Full text of "Wage-labor and capital [microform]"

See other formats

CIHM
Microfiche
Series
(l\/lonograpiis)

ICIVIH

Collection de
microfiches
(monographies)

Canadian Inttituta for Historical MIcroraproduction* / Inatitut Canadian da microraproductiona historiquoa

1996

Technical and Bibliographic Notes / Notes technique et bibliographiques

The institute has attempted to obtain the best original
copy available for fiiming. Features of this copy which
may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of
the images in the reproduction, or which may
significantly change the usual method of filming are
checked below.

D
D
0

D
D
D

Coloured covers /
Couveiture de couleur

Covers camaged/
Couverture endommegee

Coverc res'ored and^or laminated /
Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicul^e

Cover title missing / Le litre de couveiture manque

Coloured maps / Cartes gtographiques en couleur

Coloured inl( (I.e. other than tilue or black) /
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bteue ou noire)

Coloured plates and/or illustratkxis /
Planches et/ou Illustrations en couleur

Bound with ottier material /
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Only edition available /
Seule Edition dsponible

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along Interior margin / La rellure serr^e peut
causer de I'ombie ou de la distorskin le long de
la marge int^rieure.

Blank leaves added during lestoratkxis may appear
within the text. Whenever possible, these have
been omitted from fHming / II se peut que ceitaines
pages blanches ajout6es tors d'une restauration
apparaissent dans le texte, mais, kxsque cela 6tait
possible, ces pages n'ont pas M filmtes.

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur examplaire qu'il lui a
616 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exem-
plaire qui sont peut-6tre uniques du point de vue bibli-
ographlque, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite,
ou qui peuvent exiger une modifications dans la mdth-
ode normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous.

I I Cokxired pages / Pages de couleur

I I Pages damaged / Pages endommagies

I I Pages restored and/or laminated /
' — ' Pages restauries et/ou pellkxilies

17^ Pages discoloured, stained or foxed /
' — ' Pages dacolortes, tachettes ou pkjuees

I I Pages detached/ Pages d^tachtes

PTI Showthrough / Transparence

I I Quality of print varies /

I — ' Quality Inigaie de I'impression

D
D

Includes supplementary material /
Compiend du materiel supplementaire

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been returned to
ensure the best possible image / Les pages
totalement ou partJellement obscurcies par un
feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont Hi fllmtes
k nouveau de fapon k obtenir la meilleure
image p

Opposing pages with varying colouration or
discolourations are filmed twice to ensure the
best possible Image / Les pages s'opposant
ayant des colorations variables ou des dteol-
orations sont fjlm^es deux fols aftn d'obtenir la
meilleur image possible.

/MdWonal comments /
Commentaires suppl^mentaires:

This itMi is f ilmad at ttw raduction ratio chackad balow/

Ce document est tilmi au taux de rMuetton indlqui ei-dcssous.

tox t4x tax

26X

12X

20X

2«X

3JX

The copy filmed hara hn basn raproduead thank*
to tha ganaroiity of:

Dana Pontr Am Library
Unlvtntty of WMtrloo

L'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grlca i la
gtnAroiitt da:

Dana Portar Art* Library
Uni»ar«ity of Watarloo

Tha Imagaa appaaring hara ara tha baat quality
potalblo eonsidarlng tha condition and laglblllty
of tha original copy and in kaoping with tha
filming contract spoelflcatlona.

Laa imagaa luivantaa ont ttt raproduitas avac la
plus grand loin, compta tanu da la condition at
da la nattat* da i'axampiaira filma, at an
conformity avac laa condltlana du oontrat da
filmaga.

Original coplaa in printad papar covara ara flimad
beginning with tha front eovar and anding on
tha last paga with a printad or llluatratad impraa-
tion, or tha back covar whan approprJata. All
othar original coplaa ara flimad beginning on tha
first paga with a printad or llluatratad impraa-
■lon, and anding on tha last page with a printad
or llluatratad Imprassion.

Laa axamplalraa orlglnaux dont la couvartura an
paplar aat Imprimto lont filmte ar cc!T<manfant
par la pramiar plat at an tarminant toit par la
darnlira paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'imprasaion ou d'illustration, salt par la tacond
plat, lalon la cas. Tous la* autra* axamplaira*
origlnaux aont film** an commandant par la
pramMra paga qui comporta una amprainta
d'Impraaslon ou d'illuatratlon at an tarminant par
la darnltra paga qui comporta una taila
amprainta.

Tha laat racordad frama on aach microflcha
■hall conuln tha symbol ^^ (meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol ▼ (meening "END"),
whichever applies.

Un dee symboles suivents spperaitra sur la
dernitre imege de cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: la symbol* -» signifie "A SUIVRE". le
symbole V signifie "FIN".

Meps, plataa, charta, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratioa. Those too lerge to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hend comer, left to
right end top to bottom, aa many framea aa
required. The following diagrams illustrate tha
method:

Lea canes, planches, tsbleaux. etc., peuvent 4tre
filmts 1 dss taux da reduction difftrants.
Lorsque le document eat trop grand pour ttra
reproduit en un seul cllchi. il est film* A psrtir
de i'angia supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite.
et de haut en bee. en prenant le nombre
d'Imagas ntceesaira. Lea diagrammes suivsnts
iilustrant la mtthoda.

1 2 3

MICROCOrY RKOLUTtON TEST CHART

(AN5I and ISO TEST CHART No. 2)

A /APPLIED IIVMGE Inc

^F 1653 Eost Moin Slreel

=^ RochMter. Ne« York 1*609 USA

■^— (716) 482 - 03OO - Plione

^S (716) 288-5989 -Fax

Kitohannr, Out.

/ C 9^

lead Library

age-Labor

and

Capital

^**fe

John Waltar,
82 Falrvrew Av

WAGE-LABOR and
CAPITAL

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

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

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

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

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

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-

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

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

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" "

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

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 ''. '^ ""''"' '' ^'"^" ~'"-

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

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

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

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

WAGE-LABOI AND CAPITAL

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

}

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

WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL

«•

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-

WAGE- ABOR Am t A 'ITAL

'■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

WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL

ill

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

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

tn
III

till

liii

Ml
III

\\\

■~ 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

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.

llll

[it

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,

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

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

til

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

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

WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL

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

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

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.

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

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.

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-

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

NOW ON SALE

Unifoim with this

The Communist Manifesto

KARL MARX AND FRED. ENGELS

Socialism: Utopian and
Scientific

FREDERICK ENGELS

To be issued in near future: —

MARXISM & DARWINISM &.. Pannekoek

VALUE, PRICE & PROFIT Marx

MJ.

l_'*f>n Waiter,

Knot,

''wi»c.

t!,, ,

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Wage-labor and capital [microform]"

See other formats