Following Wieser's “Natural Value,” Businessmen, Like a Socialist Planning Board, Could Theoretically Do Without Money Prices and Perform Their Calculations Directly in Terms of Value

Wieser’s view was rooted in his theory of the relationship between value and prices. Recall that Wieser believed that economic value is subject to arithmetic operations, just as money prices are used in the calculations of businessmen. Thus, there is in this respect no fundamental difference between value and price. Prices are merely “objective exchange value”—they are “subjective exchange value” made visible. Businessmen could theoretically do without money prices and perform their calculations directly in terms of value and so could a socialist planning board. This is still a widely held view among economic laymen. Wieser’s achievement was to give a sophisticated presentation of this view and to develop it through the doctrine of his second book, with the telling title Der natürliche Werth (Natural Value).

--Jörg Guido Hülsmann, Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007), 158.