Definition
The concept is formulated more precisely when Marx considers the reproduction and distribution of the national income (see e.g. his manuscript called "Results of the Immediate Process of Production", available in English in the Pelican edition of Das Kapital), and also online; and the last chapters of Das Kapital Volume 3).
Marx wrote this in 1864, i.e. about 70 years or so before the first comprehensive Gross National Product and Capital Formation statistics were pioneered by the likes of Wassily Leontief, Richard Stone, Simon Kuznets and Colin Clark (the United Nations standard accounting system was first finalised in 1953). Marx's manuscript for Das Kapital Vol. 3 ends with a discussion of "relations of distribution", but he did not live to complete his analysis. In outline his approach is quite clear however.
Marx called Gross Output (or the total value of output sales) the "value of production" ("VPn").
If variable capital paid, circulating constant capital consumed, fixed capital consumed, and surplus value produced, then:
- Gross Output
and
- true new value added
So, Marx's "value product" really expressed his view of the true total new value added or the net product. In his view, this total is equal to the value of wage payments + surplus value, the latter which would include, apart from net profit, interest and rent, the net tax levy and royalty-type fees paid in respect of incomes generated by production of output, plus the surplus-value component of unsold inventories of new output. Marx himself never discussed taxation and royalty-income in detail; they were only a small portion of the total national income when he lived (around 5-10% or so).
Read more about this topic: Value Product
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