Exchange-value’ is a key term in Marxist economics. It is contrasted with ‘use-value’. The use-value of a pound of sugar is its power to satisfy people’s desires for something sweet. The exchange-value of a pound of sugar might be, in a certain time and place, two pounds of potatoes or, expressed in terms of money, say, £1. Use-values therefore exist independently of a market or any other system of exchange: exchange-values do not.
