In Karl Marx’s view, the advent of the industrial revolution transformed the bourgeoisie from self-employed businessmen, such as merchants, entrepreneurs, and bankers, into the economic ruling class of capitalists. The capitalist class owns the means of production (i.e., the capital and land necessary for large-scale production) and use their dominant position to exploit workers for profit.

Capital is made up of “the means of subsistence, the instruments of labour, [and] the raw materials” (WLaC, 25-26) that enable the capitalist mode of production to reproduce itself through the extraction of surplus labor and value.

A commodity is any good or raw material that can be exchanged for any other good or raw material under the capitalist mode of production. This includes money, which allows for the easier exchange of different commodities. For Marx, a commodity is produced for the purpose of exchange, and not for immediate use by the individual who made it. This makes commodities inherently social: They fulfill a social need or want, and the labor that produces them is part of the larger division of labor that makes up society.