Property-20.

Private property arose in opposition not only
to feudal property, but also to traditional forms
of the gift economy, which were a fetter to the
increased productivity of the commodity economy.
Qualitative, gift exchange was superseded by
quantified, monetised exchange. Money is the
medium through which land, capital, information
and labour all confront each other as abstract
entities, reduced to an abstract plane of measurement.
The gift becomes a marginal form of property,
everywhere invaded by the commodity, and turned
towards mere consumption. The gift is marginal,
but nevertheless plays a vital role in cementing
reciprocal and communal relations among people
who otherwise can only confront each other as buyer
and sellers of commodities. As vectoral production
develops, the means appear for the renewal of the
gift economy. Everywhere that the vector reaches,
it brings into the orbit of the commodity. But
everywhere the vector reaches, it also brings with
it the possibility of the gift relation.

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p019 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p020w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p021

v?