Price

Price is the actualisation of exchange-value, differing from one exchange to the next in response to a myriad of factors affecting the activity of exchange; secondly, price is the specific value-form, measuring the value of the commodity against money.

Specific price quantities are the products of competition between buyers and sellers of commodities. Since the goal of the capital owner is to maximize income in relation to the cost of production, a "perfect" market would entail that the market price of commodities would be perfectly equal to that of their cost of production. However, since markets are imperfect, market prices can fluctuate wildly in the short term, but generally tend towards that of the labour content. As such, prices can be described as the material expression of exchange-value, distorted by market imperfections.