What is the key distinction between Smith’s “embodied labor” and “commanded labor” concepts of value?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Let's examine each answer option in turn to see how well it aligns with Smith's concepts of embodied labor and commanded (or embodied and commanding) labor.
Option 1: 'Embodied labor refers to the managerial oversight required in production, while commanded labor reflects the technical efficiency of machinery.' This misrepresents the terms. Embodied labor is not defined by managerial oversight, nor is commanded labor about machinery efficiency. The concepts focus on labor content in production and the value conveyed through exchange, not on management or machinery alone.
Option 2: 'Embodied labor is relevant only in barter economies, while commanded labor emerges once money becomes a medium of exchange.' This is incorrect because the distinction between embodied and commanded labor is not limited to the presence or absence of money. These concepts appear in discussions of value and price formation regardless of whether barter or monetary exchange is used; the framework is about the labor content and the purchasing power of that labor, not the monetary system.
Option 3: 'Embodied labor reflects the subjective effort experienced by the producer, while commanded labor captures the buyer’s perceived effort to obtain goods.' This option confuses the directional focus of the terms. Embodied labor is about the amount of labor embodied in the production of a commodity (the labor content), not merely the producer’s subjective experience. Commanded labor relates to the amount of labor that the commodity can command in exchange, i.e., the purchasing power of that labor for others, not the buyer’s subjective effort per se.
Option 4: 'Embodied labor refers to the labor content used to produce a commodity, while commanded labor refers to how much labor that commodity can purchase in exchange.' This aligns with the standard distinction: embodied labor is the actual quantity of labor embedded in a commodity through production, whereas commanded (or exchange) value reflects how much labor the commodity can command in the market, i.e., the amount of labor that its sale can purchase. This captures the directional and relational difference between the two concepts.
In summary, the first three options misinterpret or misstate the scope and focus of embodied versus commanded labor, while the fourth option correctly identifies embodied labor as the labor content embedded in production and commanded labor as the labor the commodity can command in exchange, matching Smith’s framework.

ECON 5080-090 Summer 2025 Week 2 - Quiz

What is the key distinction between Smith’s “embodied labor” and “commanded labor” concepts of value?

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