In a famous passage in the first volume of Capital, Marx wrote:
“The sphere of circulation, or of exchange of commodities, within which labor power is bought and sold, is in very truth a veritable Eden of the natural rights of man. There reign only freedom, equality, property, and Bentham. Freedom, because the buyer and seller of a commodity, say labor power for example, are not moved by anything but their own wills. They make a contract, as free persons, equal in rights. The contract is the form in which they give to a joint legal expression to their common will Equality, because they relate to each other as owners of commodities, and they exchange equivalent for equivalent. Property, because each disposes only of his own. Bentham, because each looks out only for himself. The only motive that brings them together and defines their relationship is their selfishness, their own advantage, their private interests. And just because each looks out only for himself, and neither has concern for the other, due to a pre-established harmony, or under the guidance of a most ingenious providence, all work for the sake of each other´s advantage, for the common good, for the general interest.”
We know that in this passage Marx is ironic. He is not giving praiseworthy examples modeling human rights and duties as human rights and duties ought to be. He does not mean that the prevailing jurisprudence stemming from the Roman maxim pacta sunt servandum, i.e. contracts should be enforced, which defines the obligations of buyers and sellers in a commercial society, is to be regarded as a source of paragons demonstrating what social norms ought to require of citizens, and would require of them in a good society. Marx. This does not mean that the good is defined or served by an ideal of freedom that prescribes that each is to look only to his or her self-interest.
Marx´s whole career and work tell us that he did not mean any of the things that he here says. We know that he believes that in a good society the social norms governing access to resources would not be the Roman law of suum cuique, to each his own, that underlay the concepts of private property found in all European legal systems in the mid nineteenth century when Marx wrote. We know too that Marx believed that in a good society the mutual obligations governing human relationships would not be limited to those prescribed by contract law. In the passage quoted the legal principles governing the buying and selling of labor power are examples of what should not be, not examples of what should be.
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