by converting the amounts of value contained in the various commodities into equivalents of the value of five jin of rice. The claim that "exchange determines value" is therefore wrong. Cattle and sheep north of the frontier and coral from the South China Sea may never have been exchanged, but we can still determine what exchange ratio should apply if they were.

"Whether the value of the linen is expressed in coats, coffee, iron, or innumerable other different commodities belonging to different owners, it always remains the same in magnitude. The accidental relation between two individual commodity owners disappears. It is evident that exchange does not regulate the magnitude of a commodity's value; on the contrary, the magnitude of its value regulates its exchange ratios. (79)"