But value does appear in forms other than money. In a society where exchange is common, products come to have a dual character as use values and as values. This law of the conservation of value is of the utmost importance in grasping Marx’s use of the theory of value in analyzing capitalist production.When we apply the idea of value separate from price to transactions involving money, the concept of the value of money, the ratio of total labor time to total value added, plays a central role. Only with this convention for defining the value of money will we be able consistently to.