搜寻、发现劳动与价值创造——兼论成为商品的自然资源的价值决定

The Work of Searching and Discovering and Value Creation——On Value Determination of Natural Resources as Commodities

长期以来,关于自然资源是否有价值的问题,学术界存在很大分歧。一些人坚持认为,自然资源是天然的使用价值,不是劳动产品,没有价值;另一些人则认为,自然资源有价值,这是由自然资源的稀缺性和效用决定的。人们普遍忽视了作为商品的自然资源中所体现的搜寻和发现劳动。其实,作为商品的自然资源与其他劳动产品一样,也是有价值的。这些自然资源的价值也是人类抽象劳动的凝结,只不过自然资源的价值量是由搜寻和发现自然资源的社会必要劳动时间决定的。这是因为,当自然资源成为商品时,搜寻和发现自然资源的私人劳动就成了社会劳动的一部分,单位商品资源中所包含的一般人类劳动就成为平均的社会必要劳动。

For a long time whether natural resources have value has been a controversial issue in the academic circle. Some hold that since natural resources are natural and not products of labor, they do not have value. Others claim that natural resources have value because of their scarcity and utility. The authors maintain that people have generally neglected the work of searching and discovering before natural resources can become commodities. As a matter of fact, like any other products of labor, natural resources as commodities have value. Their value comes from man＇s abstract labor. The magnitude of value of natural resources is determined by the hours of socially necessary labor in searching and discovering the natural resources, because the work of individuals to search and to discover has become part of social labor. Therefore, the general human labor in a unit of the commodity resource turns to be the average socially necessary labor.