Question

Why does Marx begin his analysis with the commodity? What is the consequence of bourgeois economists beginning with the population?

Answer 1

Marx begins his analysis with the commodity and this has been explained in the chapter of Marx book and the answer has been given in the chapter one , first two sentences of Chapter One: "The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as 'an immense collection of commodities,' the individual commodity appears as its elementary form. The investigation therefore begins with the analysis of a commodity."1 He begins with the commodity because it is the elementary form of wealth in capitalist society . because the commodity-form is the fundamental form of capital. If the commodity-form is the fundamental form of the class relation of capital, and if that form consists of the forcible creation of a situation in which the only access to social wealth (food, clothing, etc.) for workers is through the selling of their labor-power, then it follows that all the products of labor must perforce take on the commodity-form. This is simply because they must be sold to the working class to ensure its survival and growth. Since wealth for capital is nothing but the accumulation of labor and the products it produces, and since both labor and those products take the commodity-form in capital, then the individual commodity appears as the elementary form of that wealth.3

The major consequence of the burgeois economist beginning with population was that as Marx paid attention on the population and bought out the potential and their contribution in the economic development. So similar was the case with burgeois who categorized the population and bought out different studied related to it.