The process by which something which was not a commodity before in market economy and is made into a commodity is known as:-
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Commoditisation
Option (1) Commoditisation — Correct. Commoditisation, or commodification, occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become commodities. Labour and skills become things that can be bought and sold. Bottled water is an everyday example: a generation ago nobody thought drinking water could be sold, and now it is marketed under countless brand names.
Option (2) Capitalism — Incorrect. Capitalism is a whole economic and social system: Marx understood it as commodity production, or production for the market, through wage labour. Its growth carries markets into new spheres of life, but the name of that process is commoditisation, not capitalism.
Option (3) Labour power — Incorrect. Labour power is the capacity to work that workers sell in the market to earn a wage. It is one of the things that become a commodity under capitalism, not the process itself.
Option (4) Mode of production — Incorrect. A mode of production is the way an economy is organised; each consists of particular relations of production, which give rise to a specific class structure. The capitalist mode is one such system, not the process of turning things into commodities.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.2 Understanding Capitalism as a Social System … Marx understood capitalism as a system of commodity production, or production for the market, through the use of wage labour. As you have already learned, Marx wrote that all economic systems are also social systems. Each mode of production consists of particular relations of production, which in turn give rise to a specific class structure. He emphasised that the economy does not consist of things (goods circulating in the market), but is made up of relations between people who are connected to one another through the process of production. Under the capitalist mode of production, labour itself becomes a commodity, because workers must sell their labour power in the market to earn a wage.…” “4.2 Understanding Capitalism as a Social System … The growth of capitalism around the world has meant the extension of markets into places and spheres of life that were previously untouched by this system. Commodification occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become commodities. For instance, labour or skills become things that can be bought and sold. According to Marx and other critics of capitalism, the process of commodification has negative social effects.…” “Activity 4.2 … Commoditisation or commodification – these are big words that sound very complicated. But the process they refer to is a familiar one and it is present in our everyday life. Here is a common example – bottled water.…” |