Man’sreflectionsontheformsofsociallife，andconsequently，also，hisscientificanalysisofthoseforms，takeacoursedirectlyoppositetothatoftheiractualhistoricaldevelopment。Hebegins，postfestum，withtheresultsoftheprocessofdevelopmentreadytohandbeforehim。
Thecharactersthatstampproductsascommodities，andwhoseestablishmentisanecessarypreliminarytothecirculationofcommodities，havealreadyacquiredthestabilityofnatural，self—understoodformsofsociallife，beforemanseekstodecipher，nottheirhistoricalcharacter，forinhiseyestheyareimmutable，buttheirmeaning。Consequentlyitwastheanalysisofthepricesofcommoditiesthataloneledtothedeterminationofthemagnitudeofvalue，anditwasthecommonexpressionofallcommoditiesinmoneythataloneledtotheestablishmentoftheircharactersasvalues。
Itis，however，justthisultimatemoney—formoftheworldofcommoditiesthatactuallyconceals，insteadofdisclosing，thesocialcharacterofprivatelabour，andthesocialrelationsbetweentheindividualproducers。
WhenIstatethatcoatsorbootsstandinarelationtolinen，becauseitistheuniversalincarnationofabstracthumanlabour，theabsurdityofthestatementisself—evident。Nevertheless，whentheproducersofcoatsandbootscomparethosearticleswithlinen，or，whatisthesamething，withgoldorsilver，astheuniversalequivalent，theyexpresstherelationbetweentheirownprivatelabourandthecollectivelabourofsocietyinthesameabsurdform。
Thecategoriesofbourgeoiseconomyconsistofsuchlikeforms。Theyareformsofthoughtexpressingwithsocialvaliditytheconditionsandrelationsofadefinite，historicallydeterminedmodeofproduction，viz。，theproductionofcommodities。Thewholemysteryofcommodities，allthemagicandnecromancythatsurroundstheproductsoflabouraslongastheytaketheformofcommodities，vanishestherefore，sosoonaswecometootherformsofproduction。