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age-Labor
and
Capital
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John Waltar, 82 Falrvrew Av
WAGE-LABOR and CAPITAL
BY
KARL MARX
Wr.H AN APPENDIX BY FREDERICK ENCELS. TRANSLATED BY J. L. JOYNES.
vancouver, b.c. The Whitehkad Estate.
95720
PROPERTY OF THE liERARY UNIVERSITY OF WATERIOO
This series of pamphlets is published for the Socialist Party of Canada, under the tenns of the bequest of the late Com- rade George Whitehead, of Vancouver, B. C.
FOREWORD.
The pamphlet, here print' 1, was first published in 1849. It was revised i>i the year 1891 by Engelf in order that the text might be brought more in accordance with the, by that time, gener- ally accepted term - ology of the Marxian School. Engels, at the sail.* time, wrote an introduction explaining these changes in the text, and also sup- plying certain historical details which are of jeneral interest and help to fix the place of the work in the development of the Mai-xian si «em. The present editors have taken the liberty placing this intro- duction at the end of the b ^k as an appendix. This we have done because this pamphlet, addressed to working men, was obviously intended for pro- paganda purposes and, inasmuch as the ir iduc- tion is somewhat long and d>'cusses a nui. ;r of technical and controversial points, it was i.«ought that it would interfere with the main purpose of the book and detract from its usefulness, some- what after the manner of a long-winded chairman.
The pamphlet in its original form was Ricardian rather than Marxian, and those readers who are acquainted with the Hegelian philosophy, to the left wing of which school Marx belonged, will not be surprised that it has considerable value even for advanced students of Marx.
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
WHAT ARE WAGES, AND HOW ARE THEY DETERMINED?
If we were to ask the laborers "How much waees
sklhngs a da;jr from my employer"; another, "I get ha f-a-crown and so on. According to the differ- ent trades to which they belong they would na^e different sums of money which they receive frTm therr particular employers, either for workingZ a certam length of time or for performing a certain
IZ\°{ iT'^' ^r ^""^P^"' ^'^'^ f°^ weaving a yard of clotii, or for settmg up a certain amount of fype But m spite of this difference in their s"ate- ments there is one point in which they would all agree; their wages are the amount of money which their employer pays them, either for working a
woA'donT °^ *'""= "^ ^'"' " «^"'" ^■"°"« °f
Thus their employer, it would seem, buys their
o^L b'"?'^^- •^**'" "^'"'y '^'y ''" th""- labor to him. But this IS mere appearance. What they really sell to the employer for money is their laS,*^ power. This labor-power the employer buys for a day. week, month, etc. And having bought it ^* Tf j* by. nuking the laborer work during a stipulated period of time. With the same sum
8
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
for which the employer has bought their labor- power, as for instance, with a couple of shillings, he might have bought four pounds of sugar or a proportionate amount of any other wares. The two shillings with which he buys the four pounds of sugar are the price of four pounds of sugar. The two shillings with which he buys the use of labor- power for twelve hours are ie price of twelve hours labor. Labor-power is therefore as much a commodity as sugar, neither more nor less, only they measure the former by the clock, the latter by the scale. The laborers exchange their own commodity for j their employers' coqimodity, labor-power for '; money; and this exchange takes place according to a fixed proportion. So much money for so long a use of labor-power. For twelve hours' weaving, two shillings. And do not these two shillings re- present all other commodities which I may buy for two shillings? Thus the laborer has, in fact, ex- changed his own commodity, labor-power, for all kinds of other commodities, and that in a fixed proportion. His employer in giving him two shillings has given him so much meat, so much clothing, so much fuel, light, and so on, in exchange for his day's work. The two shillings, therefore, express the proportion in which his labor-power is exchanged for other commodities — the exchange- value of his labor-power; and the exchange value of any commodity expressed in money is called its price. Wage is therefore only another name for the price of labor-power, for the price of this peculiar commodity which can have no local habi- tation at all except in human flesh and blood.
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 9
sbJce' %,T^ °\ ^y workman, a weaver for in-
a^l^m 4. P'°^" '"PP'''=* '>'"' ^'th thread and loom The weaver sets to work, and the thread
nL. ♦K *"** '*"' '*' ^^y f"' twenty shillings
hU liw^^ n """"^y sh.lhngs-in the product of
wLes ToL^r "If"'- ?" ^^^" ««'ves his wages long before the product is sold. The em-
Sus'iyp';;iired/°' ^^^ •='"*' •>« -* --^
Loom and thread are; not the weaver's product
wore are the commodities which he receives in ex- change for his own commodity, or. in other words, for h.s work. It is possible that the employer finds ^leTdo^Vr ^' '='°*u ^' "«y •'« 'hat by its ^v h! fw ■ °* '■'^°''?'" ^'^ ^»«« he has paii It may be that m comparison with the weaver's wages he made a great bargam by its sale. But alibis has nothmg whatever to do with the weaver Tht employer purchases the weaver's labor with a part of h,s available propertj^f his capital-in exactly the same way as he has with another part of his property bought the raw material_th? thr^d- and the instrument of labor-the loom. As soon as Be has made these purchases— and he reckons
tZTlf T *« r/chf « °f the labor neces "i^to the production of the cloth-he proceeds to produce
wWi!"t!.f ?'' [-"^ "'^"="*' '»"<' the instruments which belong to hira. Among these last is, of course, reckoned our worthy weaver, who has as
10
WAGE-LABOK ANT) CAPITA!.
little share in the product, or in the price of the product, as the loom itself.
IVages, therefore, are not the worker's share of the commodities which he has produced, (images are the shore of commodities previously produced, with v^ich the employer pwchases « certain amount of productive labor-power.
Labor is, therefore, a commodity which its owner, the wage worker, sells to capital. Why does he sell it ? In order to live.
But the expenditure of the labor-poWer, labor, is the peculiar expression of the energy of the labor- er's life. And this energy he sells to another party in order to secure for himself the means of living. For him, therefore, his energy is nothing but the means of ensuring his own existence. He works to live. He does not count the work itself as a part of his life, rather is it a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity which he has made over to another party. Neither is its product the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is not the siHc he weaves, nor the palace that he builds, nOr the gold that he digs from out the mine. What he produces for himself is his wage; and silk, gold, and palace are transformed for him into a certain quantity of means of existence — a cotton shirt, some copper coins, and a lodging in a cellar. And what of the laborer, who for twelve hours weaves, spins, bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stone- carries loads and so on ? Does his twelve hours' weaving, spin- ning, boring, turning, building, shoveling, and stone-
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL H
On S/n?'***"',^/ ?*'^^* "Pression of his life'
^•" '""..'neals. his seat in the puBlic-hoiwe hf/l^H If the silkworm's object in spiiiingwS nroW
the h3 ;* " commodity which can pass from
the hand of one owner tc that of another. He him- self IS a commod ty, but his labor :« „J^l- ditv. The ifrf e»ii= !<_i . " "°' *" commo-
•nd ft. mplo,., di.d»n!o bin. wbo,„"|,VS
12
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
fit, either as soon as he ceases to make a profit out of hitn or fails to get as high a profit as he requires. But the laborer, whose only source of earning is the sale of his labor-power, cannot leave the whole class of its purchasers, that is, the capitalist class, and more than that : it is his business to find an em- ployer; that is, among tliis capitalist class it is his business to discover his own particular purchaser. Before going more closely into the relations be- tween capital and wage-labor, it will be well to give a brief survey of those general relations which are taken into consideration in determining the amount of wages. I
( As we have seen, wages are the price of a certain / commodity — labor-power. Wages are thus deter- I miii?d by the same law which regulates the price of any other commodity.
I Thereupon the question arises : How is the price I of a commodity determined ?
By what means is the price of a commodity det- ermined?
By means of comp tition between buyers and sel- lers and the relation between supply and demand- offer and desire. And this competition by which the price of an article is fixed is three- fold.
The same commodity is offered in the market by various sellers. Whoever offers the greatest ad- vantage to purchasers is certain to drive the other sellers off the field and secure for himself the great- est sale. The sellers, therefore, fight for the sale and the market among themselves. Every one of
WACE-LABOK AND CAPITAL I3
than wants to sell and does his best to sell r«„rh and If possible to become the only seller TheX« each outbids the other in cheap7ei!^d a^'mS
Pnce of the goods they oflfer.
But a competition also goes on amona tht *„, '^'o£S on their sid^e raises Z7riJe7Z
S of *^r °*" *°-^<=" »' <*"^ as ^oLibt ^1^" l?r. nV"' S°"P«=tition between buyers and sel-
ous'l^r^!' r" ** ^^!^*'°"^ °f tL two prt whMlf.?tfc *. ?°«Pet'tion; that is, upon
or t^»f i„^^ competition in the ranks of the biX"
each o? tL^ °PPosmg armies into the field, and each of them again presents the aspect of a batt e in Its own ranks among its own solders TTiTt VJmv
ries°oVt^''T ''=^^* "'^"'^•l ^y one anSer^^ nes oflF the victory over the opposing host.
„f o*L"^*"?P°** "•** *«•■« are a hundred bales
Tn waToTf r"'''''=i' ?"!' ^* *'= ^''■"^ time buyir m=r^" a thousand oales. L, this case the de- mand IS greater th^n the supply. The comnetihVm
of'S Su 5T'' r" *''''^°- be inSf S 2,-?t . "r**" •"' ''**' *° 8«t h°Id of all the hun-
t^J^nn^ T""r- u™^ '^^'"P''= i^ «« "bitraSr supposition In the history of the trade we have
di^r^'?™''"' ^""P*™" of capitalists have^-' deavored to purchase, not only a hundred bales of
14
WAGE-LABOK AND CAPITAI
cotton, but the whole stock of cotton in the world. Therefore, in the case supposed, each buyer will try to beat the others out of the field by offering a pro- portionately higher price for the cotton. The cot- ton-sellers, perceiving the troops of the hostile host in violent combat with one another, and being per- fectly secure as to the sale of all their hundred bales, will take very good care not to begi? squab- bling among themselves in order to depress the price at the verv moment when their adversaries are emulating each other in the process of screwing it higher up. Peace is, therefore, suddenly proclaimed in the army of the sellers. They present a umttd front to the purchasers, and fold their arms io philosophic content; and their claims woitld be ab- solutdy boundless if it were not that the otiers of even the most pressing and eager of the buyers must always have some definite limit.
Thus if the supply of a commodity is not so great as the demand for it, the competition between the buyers is keen, but there is none or hardly any among the sellers. Result : a more or less important rise in the price of goods.
As a rule the converse case is of much more fre- quent occurrence, producing an opposite result. Large excess of supply over demaiid; desperate competition among the sellers; dearth of purchas- ers; forced sale of groods dirt cheap.
But what is the meaning of the rise and fall in prices? What is the meaning of higher price or lower price? A grain of sand is high when exam- ined through a microscope, and a tower is low
John WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
■>Val
IS
He wiiJVo'JTJ'' *'•""' ^'''^y «'»'«" *«^ meet- ,,^„rj A? ^' ^ '"**»•" '° consider, but like a
Ta llt^vX r..'*^' ?i^' ^'^' '"' the'metapVsi- thi ^oi ^»- /'P.°^ •"* ""Itiplication table. "If tell rt °" °^ "'" ^'^^ *'''<='' I sell." he wil te 1 us. has cost me ilOO. and I get £110 ov their
J'^*"'"" ^"'J*"' y°" understl^-that's Jha? ?".*^«""'' honest, reasonable profit But^f T make £ 20 or £130 by the sale, that is a Sgher profit
exceDtion^f! *° 'f" * ^°°^ ^200. that would '^^i' exceptional, an enormous profit." What i? it n,^
The* ll7ZTf'r n '^" "•'«"- o^ Ws'profiT 1 he coj/ «,/ producitoH of his goods. If he receive,
m exchange for them an amount of other S oargam. If he receives an amount whose nroduc-
rrise'and'fTl? "f '.* "^ fl'""- ^"'^"' "-k"- IrrLC *"u. u*' °^ ""^ P''°fit by the number of de- grees at which It stands with reference to his zero —the cost of production. We have now seen how the changing proportion
tail of prices, making them at one time hieh at another low. If through failure in the supp!y' or
V^^ f" ?^ ^ commodity takes placed then the pnce of another commodity must have failed for, of course, the price of a commodity only «-' ?o^'r^v ""^% *' proportion in which other commodities can be exchanged with it. For in-
16
WAGE-LABOS AND CAFITAL
rtance, if the price of a yard of silk rises from five to SIX shillings, the price of silver has fallen in comparison with silk ; and in 'he same way the price of all other commodities which remain at their old pnces has fallen if compared with silk. We have to give a larger quantity of them in exchange in or- der to obtain the same quantity of silt. And what is the result of a rise in the price of a commodity? A. mass of capital is thrown into that flourishing branch of business, and this immigration of capital into the province of the privileged business will last until the ordinary level of profits is attained; or rather, until the price oi the product sinks below the cost of production, through overproduction. - Conversely, if the price of a commodity falls be- low the cost of its production, capital will be with- drawn from the production of this commodity. Except in the ca. '. of a branch of industry which has become obsolete, and is therefore doomed to dis- appear, the result of this flight of capital will be that the production of this commodity, and there- fore its supply, will continually dwindle until it corresponds to the demand; and thus its price rises again to the level of the cost of its production; or rather, until the supply has fallen below the de- mand; that is, until its price has again risen above Its cost of production ; for the price of any com- modity is always either above or below its cost of production.
We see, then, how it is that capital is always im- migrating and emigrating, from the province of one industry into that of another. High prices bring about an excessive immigration, and low prices, an excessive emigration.
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 1/
We might show from an. ..er point of viev/ how m^LT h "It '"PP'y- >"" »■'«' the demand. !d«e* TZtt'VT °^ P™^""'""; but this would lead us too far from our present subject.
suD,lv*,„')f'J just seen how the fluctuations of sup,,ly and demand always reduce the price of a commodity to ts cost of production. It is t^e that nh ^"'"'t f"''. "f " commodity is alwaTeilher above or below its cost of production; Zt the rise and fall recfrocally balance each other, so within
are'^cffl"'' ''/'^ ^'"' ^""^ ""^ °' the buSss are reckoned up together, commodities are ex- change! with one another in accordance with their
t?o; l^P"^""*"";. «nd thus their cost of produc- tion determines their price.
is lot fn^^'"f°" °i ?"" ^y ^°'^ °f production IT *T^ ""^"^tood in the sense of the econo- ^r^l nf * "='=°:!0'n«.ts declare that the average
Hon thl '"°'°^'"" '\"''""' '° 'he cost of product tion , this, according to them, is a law. The anarchi-
th TairTnH*',.'" r*?,"!! '^l "'' ''' compensated by XJr!' ^rJ^" ^^" ^y "'^ "'<=' th«y ascribe to ,frr rv^'* ^"'V''' ^^'^'^ = "&ht, we might con- sider like some other economists, the flucluations as the law and ascribe the fixing of price by cost of production to chance. But if we look close°y
tZnlhM K*" K^^'^^^y *^^^« fluctuations, al- hough they bring the most terrible desolation in their train, and shake the fabric of bourgeois society wWh''- 1"^"' '* i^Pi-ecisely the fluctuations which in their course determine price by cost of production. In the totality of this disorderly move- ment IS to be found its order. Th out these
18
WAGE-LABOK AKD CAPITAL
alternating movements in the course of this indust-
«r«."r ^' ^'"P*"**''?. " it were, cancels one excess by means of another.
™^t„^"!f ■■' "'*'«^?'-e. that the price of a com- modity IS determined by its cost of production, in sue manner that the periods in which the price of thi ommodity rises above its cost of production, are compensated by the periods in which it sinks H^T„-!. SI m"' 'i"l inversely. Of course this does not hold good for one single particular pro- duct of an industry bui only for that entire branch of industry. So also it dpes not hold good for a particular manufacturer, but only for the entire in- dustrial class.
"The determination of price by cost of production IS the same thing as its determination by the dura- tion of the labor which is required for the manu-
i! j'''^''^*^'"?',^'''*^ ' ^""^ '=°^' °f production may be divided into (1) raw material and implements, that IS. products of industry whose manufacture has cost a certain number of days' work, and which j*/?f' ^"^P^esent a certain amount of wo \ -time and (?) actual labor, which is mea^-red bv i.- du- ration. ■'
Now. the same general laws, which universally regulate the pnce of commodities, regulate of course, wages, the price of labor.
Wages will rise and fall in accordance vith the proportion between demand and supply, that is in accordance with the conditions of the com-^etition between capitalists as buyers and laborers as sellers ot labor. The fluctuations of wages correspond in
' ■^•"■•'ti.,,
WACE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 19
r*o«/<;*«i *' • ' ft^chtatxom the price of labor is regulated by tti cost of production that L hJtkl duration of labor johick fs re.Ted'inodlr to\%' duce thts commodity, labor-power. '
t^Z "'*"' " '*' "■" "/ ^'"^^'^"^ of labor.
Jor^r *aXl 5"^' ^'^-Vfrf for the production of a laborer Md for hxs maintenance a/ a laborer
Mrf rt.. fj; J.**"* '»'»'-er's cost of production
I^ th^^jT" T ^'\^^«^». the price of his 3 In those branches of industry which scarcely r^
T^.ar'^ °^ Wrenti«ship, and where tJ^ mere bodily existence of the laborer is sufficient h^
are dmost hmited to the cost of the commo'*iti« work. The prtce of hts labor is therefore deter- Sc/ *"*= ^"" "^ "" '"''' "-"-'^" 'this
Th?*If' '•°^'=^«'' another consideration conies in The manufacturer, who reckons up his exiins« of product,on and determines accord'lnglj theCr c^
efm J^'' «nach.nery. If a machine costs hfm ilOO and wears itself out in ten years, he adds ilO a year to the price of his goods, in order to replace
^h^LS\T i* *.*' '*•"* ^ay w« """St reckon in Its propagation; so that the race of laborers may be
20
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
put in a position to multiply and to replace the worn out workers by new ones. Thus the wear and te™ of the laborer must be taken into account just as much as the wear and tear of the machine.
then to /A?f f ^/?^Vi°'' °! '™P''= '^*^^ ^"""""ts then to the cost of the laborer's subsistence and iro-
tJTviru"^ *''" P"^* °f '^'' ~^t determines his
Zh ^/"""S'/- This minimum of wages holds good, just as does the determination by the cost of production of the price of commodities in general, not for the particular individual, but for tht species Individual laborers, indeed millions of them, do not receive enough to enable them to subsist and prop- agate; but the wages of the working class with all their fluctuations are nicely adjusted to this mini- mum.
Now that we are grounded on these general laws vhich govern wages just as much as the price of any other commodity, we can examine our subject more exactly. ••
khl^^l*H Ti!''^' "-r""^ m^itn^l implements of labor, and all kinds of means of subsistence, which are used for the production of new implements and new means of subsistence. All these factors of capital are created by labor, are products of labor are stored-up labor. Stored-up labor which ser^-es as the means of new production is capital " So say the economists.
thSi,'' ^ "Tu ''^^^- ^ ^"""^n "mature of
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 21
machine for spinJnf cotton ^'{"'"S-J^""^ i« ^^ circumstances do« if k- ■ '>" ""''^'' <:ertain
circumsunc": TVT^Z Si ^Taf .« Ijl- intrinsically money or <;««?;« T P^" ffo'd 's
and production becTmerSble. '"' " ^''''"•^' These social relations upon which th^ ,,.^j
Arrf.rt«, ,*„, W( s S £:,!,' J,Tf" "
22
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
With an appropriate and distinctive character An- ctent society feudal society, bourgeois society, are mstances of these suras-total of the relations of pro- duction, each of which also marks out an important step m the historical development of mankind.
Now capital also is a social relation of produc- tion. It is a bourgeois relation of production, a con- dition of the production of a bourgeois society Are r^ ?T* °^ subsistence, the implements of labor, and the raw material, of which capital con- sists, the results of definite social relations: were they not produced and stored up under certain so- cial conditions? Will they not be used for further production under certain social conditions within definite social relations? And is it not just this defimte social character that transforms into capital that product which serves for further production?
Capital does not consist of means of subsistence implements of labor, and raw material alone, nor only of material products; it consists just as much of exchange-values. All the products of which it consists are commodities. Thus capital is not merely the sum of matenal products; it is a sum of com- modities, of exchange values, of social quantities.
Capital remains unchanged if we substitute cotton for wool, rice for corn, and steamers for railways • provided only that the cotton, the rice, the steamers --the bodily form of capital— have the same ex- change value, the same price, as the wool, the com *J?u u7-^^l' '" '"^'''^ '* formerly embodied itself. The bodily form of capital may change continually
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 23
at'lLt' "'''*'' '''''' ""-^^^S"" -t *e slightest v;,^r'^T7'"'"- °* "Change-values is an exchange
How llr """'• "'* ^ '''^'^^ oHoTrTS «ow, then, can a sum of commodities of ^v change-values, become capital? ™"'°'"*'*='' °* «"
By maintaining and multiplyine itself as an mo- tion of '°''f' I^""' *'^^t '^ -« the p'wer of a po" tion of society, by means of its exchange for direct .vmg abor-power. Capital necessaril/presupooses h^florcr °' ' ^'^^^ "'^''^'' Possesse'sSybm It is the lordship of past, stored-up, realized labor
24
WAGE-LABOK AND CAPITAL
over actual, living labor that transforms the stored- up labor into capital.
Capital does not consist in the fact that stored up labor IS used by living labor as a means to further production. It consists in the fact thai living labor serves as the means whereby stored-up labor may mamtain and multiply its own exchange-value.
What is it that takes place in the exchange between capital and wage-labor.'
The laborer receives in exchange for his labor- j.power the means of subsistence; but the capitalist iweceives in exchange for the means of subsistence— I labor, the productive energy of the laborer, the cre- I ative force whereby the laborer not only replaces (what he consumes, but also gives to the stored-up * labor a greater value than it had before. The laborer receives from the capitalist a share of the prev- iously-provided means of subsistence. To what use does he put these means of subsistence? He uses them for immediate consumption. But as soon as I consume my means of subsistence, they disappear and are irrecoverably lost to me : it there- fore becomes necessary that I should employ the time during which these means keep me alive in order to produce new means of subsistence, so that during their consumption I may provide b^ my labor new value in the place of that which dis- appears. But it is just this noble reproductive po^ver which the laborer has to bargain away to capital in exchange for the means of subsistence which ne receives. To him, therefore, it is entirely lost. '
Let us take an example. A fanner gives his
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 25
uay laoorer in a fruitful and productive fashion andSce'°offhVd°'' TZ.''''''4'' i-t that labo;
S'e ?Crhe"hP'"-*= °'^'' productive force wnose enects he has just barga ned awav to th»
farmer, two shillings; Ind these he exchanges f^r means of subsistence; which means of subsistence The'TwothiCsT" ^ '-\«P-d to consume'
doulin^sht; "p^^dttU^r'rapitaT^^^^^^^ ill •'T.^'^h-ged for 'he labo' tr e wSc^ produced the four shilling,;, unproduct'veirfor the laborer, since they have been exchanged for means of subsistence which have disaoDeared fn.
to tne existence of the other; thev mutuallv mil each other into existence. ^ mutually call
Does an operator in a cotton factory produce merely cotton goods? No, he produces capital o^/er^stb^r;?/^ ,^t'l ^'-^-h'omS m;"d!":r?a^ '"J Su ''. '^ ""''"' '' ^'"^" ~'"-
»
26
WAGE-LABOB AND CAPITAL
Capital can only increase when it is exchanged for labor— when it calls wage-labor into existence. Wage-labor can only be exchanged for capital by augmenting capital and ctrengthening the power whose slave it is. An increase of capital is there- fore an increase of the proletariat, that is, of the laboring class.
The interests of the capitalists and the laborer are therefore identical, assert the bourgeoisie and their economists. And, in fact, so they are! The laborer perishes if capital does not employ him. Capital perishes if it does not exploit labor, and in order to exploit it, it must buy it. The faster the capital devoted to production — the produc- tive capital— inc . eases, and the more successfully the industry is carried on, the richer do the bour- geoisie become, the better does business go, the more laborers does the capitalist require, and the dearer does the laborer sell himself.
Thus the indispensable condition of the laborer's securing a tolerable position is the speediest possi- ble growth of productive capital.
But what is the meaning of the increase of pro- ductive capital? The increase of the power of stored-up labor over living labor. The increase of the dominion of the bourgeoisie over the laboring class. As fast as wage-labor creates its own an- tagonist and its own master in the dominating power of capital, the means of employment, that is, of subsistence, flow back to it from its antagonist; but only on condition that it convert itself anew into a portion of capital and thus becomes the
WAGE-LABOR AND TAPITAJ, 27
The increase of capital is attended by an increase in the amount of wa?e-lahnr ^r,A :„ ..I. '">:rease waee-laborer<!- nr ;^ »t. i* '" ^^^ number of
Mpfta i^ f„r«H ' °*^i; ^'"■^'' *•= dominion of
case with th. • a^^"™* even the most favorable case, with the mcrease of productive capital ther^ IS an increase in the demand for labor And thus wages, the price of labor, will rise
tuf",!"""'^ T^ ^« 'a"-?*- OT small, but as Ion? as the surrounding houses are equali; small it sftis- fies al soca requirements of a' dwdlilig pTa e But let a palace arise by the side of this smal
s^JLT'^ iKt""^^' ^'■°'" ^ ^°"^« i"t6 a hut The smallness of he house now indicates that its occu- pant IS permitted to have either verj few c°a'ms or none at all; and however high it mavThoot un with the progress of civilization, i rh^neighLor^
sn^all house will al^Tudlimtlf ITrnS
28
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
fortable, more discontented, more confined within his four walls.
A notable advance in the amount paid as wages presupposes a rapid increase of productive capital. The rapid increase of productive capital calls forth just as rapid an increase in wealth, luxury, social wants, and social comforts. Therefore, although the comforts of the laborer have risen, the social satisfaction which they give has fallen in compar- ison with these augmented comforts of the capital- ist, which are unattain.-ble for the laborer, and in comparison with the : ale of general development society has reached. Our wants and their satis- faction have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in their relation to society, and not in relation to the objects which satisfy them. Since their nature is social, it is therefore relative.
As a matter of fact, wages are determined not merely by the amount of commodities for which they may be exchanged. They depend upon var- ious relations.
What the laborer receives, in the first place, for his labor is a certain sum of money. Are wages determined merely by this money price?
In the sixteenth century the gold and silver in circulation in Europe was augmented in conse- quence of the discovery in America of mines which were relative! ■ rich and could easily be worked. The value ol gold and silver fell, there- fore, in proportion to other commodities. The laborers received for their labor the same amount of silver coin as before. The money price of their labor remained the same, and yet their wages had fallen, for in exchange for the same sum of silver
WAGE-t.AnoR AND CAPITAL 29
they obtained a smaller quantity of other commod-
furtherL th •''' °"' °i *' circumstances which furthered the mcrease of capital and the rise of the bourgeoisie in the sixteenth century. . Let us take another case. In the winter of 1847
L"n„rh?"-"" "^ ^ ^^'l"'-« "^ 'he crops, there was a notable increase in the price of the indispensa-
c^eesTanH f '"H\f '"«' ^^ ^°"'- -"^^t. buttfr, stifl re^iv^H r"- ^^' ^'" ^"?PI'°««= 'hat the laborer still received the same sum of money for their labor- ^wer as be ore. Had not their wages fallen then? ^LTr *''*^- ^''^. ^°' 'he same amount o «c Lh7J'"'^"** in exchange less bread, meat etc., and their wages had fallen, not because the value of silver had diminished, but because the value Of the means of subsistence had increased.
Let us finally suppose that the money price of abor remains the same, while in consequence of the employment of new machinery, or oi: account of a good season, or for some similar reason, there ijJrfri '" "'/ P'^'" °^ ^" =g"<="""'-al and manu- th T^ ^°°^'- ^°' 'h*= s^me amount of money the laborers can now buy more commodities of all kinds. Their wages have therefore risen, just because their money-value has not changed.
The mone/ price of labor, the nominal amount of wages does not therefore coincide with the real wages, that is, with the amount of commodities that may practically be obtained in exchange for the wages. Thus, if we speak of the rise and fall w,r^!'' 'he money price of labor, or the nominal wage, IS not the only thing which we must keep in
30
WAGE- LABOR AND CAPITAL
But neither ^li« nominal wages, that is, the amount of money for which the laborer sells him- self to the employer, nor yet the real wages, that IS, the amount of commodities which he can buy for this money, exhaust the relations which are comprehended in the term wages.
But wages are above all determined by their re- lation to the gain or profit of the capitalist. It is m this connection that we speak of relative wages.
The real wage expresses the price of labor in re- lation to the price of other commodities; the re- lative wage, on the contrary, expresses the pro- portionate share which living labor gets of the new values created by it as compared to that, which is appropriatet" by stored-up labor-capital. We said above, on page 10: "Wages are not the worker's share of the commodities, which he has produced. Wages are the share of commodities previously produced with which the employer purchases a cer- tain amount of productive labor-power." But the amount of these wages the capitalist has to take out from the price which he realizes for the pro- duct created by the workman, and as a rule, there remains yet for him a profit that is an excfsover and above the cost of production, advanc ,1 by him. For the capitalist, then, the selling price of the commodity, 'produced by the workman, be- comes divided into three parts ; the 1st, to make up for the price of the advanced raw material and also for the wear and tear of the tools, machinery and other instruments of labor also advanced by him; the 2nd, to make up for the wages advanced
WACE-LABOg AND CAPITAL
31
w
\
by him; the 3rd. the excess over and above these two parts, constitutes the profit of the capitalist.
wWh'l' J^^ >'^"' ^'"^ .'""«'>' '^P'^*:" values Which had a previous existence, that part which goes to replace wages, as well as the excess which constitutes profits, are, as a rule, clearly taken out of the new value created by the labor of the work- man, and added to the raw material. And in Mm sense, we nay regard both wages and profits, for the sake of comparison, as shares of the product of the workman.
Real wages may remain the same, or they may even rise, and yet the relative wages may none the less have fallen. Let us assume, for example, that the price of all the means of subsistence has fallen by two-thirds, while a day's wages have only fallen one-third, as for instance, from three shillings to two. Although the laborer has a larger amount of commodities at his disposal for two shillings than he had before for three, yet his wages are never- theless dimmished in proportion to the capitalist's gam. The capitalists profit— the manufacturer's, tor instance— has been augmented by a shilling, since for the smaller sum of exchange-value which he pays to the laborer, the laborer has to pioduce a larger sum of exchange-value than he did before. The share of capital is raised in pro- portion to the share of labor. The division of social wealth between capital and labor has be- come more disproportionate. The capitalist com- mands a larger amount of labor with the same amount of capital. The power of the capitalist class over the laboring class is increased; the social position of the laborer has deteriorated, and is de-
1^1
32
WAGE-LABOI AND CAPITAL
i
pressed another degree below that of the capitalist. iyhat. thtH. w the general law which determines the rise and fall of wages and profit in their recip- rocal relation f '^
They stand in inverse proportion to one another. Xhe share of capital, profit, rises in the same proportion in which the share of labor, wages sinks; and inversely. The rise of profit is exactly measured by the fall in wages and the fall in pro- nt by the rise in wages.
The objection may perhaps be made that the capitalist may ha-e gained a profit by advantageous exchange of his products with other capital- ists, or by a rise in the demand for his goods, whether m consequence of the opening of new markets, or of a greater demand in the old mar- kets ; that the profit of the capitalist may thus in- crease by means of over-reaching another capital- ist, independently of the rise and fall of wages and the exchange-value of labor-power, or that the profit of the capitalist may also rise through an improvement in the implements of labor, a new application of natural forces, and so on.
But it must nevertheless be admitted that the re- sult remains the same, although it is brought about in a diflferent way. To be sure profits have not risen for the reason that wages have fallen, but wages have fallen all the same for the reason that profits have risen. The capitalist has acquired a larger amount of exchange-value with the same amount of labor, without having had to pay a higher price for the labor on that account ; that is to say a lower price has been paid for the labor
}
t
}
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL "'^ 33
in proportion to the net profit which it yields to the capitahst.
Besides, we must remember that in spite of the fluctuations in the price of commodities, the aver- age price of each commodity— the proportion in which It exchanges for other commodities— is de- termined by its cost of production. The over- reaching and tricks that go on within the capitalist class therefore necessarily cancel one another. Im- provemeiits in machinery and new applications of natural forces to the service of production enable them to turn out in a given time with the same amount of labor and capital a larger quantity of exchange-values. If, by the application of the spinning-jenny, I can turn out twice as much thread in an hour as I could before its invention, for in- i-taiice, a hundred pounds instead of fifty, then the consequence, in the long run, will be that I will re- ceive in exchange for them no more commodities than before for fifty, because the cost of production has been halved, or because at the same cost I can turn out double the amount of products.
Finally, in whatever proportion the capitalist class —the bourgeoisie— whether of one country or of the world s market — share among themselves the net profits of production, the total amount of these net profits always consists merely of the amount by which, taking all in all, stored-up labor has been increased by means of living labor. This sum total increases, therefore, in the proportion in which labor augments capital ; that is, in the proportion in which profit rises as compared with wages.
Thus we see that, even if we confine ourselves to
I
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WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
t!
«•
^1
li
the relation between capital and wage-labor, the in- terests of capital are in direct antagonism to the in- erests of wage-labor.
A rapid increase of capital is equal to a rapid in- crease of profits. Profits can only make a rapid increase if the exchange-value of labor— the rela- tive wage— makes an equally rapid decline.
Relative wages may decline, although the real wages rise together with nominal wages or the money price of labor; if only it does not rise in the same proportion as profit. , For instance, if when trade is good, wages rise five per cent., and profits on the other hand thirty per cent., then the propor- tional or relative wage has not increased but de- clmed.
Thus if the receipts of the laborer increase with the rapid growth of capital, yet at the same time there IS a widening of the social gulf which separ- ates the laborer from the capitalist, and also an in- crease m the power of capital over labor and in the dependence of labor upon capital.
The meaning of the statement that the laborer has an interest in the rapid increase of capital is mere- ly this ; the faster the laborer increases his master's dominion, the richer will be the crumbs that he will get from his table; and the greater the number of laborers that can be employed and called into exist- ence, the greater will be the number of slaves de- pendent upon capital.
We have thus seen that even the most fortunate sttuahon for the working class, the speediest possi- ble increase of capital, however much it may im-
n.
WAGE- ABOR Am t A 'ITAL
35
'■0
prove the material (r-d^tion of the laborer, cannot abohsh the opposition between his interests and those of the bourgeois or capitalist class, ^rofit and wages remain just as much as ever in inverse proportion.
When capital is increasing fast, wages may rise, but the profit of capital will rise much faster. The material position of the laborer has improved, but it IS at the expense of his social position. The social gulf which separates him from the capitalist has widened.
Finally, the meaning of the most favorable condi- tion of wage-labor, that is, the quickest possible increase of productive capital, is merely this : The faster the working classes enlarge and extend the hostile power that dominates over them the better will be the conditions under which they will be allowed to labor for the further increase of bour- geois wealth and for the wider extension of the power of capital, and thus contentedly to forge for themselves the golden chains by which the bour- geoisie drags them in its train.
But are the increase of productive capital and the rise of wages so indissolubty connected as the bour- geois economists assert? We can hardly believe that the fatter capital becomes the more will its slave be pampered. The bourgeoisie is too enlight- ened, and keeps its accounts much too carefully, to care for that privilege of the feudal nobility, the ostentation of splendor among its retinue. The very conditions of bourgeois existence compel it to keep careful accounts.
We must therefore inquire mope closely into the
i
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WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
ill
i
f
I!
III
SS'w'Iges'! '^" '""'''' "^ P™''""^*'^^ "I"'^' has
it.I^f "^ l*"* ^^""^' '"."^^'^ °^ tl'e productive cap- tal of a bourgeois society a more manifold accumu-
n „um°her"'°H '"''" P^l'"-- '^''^ ^^^P't^"^*^ '""ease m number and size The increase in the amount of capital increases the competition among capitalists The increased size of individual capital gives the means of leading into the industrial battlefield
T^'^ft'-^T^ °^ ^f°'^'^ furnished with more gigantic implements of war.
oth?r''off%'ifP'fi'!^' can only succeed in driving the rw. I K ^^fr^^^t ''"^ '^'^'"8 possession of his
Z^'lr\^ u"'"^ ^'1 "^"'^ ^' ^ ^h^^'P^r rate. In order to sell more cheaply without ruining himself he must produce more cheaply, that is, he must in- crease as much as possible the productiveness of ^bor. But the most effective way of making labor more productive is by means of a more complete division of labor, by the more extended use and continual improvement of machinery. The lareer the army of workmen, among whom the labor is divided, and the more gigantic the scale on which machinery ,s introduced, the more does the relative cost of production decline, and the more fruitful is the labor. Thus arises a universal rivalry among capitalists with the object of increasing the division of labor and machinery, and keeping up the utmost possible progressive rate of exploitation.
Now if by means of a greater subdivision of labor, by the employment and improvement of new machines, or by the more skilful and profitable use of the forces of nature, a capitaii.s: has discovered
IL.
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
37
1
the means of producing a larger arnoi'tit of commod- ities than his competitors witii the same amount of labor, whether it be stored-up lal or or direct — if he can, for instance, spin a complete yard of cotton in the tirae which it takes his competitors to spin ha'f a yard — how will this capitalist proceed to act?
He might go on selling half a yard at its foi-mer market price ; but that would not have the effect of driving his cpponcnts out of the field and increasmg his own sale. But the need of increasing his sale has increased in the same proportion as his produc- tion. The more effective and mo'e. expensive means of production which he has c:(Iled into existence enable him, to be sure, to sell his wares cheaper, but they also compel "-Im to sell more nares and to secure a much la , -arket for them. Our capital- ist v.il! therefort. .ed to sell his half a yard of cotton cheaper tlian his competitors.
The capitalist will not, however, sell his complete yard as cheaply as his competitors sell the half, al- though its entire production does not cost him more than the production of half costs the others. For in this case he would gam nothing, but would only get back the cost of its production. The con- tingent increase in his receipts would result from his having set in motion a larger capital, but not from having made his capital more profitable than that of the others. Besides, he gains the ends he is aiming at if he prices his goods only a slight percentage lower than his competitors. He drives them off the field, and wrests from them, at any rate, a portion of their sale, if only he undersells them. And, finally, we must remember that the
-
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tn III
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■~ WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
^hfloTTi^^r^- ''""'^^ "'*^^ ''*<'^^ or below the cos, of production, according as the sale of a
abHeS 'Vr^^'^"'' n^ favorable or Savor' awe penod of busmsss. According as the market
former* ' /^'f °^ J^'^'^ '« ^^ov^e or below its
vaTbv which tHP''°*^'"=-''r- '''' P""ntage Jil vary by which the capitalist, who has employed
?on seTu"'l'"°i:^ productive means of pE tion, sells above his actual cost of production.
But our capitalist does not find his privilege very lasung. Other rival capitalists introducT w!tT more or less rapidity, the same machines aAd the same division of labor on the same or even more extended scale; and this introduction becomes^ eral, until the price of the yard of cloth isTedufed
Thus the capitalists find themselves relatively in the same position ir which they stood before the introduction of the . ., means of production and If they are by these means enabled to offer iwTce the amount of products for the same price They
ZZuff th^^^'r^ "^-''^P^'led to offer do"be the amount for less than the old price. Starting from the new scale of production the old game bS anew. There is greater subdivision of labor more
S tl,. Whereupon competition brings
about the same reaction against this result.
Thus we see how the mode and means of Pro- duction are cctinually transformed and re.olution-
ftwir"! 7 T ■''' ''"''"'"' "f ^"^"r necessarily brings m tts tram a greater division of labor- the
WAGE-LABOK AND CAPITAL
39
introduction of machinery a still larger introduc- tion; and production on a large scale — production on a larger scale.
This is the law which continually drives bour- geois production out of its old track, and compels capital to intensify the productive powers of labor for the very reason that it has already intensified them — the law that allows it no rest, but for ever v/hispers in its ear the words "Quick march!"
This is no other law than that which, cancelling the periodical fluctuations of business, necessarily identifies the price of a commodity with its cost of production.
However powerful the means of production which a particular capitalist may bring into the field, competition will make their adoption general; and the moment it becomes general the sole result of the greater fruitfulness of his capital is that he must now, for the same price, offer ten, twenty, a hun- dred times as much as before. But as he must dis- pose of, perhaps, a thousand times as much in order to outweigh the decrease in the selling price by the larger amount of the products sold, sinte a larger sale has now beconie necessary, not only to gain a larger profit, but ?lso to replace the cost of produc- tion,— and the implements of production, as we have seen, always get more expensive, — and since this larger sale has become a vital question, not only for him, but also for his rivals, the old strife contin- ues, with all the greater violence, the more fruitful the previously discovered means of production are. Thus the subdivision of labor and the employment of new machinery take a fresh start, and proceed with still greater rapidity.
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WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
production';Jn.'*'!f **"= P''^*^'- °f the means of
off" ed ':? r^" '"?P'^ °i'^''"P^'- products to b^ hfve nothinr/' ^•'"'- Thus the capitalist will nave nothing for his exertions beyond the obli^i
cuifv of emnf ' l""* '" enhancement of the diffi- r!^™ °.f .employing his capita! to advantage While
o?Th'e coTof"""?'"^ P^^^^<^"'" him wi?h its law ot the cost of production, and turns against himself every weapon which he forges against hsr^Jat the capitalist continually trie! to cheTt competS &bor"andM^ '"^'l""",? ^"^^^er subdivTon ^f ^\^rh?u '^^P'*""g 'he old machines by new ones Iv ns'teW """I- '"^f,"^'"^' P^°''"« "•'°'-«= cheap-'
nffif/ "it "°^ '"""^ at this feverish agitation as it
uSe/stan^ho'"' th ' '■' "''°'^ -"--'d ' nd we sha unaerstand how the increase, accumulation and concentration of capital bring n their train an «n mterrupted and extreme subdivisio "of labor a"! ways advancing with gigantic strides of p™ and a continual employment of new machiner^ to-' gether with improvements of the old. "^'^' *°
But how do these circumstances, inseparable a,
affZtZ^ir '*^^--/- of productZe capita, affect the determmatton of the amount of waqesf
The greater division of labor enables one laborer
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
John Waltdr
13 Pnlrvlew Ave,
KItotiBnor, Ont,
41
to do the work of five, ten, twenty; it therefore multiplies the competition among laborers, five ten or twenty times. The laborers do not only compete when one sells himself cheaper than another, they also compete when one does the work of five, ten, or twenty ; and the division of labor which capital mtroduces and continually increases, compels the laborers to enter into this kind of competition with one another.
Further in the same proportion in which the division of labor is increased the labor itself is sim- plified. The special skill of the laborer becomes worthless. It is changed into a monotonous and uniform power production, which gives play neither to bodily nor to intellectual elasticity. His labor becomes accessible to everybody. Competi- tors, therefore, crowd around him from all sides; and besides, we must remember that the more sim- ple and easily learnt the labor is, and the less it costs a man to make himself master of it, so much the lower musi its wages sink, since they are deter- mined, like the price of every other commodity, by its cost of production.
Therefore, exactly as the labor becomes more un- satisfactory and unpleasant, in that very proportion competition increases and wages decline. The la- borer does his best to maintain the rate of wages by performing more labor, whether by working for a greater number of hours, or by working harder in the same time. Thus, driven by necessity, he him- self increases the evil consequences of the sub- division of labor. So the result is this: the more he labors the less reward he receives for it; and that
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WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
Slow wo^Krrr/h"' ^' =°"ip"^'" '^'''"t h"
pete araSrll^ and thus compels them to com-
A/ocAw^ry has the same effect, but on a much
?kXd'±K'' *"PP'^"^^ skilled laborers Vun skilled, men by women, adults by children- where .s newly introduced it throw/the hand laborers upon the streets in crowds; and where itl perfected
aiscards them m slightly sma ler numbers We have sketcned above, in'hasty outlineTthe indl^s^
w/rhr^K-* "P\*?"='' ^'t'' °"« another; and the war has this peculiarity, that its battles are won Ie«
lablfeVwhn'Ti'*' repeatedly assure us that the rh;^IT J^ ^v* rendered superfluous by the ma- chine find new branches of employment.
thJ'i^^ .''f "^ "°' ^'^ hardihood directly to assert that tfie laborers who are discharged enter uDon the new branches of labor. The f acfs cty out too loud against such a lie as this. They onl^ declare hat
stance, for the rising generation of laborers who
Z%fJ '^"^^ '" *"*"■" "P°" *e defunct branch of mdustry, new means of employment will op« up
SL^'fl*^* '' ^«^"^t satisfaction for tii? dis- missed laborers. The worshipfu> capitalists will
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL 43
not find their fresh supply of exploitable flesh and blood rtmnmg short and will let the dead bury thdr dead. This ,s .ndeed a consolation with which the «s ^K'tVe^tT '^"^'t'' '^'^" ♦''«" the labor! Mated bvth.^' 'v "' °f ^^?«-'aborers were anni- hilated by the machines, how shocking that would be for capital, which, without wage-labor 7^ts to act as capital at all. '
A^Z let us suppose that those who are directly fuo allXse 'f''?;: employment by machinery, and also all those of the rising generation who were ex- pectmg employment in the same line, find some l^ ^>nployment. Does anyone imagine that th^I T \^ ^^^'"Shly paid as that which they have lost ? Such an Idea would be in direct contradiction o all
Sodem 'dr^'T', "^.^ "^r ^'^^^dy ^en'that the modem form of industry always tends to the dis- placement of the more complex and the higher kinds
How. then could a crowd of laborers, who are tfirown out of one branch of industry by machiner^ find refuge in another without having To coS theniselves with a /<,«-.. position and worse W
The laborers who are employed in the mwiufac-
«ceot on '''"r'^ '*''" ""''' ^'^'^ instancTas an m,5 ^ ., As soon as more machinery is de- manded and used in industry it is said that there must necessarily be an increase in the number of machines, therefore in the manufacture of ma- chines, and therefore also in the employment of laborers i„ this manufacture ; and the labirTrs who
fw^,.TP'T^ J" .*'' ^'^^^ °f industry will be skilled, and, indeed, even educated laborers
1
til
I
44
i I
i
WACl LABOR AND CAPITAL
Ever since the year 1840 this contention, which even before that time was only half true, has lost all Its specious color. For the machines which are employed m the manufacture of machinery have been quite as numerous as those used in the manu- facture of cotton; and the laborers who are em- ployed in producing machines in the face of the exti >ly artful machinery used in this industry, have at best been able to play the part of highly artless machines.
But in the place of the man who has been dis- charged by the machine r "rhaps three children and one woman are empky.! .o work it. And was it not necessary before that the man's wages should suffice for the support of his wife and children? Was not the minimum of wages necessarily suffic- ient for the maintenance and propagation of the race of laborers? What else does then the pet bourgeois argument prove, but that now the lives of four times as many laborers as before are used up in order to secure the support of one laborer's family.
To sum up : the faster productive capital increases the more does the division of labor and the em- ployment of machinery extend. The more the div- ision of labor and the employment of machinery ax- tend, so much the more does competition increase among the laborers, and so much the more do their average wages dwindle.
And, besides, the laboring class is recruited from the higher strata of society, as there falls headlong into it a crowd of small manufacturers and small proprietors, who thenceforth have nothing better
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
45
to do than to stretch out their arms by the side of those of the laborers. And thus the forest of arms outstretched by those who are entreating for work becomes ever denser and the arms themselves grow ever leaner.
That the small manufacturer cannot survive in a contest whose first condition is production on a contmually increasing scale— that is, for which the first prerequisite is to be a large and not a small manufacturer — is self-evident.
That the interest on capital declines in the same proportion as the amount of capital increases and extends, and that therefore the small capitalist can no longer live on his interest, but must join the ranks of the workers and increase the number of the proletariat— all this requires no further exem- plific?::
Finally, in the proportion in which the capitalists are compelled by the causes here sketched to explo.t on an ever increasing scale yet more gigantic means of production, and with that object to set in motion all the mainsprings of credit, in the same propor- tion is there an increase of those earthquakes dur- ing which the business world can only secure its own existence by the sacrifice of a portion of its wealth, its products, and even its powers of produc- tion to the gods of Hades— in a word, in the same proportion do crises increase. They become at once more frequent and more violent; because in the same proportion in which the amount of pro- duction, and therefore the demand for the extension of the market, increases, the market of the world
46
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
n
continually contracts, and ever fewer markets re- main to be exploited; since every previous crisis has added to the comtnerce of the world a market which was not known before, or had before been on y superficially exploited by commerce. But cap- ital not only lives upon labor ? Like a lord, at once distinguished and barbarous, it drags with it to the grave the corpses of its slaves and whole hecatombs of laborers who perish during crises. Thus we see that if capital increases fast, competition among the laborers tncreases still faster, that is, the means of employment and subsistence decline in proportion at a sttll more rapid rate; and yet, none the less, the most favorable condition for wage labor lies in the speedy increase of capital.
APPENDIX.
1.,^ forfjffoing pages appeared first in the shape of leading articles m the columns of the New Rhenish Oa«tte. beginning April 4, 1849. They were based on lectures given by Marx in the year 1847. before the Oerman Workingmen's Club at Brussels. The senes of articles begun remained however a frajt- ■ ™,?- °rK^\T^''LR''°'"'" "»° ^ continued- (held ^everMV°- f^f *' '"** °^ »•"= "tide)' was H,.rfn J realized owing to the rush of events during those days: The invasion of the Russians mto Hungaty, the nsings at Dresden, Iserlohn, El- berfeld in the Palatinate and Baden, which brought ?o IB Q* suppression of the Gazette itself (May
III I ■'■■ '^"""^ *•"= P^P"^ 'ef' by Marx has not been lound any manuscript containing the con- tinuation of the article in question.
A few editions of "Wage-Labor and Capital" have already appeared in pamphlet form, the last VI Zurich, Switzerland, in 1884. All these editions were exact reprints of the original articles. But as this new edition, to be used for the purpose of agi- tation, is to be made up of no less than 10,000 "Tfu *''?,'l"«^t'?n had to present itself to my mind, whether Marx himself would under these circum- stances have approved a mere reproduction of the original text.
nnf U T^'^'i ?l ^v'*' *'?!:'"« ^^^ ^'« Marx had not yet completed his critical study of Political
•I
48
APPENDIX.
Economy. He did this only about the end of the SO's. Thus all his writings, which have appeared before the publication of the first part of his "Cri- tique of Political Economy" (18S9) differ in some pomts from those published after 1859 ; contain ex- pressions and even entire sentences, which from the point of view of his later writing, appear rather am- biguous and even untrue.
Now, it goes without saying, that in common edi- tions for the general reading public, even such older ideas, which constitute, so to say, the logical step- ping stones to the final stage of the author's mental evolution, may find a legitimate place; that in the case of such editions, the author as well as the public has an undisputed right to demand an un- changed reprint of such older writings, and for such an emergency it would never have entered my mind to charge even a single word of the orisinal text.
But it is quite a different thing in case the new edition is destined primarily and almost exclusively for agitation among workingmen. In such a case Marx would have undoubtedly brought into accord the older exposition, dating back to the year 1849, with his later, more mature ideas. And I am sure to act in his spirit by making for the present edition those slight changes and additions which are requir- ed to attain the stated purpose in all principal points. I may then tell the reader beforehand : This is the pamphlet, not as Marx wrote it in the year 1849, but such a one, or nearly such a one, as Marx might have written in the year 1891. Moreover, the original text can be found in quite a number of old
3n\- •'•.,■•"
Wl-vl •■-,»■-.
APPENDIX. 49
copies, and this will do for the time being, until I have occasion to embody it as part of a complete collection of Marx's writings.
/ The changes I have made turn all about one point.
; According to the original text, the workingman
i sells Aw labor to the capitalist for a certain wage ;
I according to the new text what he sells is his labor- power. It is concerning this change that I owe some explanation : First of all to the workingmen, so that they may see that what we are concerned with is not at all mere nicety of verbiage, but one of the most important problems of Political Econ- omy,—and then also to the bourgeois (middle-class people), so that they may convince themselves how much superior the uneducated workingmen are to the conceited "educated class" of society; for while to the former the closest and most difficult reason- ing can be easily made intelligible, to the latter such intricate questions remain a riddle during all their life.
I Classical Political Economy accepted from in- j dustrial practice the traditional conception of the manufacturer buying and paying for the labor of his workingmen. This conception had proved quite sufficient for business purposes, those of book- keeping and price-calculation. But transplanted naively into Political Economy, it caused there all kinds of strange errors and vagaries.
Political Economy is confronted with the fact that the prices of all commodities, among them also the price of that which is called "labor," are con- stantly changing, rising and falling by reason of the
i
so APPENDIX.
most various circumstances, which frequently have no connection whatever with the production of the commodity itself, so that, as a ruJe, prices seem to be determined by mere accident. As soon then as Political Economy assumed a scientific character, it betame one of its first tasks, to seek the Law hiding behind accident, which was apparently ruling the prices of commodities, but truly was ruled in its turn by this law. Within these oscillations, i.e., the up-and-downward movements of prices, the new science began to seek the firm central point around which these oscillations occur. In a word, starting from the prices of commodities. Economics began to seek for their regulating law, viz. : the value of commodities, by which the price-oscillations might be explained, to which they might ultimately be re- duced.
Classical Political Economy found then, that the value of a commodity is determined by the labor which is embodied in it, in other words, which is required for its production. It rested satisfied with this explanation, which even we may accept for our proximate purposes. (To ward off misunder- standings, however, I should remind the trader, that this explanation has now become altogether in- I sufficient.) Marx was the first to analyze in a / thorough manner the peculiar property of labor to I create new value, and he found that not all labor, which was seemingly or actually necessary for the production of a commodity, was really under all circumstances adding an amount of value corres- ponding to the amount of labor expended. If we theft follow economists, as Ricardo, in saying plain- ly, that the value of a commodity is determined by
APPENDIX.
St
the labor necessary for its production, we are con- stantly bearing in mind the reservations made by Marx. So much then htre for purposes of explan- ation. For further particulars I i«fer the reader either to Marx' "Critique of Political Economy" (18S9), or to the first volume of his "CapiUl."
But no sooner did the economists apply the new ■ conception of value, as determined by labor, to th? commodity "labor" itself, than they began to UH from one contradiction into another. How is the value of "labor" determined? Answer; By the ne- cessary "labor" embodied in it. But how much labor is there in the labor of a workingman during a period of one day, weelc, month or year? Of course, one day's, one week's, one month's, one year's labor. For, if labor is the pleasure of alt values, we can express the "value of labor" only in terms of labor. Needless to say that w« know absolutely nothing about the value of one hour's labor, if we know only that it equals one hour's labor. AVe have not come a hair's breadtb nearer the solution of the problem ; we are merely turning hopelessly io a vicious circle.
^ Classical Political Economy thus had to attempt
! another method to solve the proUem. It asserted &t the value of a commodity equals its cost of produc- tion. Now then, what is the cost of production of labor? In order to answer this question economists had to strain logic quite a little. Instead of seeking the cost of production of labor itself (which, as a matter of fact, can never be found) they investigate what is the cost of production of the laborer, and this can be found, sure enough. This cost varies
52
APPENDIX.
according to time and circumstances, but given a certain condition of society, a certain locality, a certain branch of production, this cost is also given, at least within narrow limits. We live at present under the rule of capitalist production, under which a large and steadily increasing class of the popula- tion can live only by working for wages for the owners of the means of production— the tools, the machines, the raw materials and the means of sub- sistence. Given such a mode of production the cost of the laborer is made up of that sum-total of means of subsisten. e — or their price in terms of money — which is noTiaally required to make and keep him fit to work, and replace him, in case of old age, disease or death by a new laborer, in a word, the sum required for the propagation of Uie working class in its required strength.
Suppose for argument's sake the average money- price of the means of subsistence to be two dollars a day. Our workman will then receive from his capit- alist-employer a daily wage of two dollars. For this the capitalist makes him work, say 12 hours a day, and he calculates in about the following manner : —
Suppose the workman, say an engineer, has to manufacture a piece of machinery, which he com- pletes in one day. The raw material — iron and brass in the shape required — to cost S dollars. The consumption of coal by the steam engine, the wear and tear of this engine, that of the lathe and other instruments, used by our workman, calculated per day and head — to represent one more dollar. The daily wage we have assumed to be two dollars. The total cost then of the piece of machinery would
APPENDIX.
53
be 8 dollars. The capitalist however calculates that the average price which he receives from his cus- tomer is 10 dollars, i.e., 2 dollars above the cost ad- vanced.
Whence do these 2 dollars come, which the capi- talist pockets ? According to what Classical Politi- cal Economy says, commodities are sold normally at their values, i.e., at prices which correspond to the quantities of necessary labor embodied in them. The average price of the piece of machinery — 10 dollars — would thus equal its value, or the amount of labor embodied in it. But out of these 10 dol- lars, 6 dollars were values already in existence, be- fore our engineer began to work. Five dollars were contained in the raw material, one dollar either in the coal which was burned up during the work or in the machinery and instruments which were used during the process and by that much became deteri- orated in value by losing an aliquot part of their ef- ficiency. There remain then 4 dollars, which have been added to the value of the raw material. These 4 dollars, however, according to the very assump- tion of our economists, can be due solely to the labor applied by the workman to the raw material. His twelve hours' labor has then created a new value of 4 dollars. The value of his twelve hours' labor, it would seem, equals then four dollars. The prob- lem, "what is the value of labor," would thus seem to be solved.
"Stop there I" interjects our engineer. "Four dol- lars. Why! I have received but two. My employer assures me with all his heart, that the value of my twelve hours' work is but 2 dollars, and finds it ridi-
54
APPENDIX.
culous for me to demand four. Well, how do you account for it?"
It appears then, that whereas before, while try- ing to define the value of labor, we landed in a vicious circle, we have now become hopelessly involved in an insolvable contradiction. We have been seeking the value of labor, and found more than we can use. For the workman the value of twelve hours' labor is 2 dollars, for the capitalist — 4 dollars, out of which he pays the workman 2 in the form of wages and puts two into his own pocket. Labor then, it appears, has not one, but two values and quite differ nt ones too, into the bargain.
The contradiction becomes even more perplex- ing in case we reduce the values, as expressed in terms of money, to hours of labor. Durire the 12 hours of labor a new value of 4 dollars has been created : during 6 hours then— one of 2 dollars, the exact amount the workman is paid for 12 hours' labor. In other words for 12 hours' labor the work- man receives as equivalent the product of 6 hours. TTie result then at which we have arrived is the al- ternative cpncJusion, either th^t labor has two values, of which one is double the other or that 12 equals 6. In either case the result is — utter non- sense.
Turn and twist as much as we like we cannot extricate ourselves from this contradiction, as long as we use the terms "buying and selling labor" and '^e value of labor". And this was exactly the fate of the economists. The last offshoot of classical
APPENDIX.
55
economics, the Ricardian school, perished mainly for the reason that it was anable to solve this contradic- tion. Classical Economics had become irretrievably lost in a "cul-de-sac".* The man to find the way out of it was Karl Marx.
What economists had regarded as the cost of production of "labor" was not the cost of labor, but that of the living laborer. And what they thought the laborer was selling to the capitalist was not his labor. 'As soon as his labor really begins, says Marx, it ceases to belong to him, and therefore can no longer be sold by him.' At best, he is able to sell his future labor, i.e., he can assume the obligation to perform a definite labor service at a definite time. But by doing this he does not sell labor (which is only to be performed) ; he transfers to the capitalist for a definite time (in case of time- wages) or for the sake of a definite labor service (in case of piece- wages) the control over his labor-power for a de- finite payment ; he leases, or rather sells his labor- power. This labor-power is coalescent with and in- separable from his very person, its cost of produc- tion therefore coincides with that of the individual ; what the economists called the cost of produc- tion of labor is that of the laborer and at the same time that of his labor-power. It is thus that we are able to go back of the cost of production of labor to the value of labor-power and to determine the amount of socially necessary labor requisite for the production of labor-power of definite quality, as Marx has done it in the chapter on "The Buyingr and Selling of Labor-Power" (Cfr. Capital, Vol. I, P. II, Chap. VI, Engl. Translation.)
•Blind alley
56
AFFENDIX.
What happens then, when the laborer has sold his labor-power to the capitalist, i.e., has transferred to him the control over it for a daily or piece-wage, agreed upon in advance? The capitalist takes the laborer into his shop or facto y where there are al- ready all things requisite for production, as raw ma- terial, accessory materials, (coal, dye-stuffs, etc.) tools, machines. Here the laborer begins his toil. Suppose his daily wage to be, as before, two dollars, no matter whether they are paid to him in the form of a daily or piece wage. We again suppose that the laborer by his labor during a period of 12 hours has added to the raw material consumed — an addi- tional value of 4 dollars, which additional value is realized by the capitalist when he sells the ready product. Out of these 4 dollars he pays the laborer 2 dollars, but the other 2 he keeps for himself. Now if the laborer) produces during 12 hours a value of 4 dollars, it follows that he produces a value of 2 dollars during 6 hours. Consequently he has returned to the capitalist the equivalent of his wage of 2 dollars, after having worked for him but six hours. After six hours of labor they have squared accounts, neither owes the other a single cent.
"Beg your pardon," interjects the capitalist now. I have hired the laborer for an entire day, for 12 hours. Six hours are but half a day. Continue your labor until the other six hours are over, only then we shall be square I As a matter of fact, the lab- orer has to live up to the "voluntarily" entered agreement, by which he had bound himself to work
APPENDIX.
57
full 12 hours in exchange for labor-product which costs but six hours of labor.
The same holds good in the case of piece-wages. Suppose our laborer produces 12 pieces of a certain commodity during 12 hours. The cost of the raw material, the wear and tear of the machinery amounts to say $1.33i4 cents, the piece sells at $1.66% cents. In such a case, the capitalist, given the same terms as above, will pay the laborer a little over 16Vi cents a piece, for 12 pieces — 2 dollars, 'or which the laborer has toiled 12 hours. The capitalist receives for the 12 pieces 20 dollars ; out of these — 16 dollars go for raw materials and wear and tear ; out of the balance of 4 dollars, 2 go for wages and 2 are pocketed by the capitalist. The result, then, is the same as above. In this case as well as in the first, the laborer works six hours for himselfj i.e., in return for his wage (6 hours out of each 12 hours) and six hours for the capitalist.
The difficulty, which brought to grief even the best economists so long as they started their reason- ing with the value of "labor," disappears as soon as we start in its stead with the value of labor-power.
' Labor-power is a commodity in our present capi- talist society, to be sure, a commodity like any other, but still a peculiar commodity. It has the peculiar "quality of being a power that generates value, or of being the source of value, and what is more, of being, with proper treatment, the source of more value than is embodied in itself.
As a matter of fact, productive efficiency has
ikPPENDIX.
iwadays reached such a stage that human laboi^ power procuces during one day not only a greater value than t :at which it possesses and costs, but also with each ocientific discovery, with each new tech- nical invention, the excess of its daily product over and above its daily cost increases; in other words, that part of the work-day during which the laborer is working merely to reproduce the equivalent of his daily wage is constantly decreasing, while that part is increasing, during which the laborer has to make a free gift of his labor to the cj(pitalist, for which he is not paid at all.
And this is the economic constitution of our en- tire modem society: it is the working class alone which produces all values. For value is merely another expression for labor, that expression by which in our present capitalist society is designated the quantity of socially necessary labor embodied in a definite commodity. But the values produced by the laborers do not constitute their property. They are the property of the owners of the raw material, the machines and the articles advanced to the laborers, the possession of which enables these owners to purchase the labor-power of the working class. Out of the entire mas of produce created by the working class, it receives back but a small share.
And as we saw just now, the other share, which the capitalist class retains for itself, or, at worst, has to divide with the landlord-class, is becoming great- er with each new invention and discovery, while the share falling to the working class (calculated
APPENDIX.
19
per head) either rises but slowly and insignificantly, or docs not rise at all, and at times may even fall.
But this continuously accelerated rush of inven- tions and discoveries, this unprecedented daily growth of the productivity of human labor, will in the long run cause a conflict by which our present capitalist economy must perish. On the one side un- fathomable wealth and a superabundence of pro- ducts which the purchasers cannot find use for. On the other side, the great mass of society, proletariz- ed, turned into wage-workers, and thereby made un- able to acquire that superabundance of products. The cleavage of society into a small, extremely rich class, and a great non-possessing class of wage- workers, causes this society to suffocate from its own superabundance, whereas the great majority of its members are hardly, or not at all, protected against extreme want.
Such a state becomes every day more absurd and unnecessary. It must be removed, it can be removed. A new order of society is possible in which the present class differences will be a matter of the past and where — ^perhaps after a short, not quite satisfactory, but morally very useful transi- tion period — by means of designed utilisation and further improvement of the then existing vast pro- ductive power of all members of society, with equai obligation to work, will be given, in equal degree and in constantly growing abundance, the means to live and to enjoy life, to develop and exercise all physical and intellectual capacities. And that the workingmen are more than ever determined to
60
APPENDIX.
achieve for themselves such an order of society— to this will bear testimony, on either side of the ocean, the dawning first of May and the Sunday after, the third of May.
FREDERICK ENGELS.
London, April 30, 1891.
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