Conclusion:

From the study, it is easy to conclude that Corn Vendors who sell corn are merchant capitalists. This is due to the fact that they do not sell corn, which they produce, but rely on someone else, specifically the farmers to produce the corn in order for them to purchase it from them, then sell it to consumers later on. This is the operating framework of a merchant capitalist, one who purchases corn at a certain price from the fundamental class, in order just to sell it to third party consumers at a price higher than the cost of purchase in order to gain from the margin. No change or modification has been made to the product, making the merchant capitalist just a hub from which the product passes through. In deed, as like a lot of products, Corn is a merchant capitalist commodity. Since history can tell, merchants have existed buying products from one end of the world in order to sell it to another end with a higher price. This results in the merchant earning from products or commodities, which can be sold at a higher price that gives them the opportunity to earn from the margin. Corn, as seen from our interviews, is that type of merchant capitalist commodity, which the merchant capitalist who are the corn vendors have been selling along Katipunan Avenue for over twenty years. It is important to note that in the world today, when people talk about Capitalism, it usually is equated to better standards of living due to the rise of businessmen who can get products or raw materials at the lowest cost, usually

through China, and sell them to different parts of the world at a price in competition but usually lower than their existing commodities or products. However, this is evidently not the case with the corn vendors. Even if they are capitalists earning through the margin, they do not actually have better living standards. This is shown by the fact that they have to loan money monthly from third parties, as well as that during low seasons, they do actually starve if they do not have enough money to buy food for their own personal sustenance. This shows that despite the glamour and popularity of capitalism in the world today and its advertised benefits, it seems to not be able to earn sufficient gain for these corn vendors. It can be hypothesized to be the case for these vendors because they should be more ambitious enough with pricing, since they prefer to absorb the cost even in peak seasons than loose customers, which should not be the case if they know how to properly package and market their product during these expensive peak seasons. Another good point to consider is in the idea of the circuit of capital formula, that based on this, one realizes is that there is a cap to how much Delta M a merchant, firm or any person can reinvest in the business for them to remain profitable. This is so because invested capital that is used for purchase of commodities, which are later on sold to, others are subject to the Realization problem. The Realization problem revolves around the fact that in order for merchants to be able to earn the profit taken from the margin of selling the product at a higher cost, the merchant has to make sure that the product is realized which means that the consumers have to purchase their commodities. This becomes a concern in the long run if consumers decide not to purchase their commodities,

creating a dead weight loss to the investment of capital that the merchant has placed in. We can say that there are also two main problems that merchants look into as well, which the group believes corn vendors do as well. The first is capital accumulation, where in they store up too much capital that is just stagnant and not gaining more capital. The problem here is merchants have to balance investing capital as well as saving the capital as the realization problem may kick in as a big consideration whether it is good to invest more or to invest less. The second concern is the concentration of capital. Here merchants of existing markets feel a chance of other new merchants who will accumulate capital in order to concentrate and buying a certain product at the lowest cost possible and in bulk, which will try or be able to kill other competitors. Thus, merchants always have to look out for the competition from others who may be able to find ways to get say for example, corn, at the lowest price possible due to concentrating a lot of capital in buying this commodity in a bigger bulk size than them, which gets them better corn rates. Throughout the research, it is evidently manifested that Marxian theory provides valuable insight that may not have been noticed if operations were analyzed using the Neoclassical approach. As noted in the content of the paper, one big difference of these two theories is the way they look into cause and effect. For Neoclassics, cause and effect is a one-way stream, such that an element is just a cause and cannot be an effect and vice versa, this is usually termed the economic approach. However, Marxists believe otherwise, wherein every process and aspect within society is overdetermined, which means that they are both the cause and

effects of each other, creating a circular flow of change and progression within our society. This is evidently seen within the processes of the corn vendor, Such that the processes they do are the causes for others but also could be the effects of another. Despite this, one can say that Neoclassical theory is still an integral part of the Marxian analysis used on this paper. On the surface, Marxists can say that one has to consider neoclassical theory because as said, the analysis of Marx is also overdetermined by having neoclassical theory, which is a present process and framework in society as both a cause and effect to how Marxists formulate their findings. This is quite true, because for Neoclassicals, consumer preferences determine, at large, how they manage their surplus and strategies for business expansion. This is also an influencing factor in the processes of thinkers when evaluating certain processes in society and their relation to Marx. In conclusion, it is affirmed that every aspect in society and every process is overdetermined, this includes the corn vendors, who encompass a small portion of the many processes within societies, but at the same time, becomes both a cause and effect for other players and processes within society today.