 Introduction to Wage, Labour and Capital. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Karl Manchester 2007. Introduction to Karl Marx's Wage, Labour and Capital by Friedrich Engels. This pamphlet first appeared in the form of a series of leading articles in the Neo-Rhinish Zeitung, beginning on April 4th, 1849. The text is made up from lectures delivered by Marx before the German Workingman's Club of Brussels in 1847. The series was never completed. The promise quote to be continued end quote at the end of the editorial in number 269 of the newspaper remained unfilled in consequence of the precipitous events of that time, the invasion of Hungary by the Russians and the uprisings in Dresden, Izalon, Elberfeld, the Palatinate and in Barden, which led to the suppression of the paper on May 19th, 1849. And among the papers left by Marx, no manuscript of any continuation of these articles has been found. Wage, Labour and Capital has appeared as an independent publication in several editions, the last of which was issued by the Swiss Cooperative Printing Association in Hottingon Zurich in 1884. Under two, the several editions have contained the exact wording of the original articles, but since at least 10,000 copies of the present edition are to be circulated as a propaganda tract, the question necessarily forced itself upon me would Marx himself under these circumstances have approved of an unaltered literal reproduction of the original. Marx in the 40s had not yet completed his criticism of political economy. This was not done until toward the end of the 50s. Consequently, such of his writings as were published before the first instalment of his critique of political economy was finished, deviating some points from those written after 1859, and contain expressions and whole sentences which, viewed from the standpoint of his later writings, appear inexact and even incorrect. Now, it goes without saying that in ordinary editions, intended for the public in general, this earlier standpoint as a part of the intellectual development of the author has its place, that the author as well as the public has an indisputable right to an unaltered reprint of those older writings. In such a case, I would not have dreamt of changing a single word in it, but it is otherwise when the edition is destined almost exclusively for the purpose of propaganda. In such a case, Marx himself would unquestionably have brought the old work, dating from 1849, into harmony with his new point of view, and I feel sure that I am acting in his spirit when I insert in this edition the few changes and additions which are necessary in order to attain the object in all essential points. Therefore, I say to the reader at once, the pamphlet is not as Marx wrote it in 1849, but approximately as Marx would have written it in 1891. Moreover, so many copies of the original text are in circulation, that these will suffice until I can publish it again unaltered in a complete edition of Marx's works to appear at some future time. My alterations centre about one point. According to the original reading, the worker sells his labour for wages which he receives from the capitalist according to the present text he sells his labour power. For this change, I must render an explanation to the workers in order that they may understand that we are not quibbling or word juggling, but are dealing here with one of the most important points in the whole range of political economy. To the bourgeois in order that they may convince themselves how greatly the uneducated workers who can be easily made to grasp the most difficult economic analyses excel our supercilious cultured folk for whom such ticklish problems remain insoluble their whole life long. Classical political economy borrowed from the industrial practice the current notion of the manufacturer that he buys and pays for the labour of his employees. Footnote. Quote, by classical political economy I understand that economy which, since the time of W. Petty, has investigated the real relations of production in bourgeois society in contradistinction to vulgar economy which deals with appearances only, ruminates without ceasing on the materials long since provided by scientific economy, and there seeks plausible explanations of the most obtrusive phenomena for bourgeois daily use. But for the rest confines itself to systematising in a pedantic way and proclaiming for everlasting truths trite ideas held by the self-complacent bourgeoisie with regard to their own world, to them the best of all possible worlds. End footnote. Disconception had been quite serviceable for the business purposes of the manufacturer, his bookkeeping and price calculation, but naively carried over into political economy it there produced truly wonderful errors and confusions. Political economy finds it an established fact that the prices of all commodities among them the price of the commodity which it calls labour continually change, that they rise and fall in consequence of the most diverse circumstances which often have no connection whatsoever with the production of the commodities themselves so that prices appear to be determined as a rule by pure chance. As soon therefore as political economy stepped forth as a science it was one of its first tasks to search for the law that hid itself behind this chance which apparently determined the prices of commodities and which in reality controlled this very chance. Among the prices of commodities fluctuating and oscillating now upward now downward the fixed central point was searched for around which these fluctuations and oscillations were taking place. In short starting from the price of commodities political economy sought for the value of commodities as the regulating law by means of which all price fluctuations could be explained and to which they could all be reduced in the last resort. And so classical political economy found that the value of a commodity was determined by the labour incorporated in it and requisite to its production. With this explanation it was satisfied and we too may for the present stop at this point but to avoid misconceptions I will remind the reader that today this explanation has become wholly inadequate. Marx was the first to investigate thoroughly into the value forming quality of labour and to discover that not all labour which is apparently or even really necessary to the production of a commodity imparts under all circumstances to this commodity a magnitude of value corresponding to the quantity of labour used up. If therefore we say in short with economists like Ricardo that the value of a commodity is determined by the labour necessary to its production we always imply the reservations and restrictions made by Marx. Thus much for our present purpose. Further information can be found in Marx's critique of political economy which appeared in 1859 and in the first volume of Capital. But as soon as the economists applied this determination of value by labour to the commodity labour they fell from one contradiction into another. How is the value of labour determined by the necessary labour embodied in it? But how much labour is embodied in the labour of a labourer of a day, a week, a month, a year? If labour is the measure of all values we can express the value of labour only in labour but we know absolutely nothing about the value of an hour's labour if all that we know about it is that it is equal to one hour's labour. So thereby we have not advanced one hair's breadth nearer our goal we are constantly turning about in a circle. Classical economics therefore essayed another turn. It said the value of a commodity is equal to its cost of production but what is the cost of production of labour? In order to answer this question the economists are forced to strain logic just a little. Instead of investigating the cost of production of labour itself which unfortunately cannot be ascertained they now investigate the cost of production of the labourer and this latter can be ascertained. It changes according to time and circumstances but for a given condition of society in a given locality and in a given branch of production it too is given at least within quite narrow limits. We live today under the regime of capitalist production under which a large and steadily growing class of the population can live only on the condition that it works for the owners of the means of production. Tools, machines, raw materials and means of subsistence in return for wages. On the basis of this mode of production the labourer's cost of production consists of the sum of the means of subsistence or their price in money which on the average are requisite to enable him to work to maintain in him this capacity for work and to replace him at his departure by reason of age, sickness or death with another labourer that is to say to propagate the working class in required numbers. Let us assume that the money price of these means of subsistence averages three shillings a day. Our labourer gets therefore a daily wage of three shillings from his employer. For this the capitalist lets him work say twelve hours a day. Our capitalist moreover calculates somewhat in the following fashion. Let us assume that our labourer, a machinist has to make a part of a machine which he finishes in one day. The raw material, iron and brass in the necessary prepared form cost twenty shillings. The consumption of coal by the steam engine the wear and tear of this engine itself of the turning lathe and of other tools with which our labourer works represent for one day and one labourer a value of one shilling. The wages for one day are according to our assumption three shillings. This makes a total of twenty four shillings for our piece of a machine. But the capitalist calculates that on average he will receive for it a price of twenty seven shillings from his customers or three shillings over and above his outlay. Whence do they three shillings pocketed by the capitalist come? According to the assertion of classical political economy commodities are in the long run sold at their values that is sold at prices which correspond to the necessary quantities of labour contained in them. The average price of our part of a machine twenty seven shillings would therefore equal its value i.e. equal the amount of labour embodied in it. But of these twenty seven shillings twenty one shillings were values already existing before the machinist began to work. Twenty shillings were contained in the raw material one shilling in the fuel consumed during the work and in the machines and tools used in the process and reduced in their efficiency to the value of this amount. There remain six shillings which have been added to the value of the raw material. But according to the supposition of our economists themselves these six shillings can arise only from the labour added to the raw material by the labourer. His twelve hours labour created according to this a new value of six shillings. Therefore the value of his twelve hours labour will be equivalent to six shillings. So we have at last discovered what the value of labour is. Hold on there, cries our machinist. Six shillings. But I have received only three shillings. My capitalists swears high and day that the value of my twelve hours labour is no more than three shillings. And if I were to demand six he'd laugh at me. What kind of story is that? If before this we got with our value of labour into a vicious circle we now surely have driven straight into an insoluble contradiction. We searched for the value of labour and we found more than we can use. For the labourer the value of the twelve hours labour is three shillings. For the capitalist it is six shillings of which he pays the working man three shillings as wages and pockets the remaining three shillings himself. According to this labour has not one but two values and moreover three different values. As soon as we reduce the values now expressed in money to labour time the contradiction becomes even more absurd. By the twelve hours labour a new value of six shillings is created. Therefore in six hours the new value created equals three shillings. The amount which the labourer receives for twelve hours labour. For twelve hours labour the working man receives as an equivalent the product of six hours labour. We are thus forced to one of two conclusions. Either labour has two values one of which is twice as large as the other or twelve equals six. In both cases we get pure absurdities. Turn and twist as we may we will not get out of this contradiction as long as we speak of the buying and selling of labour and of the value of labour. And just so it happened to the political economists. The last offshoot of classical political economy the Ricardian school was largely wrecked on the insolubility of this contradiction. Classical political economy had run itself into a blind alley. The man who discovered the way out of this blind alley was Karl Marx. What the economists had considered as the cost of production of labour was really the cost of production not of labour but of the living labourer himself. And what the labourer sold to the capitalist was not his labour. So soon as his labour really begins says Marx it ceases to belong to him and therefore can no longer be sold by him. At the most he could sell his future labour i.e. assume the obligation of executing a certain piece of work in a certain time. But in this way he does not sell labour which would first have to be performed but for a stipulated payment he places his labour power at the disposal of the capitalist for a certain time in case of time wages or for the performance of a certain task in case of peace wages. He hires out or sells his labour power but this labour power has grown up with his person and is inseparable from it. Its cost of production therefore coincides with his own cost of production. What the economist called the cost of production of labour is really the cost of production and their width of his labour power. And thus we can also go back from the cost of production of labour power to the value of labour power and determine the quantity of social labour that is required for the production of a labour power of a given quantity as Marx has done in the chapter on the buying and selling of labour power. Capital volume 1 Now what takes place after the worker has sold his labour power i.e. after he has placed his labour power at the disposal of the capitalist for stipulated wages whether time wages or peace wages. The capitalist takes the labourer into his workshop or factory where all the articles required for the work can be found, raw materials, auxiliary materials, coal, dice stuffs etc, tools and machines. Here the worker begins to work. His daily wages are as above three shillings and it makes no difference whether he earns them as day wages or peace wages. We again assume that in 12 hours the worker adds by his labour a new value of six shillings to the value of the raw materials consumed which new value the capitalist realises by the sale of the finished piece of work. Out of this new value he pays the worker his three shillings and the remaining three shillings he keeps for himself. The labourer creates in 12 hours a value of six shillings. In six hours he creates a value of three shillings. Consequently after working six hours for the capitalist the labourer has returned to him the equivalent of the three shillings received as wages. After six hours work both are quits neither one owing a penny to the other. Hold on there now cries out the capitalist. I have hired the labourer for a whole day for 12 hours but six hours are only half a day. So work along lively there until the other six hours are at an end. Only then will we be even. And in fact the labourer has to submit to the conditions of the contract upon which he entered of quote his own free will end quote and according to which he bound himself to work 12 whole hours for a product of labour which cost only six hours labour. Similarly with peace wages let us suppose that in 12 hours our worker makes 12 commodities each of these costs a shilling in raw materials and wear and tear and is sold for two and a half shillings. On our former assumption the capitalist gives the labourer a quarter of a shilling for each piece which makes a total of three shillings for 12 pieces. To earn this the worker requires 12 hours the capitalist receives 30 shillings for the 12 pieces deducting 24 shillings for raw materials and wear and tear there remains six shillings of which he pays three shillings in wages and pockets the remaining three just as before. Here also the worker labors six hours for himself i.e. to replace his wages half an hour in each of the 12 hours and six hours for the capitalist. The rock upon which the best economists were stranded as long as they started out from the value of labour vanishes as soon as we make our starting point the value of labour power. Labour power is in our present day capitalist society a commodity like every other commodity but yet a very peculiar commodity. It has namely the peculiarity of being a value creating force the source of value and moreover when properly treated the source of more value than it possesses itself. In the present state of production human labour power not only produces in a day a greater value than it itself possesses and costs but with each new scientific discovery with each new technical invention there also rises the surplus of its daily production over its daily cost while as a consequence there diminishes that part of the working day in which the labourer produces the equivalent of his day's wages and on the other hand lengthens that part of the working day labour gratis to the capitalist. And this is the economic constitution of our entire modern society. The working class alone produces all values for value is only another expression for labour that expression namely by which is designated in our capitalist society of today the amount of socially necessary labour embodied in a particular commodity but these values produced by the workers do not belong to the workers they belong to the owners of the raw materials machines tools and money which enable them to buy the labour power of the working class hence the working class gets back only a part of the entire mass of products produced by it and as we have just seen the other portion which the capitalist class retains and which it has to share at most only with the landlord class is increasing with every new discovery and invention while the share which falls to the working class per capita rises but little and very slowly or not at all and under certain conditions it may even fall but these discoveries and inventions which supplant one another with ever increasing speed this productiveness of human labour which increases from day to day to one heard of proportions at last gives rise to a conflict in which present capitalistic economy must go to ruin on the one hand immeasurable wealth and a superfluity of products with which the buyer cannot cope on the other hand the great mass of society proletarianised transformed into wage labourers and thereby disabled from apportioning to themselves that superfluity of products the splitting up of society into a small class immoderately rich and a large class of wage labourers devoid of all property brings it about that this society smothers in its own superfluity while the great majority of its members are scarcely or not at all protected from extreme want this condition becomes every day more absurd and more unnecessary it must be gotten rid of it can be gotten rid of a new social order is possible in which the class differences of today will have disappeared and in which perhaps after a short transition period which those somewhat deficient in other respects will in any case be very useful morally they will be the means of life of the enjoyment of life and of the development and activity of all bodily and mental faculties through the systematic use and further development of the enormous productive powers of society which exist with us even now with equal obligation upon all to work and that the workers are growing and more determined to achieve this new social order will be proven on both sides of the ocean on this dawning May Day and on Sunday May the 3rd Friedrich Engels London April 30th 1891 End of introduction Chapter 1 Of Wage, Labour and Capital This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information If you are new to volunteer visit Librivox.org This reading by Carl Manchester 2007 Wage, Labour and Capital by Carl Marx Translation by Friedrich Engels Chapter 1 Preliminary From various quarters we have been reproached for neglecting to portray the economic conditions which form the material basis of the present struggles between classes and nations With set purpose we have hitherto touched upon these conditions only when they forced themselves upon the surface of the political conflicts It was necessary beyond everything else to follow the development of the class struggle in the history of our own day and to prove empirically by the actual and daily newly created historical material that with the subjection of the working class accomplished in the days of February and March 1848 the opponents of that class the bourgeois republicans in France and the bourgeois and peasant classes who were fighting feudal absolutism throughout the whole continent of Europe were simultaneously conquered that the victory of the quote moderate republic in France sounded at the same time the fall of the nations which had responded to the February revolution with heroic wars of independence and finally that by the victory over the revolutionary working men Europe fell back into its old double slavery into the English Russian slavery The June conflict in Paris the fall of Vienna the tragic comedy in Berlin in November 1848 the desperate efforts of Poland, Italy and Hungary the starvation of Ireland into submission these were the chief events in which the European class struggle between the bourgeois and the working class was summed up and from which we proved that every revolutionary uprising however remote from the class struggle its object might appear must of necessity fail until the revolutionary working class shall have conquered that every social reform must remain a utopia until the proletarian revolution the realistic counter revolution have been pitted against each other in a worldwide war in our presentation as in reality Belgium and Switzerland were tragicomic caricatureish genre pictures in the great historic tableau the one the model state of the bourgeois monarchy the other the model state of the bourgeois republic both of them states that flatter themselves to be just as free from the class struggle as from the European revolution but now after our readers have seen the class struggle of the year 1848 develop into colossal political proportions it is time to examine more closely the economic conditions themselves upon which is founded the existence of the capitalist class and its class rule as well as the slavery of the workers we shall present the subject in three great divisions the relation of wage labour to capital the slavery of the worker the rule of the capitalist the inevitable ruin of the middle classes petty bourgeois and the so-called commons peasants under the present system the commercial subjugation and exploitation of the bourgeois classes of the various European nations by the despot of the world market England we shall seek to portray this as simply and popularly as possible and shall not presuppose a knowledge of even the most elementary notions of political economy we wish to be understood by the workers and moreover there prevails in Germany the most remarkable ignorance and confusion of ideas in regard to the simplest economic relations from the patented defenders of existing conditions down to the socialist wonder workers and the unrecognised political geniuses in which divided Germany was richer than in duodecimo princelings we therefore proceed to the consideration of the first problem end of chapter one chapter two of wage labour and capital this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter two what are wages how are they determined if several workmen were to be asked how much wages do you get one would reply I get two shillings a day and so on according to the different branches of industry in which they are employed they would mention different sums of money that they receive from their respective employers for the completion of a certain task for example for weaving a yard of linen or for setting a page of type despite the variety of their statements they would all agree upon one point that wages are the amount of money which the capitalist pays for a certain period of work or for a certain amount of work consequently it appears that the capitalist buys their labour with money and that for money they sell him their labour but this is merely an illusion what they actually sell to the capitalist for money is their labour power this labour power the capitalist buys for a day a week a month etc and after he has bought it he uses it up by letting the worker labour during the stipulated time with the same amount of money with which the capitalist has bought their labour power for example with two shillings he bought a certain amount of sugar or of any other commodity the two shillings with which he bought £20 of sugar is the price of the £20 of sugar the two shillings with which he bought 12 hours use of labour power is the price of 12 hours labour labour power then is a commodity no more no less so than is the sugar the first is measured by the clock the other by the scales their commodity labour power the workers exchange for the commodity of the capitalist for money and moreover this exchange takes place at a certain ratio so much money for so long a use of labour power for 12 hours weaving two shillings and these two shillings do they not represent all the other commodities which I can buy for two shillings therefore actually the worker has exchanged his commodity labour power for commodities of all kinds and moreover at a certain ratio by giving him two shillings the capitalist has given him so much meat so much clothing so much wood, light etc in exchange for his day's work the two shillings therefore express the relation in which labour power is exchanged for other commodities the exchange value of labour power the exchange value of a commodity estimated in money is called its price wages therefore are only a special name for the price of labour power and are usually called the price of labour it is the special name for the price of this peculiar commodity which has no other repository than human flesh and blood let us take any worker for example a weaver the capitalist supplies him with the loom the weaver applies himself to work and the yarn is turned into cloth the capitalist takes possession of the cloth and sells it for 20 shillings for example now are the wages of the weaver a share of the cloth of the 20 shillings of the product of the work by no means long before the cloth is sold perhaps long before it is fully woven the weaver has received his wages the capitalist then does not pay his wages out of the money which he will obtain from the cloth but out of money already on hand just as little as loom and yarn are the product of the weaver to whom they are supplied by the employer just so little are the commodities which he receives in exchange for his commodity labour power his product it is possible that the employer found no purchases at all for the cloth it is possible that he did not get even the amount of the wages by its sale it is possible that he sells it very profitably in proportion to the weaver's wages but all that does not concern the weaver with a part of his existing wealth of his capital the capitalist buys the labour power of the weaver in exactly the same manner as with another part of his wealth he has bought the raw material the yarn and the instruments of labour the loom has made these purchases and among them belongs the labour power necessary to the production of the cloth he produces only with raw materials and instruments of labour belonging to him for our good weaver too is one of the instruments of labour and being in this respect on a par with the loom he has no more share in the product the cloth or in the price of the product than the loom itself has wages therefore is not a share of the worker in the commodities produced by himself wages are that part of already existing commodities with which the capitalist buys a certain amount of productive labour power consequently labour power is a commodity which its possessor the wage worker sells to the capitalist why does he sell it? it is in order to live but the putting of labour power into action for the work is the active expression of the labourers own life and this life activity he sells to another person in order to secure the necessary means of life his life activity therefore is but a means of securing his own existence he works that he may keep alive he does not count the labour itself as a part of his life it is rather a sacrifice of his life it is a commodity that he has auctioned off to another the product of his activity therefore is not the aim of his activity what he produces for himself is not the silk that he weaves not the gold that he draws of the mining shaft not the palace that he builds what he produces for himself is wages and the silk, the gold and the palace are resolved for him into a certain quantity of necessaries of life perhaps into a cotton jacket or copper coins and into a basement dwelling and the labourer who for 12 hours long weaves, spins, baws, turns builds, shovels, breaks stone carries hods and so on is this 12 hours weaving spinning, boring, turning, building shoveling, stone breaking regarded by him as a manifestation of life, as life quite the contrary life for him begins where this activity ceases at the table, at the tavern in bed the 12 hours work on the other hand has no meaning for him as weaving spinning, boring and so on but only as earnings which enable him to sit down at a table to take his seat in the tavern and to lie down in a bed if the silkworms object in spinning were to prolong its existence as caterpillar it would be a perfect example of a wage worker labour power was not always a commodity merchandise labour was not always wage labour i.e. free labour the slave did not sell his labour power to the slave owner any more than the ox sells his labour power to the farmer the slave together with his labour power was sold to his owner once for all he is a commodity that can pass from the hand of one owner to that of another he himself is a commodity but his labour power is not his commodity the serf sells only a portion of his labour power it is not he who receives wages from the owner of the land it is rather the owner of the land who receives a tribute from him the serf belongs to the soil and to the lord of the soil he brings its fruit the free labourer on the other hand sells his very self and that by fractions he auctions off 8 10 12 15 hours of his life one day like the next to the highest bidder to the owner of raw materials tools and the means of life i.e. to the capitalist the labourer belongs neither to an owner nor to the soil but 8 10 12 15 hours of his daily life belong to whomsoever buys them the worker leaves the capitalist to whom he has sold himself as often as he chooses and the capitalist discharges him as often as he sees fit as soon as he no longer gets any use or not the required use out of him but the worker whose only source of income is the sale of his labour power cannot leave the whole class of buyers i.e. the capitalist class unless he gives up his own existence he does not belong to this or that capitalist but to the capitalist class and it is for him to find his man i.e. to find a buyer in this capitalist class before entering more closely upon the relation of capital to wage labour we shall present briefly the most general conditions which come into consideration in the determination of wages wages as we have seen at the price of a certain commodity labour power wages therefore are determined by the same laws that determine the price of every other commodity the question then is how is the price of a commodity determined end of chapter 2 chapter 3 of wage labour and capital this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit Librivox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 3 by what is the price of a commodity determined by the competition between buyers and sellers by the relation of the demand to the supply of the call to the offer the competition by which the price of a commodity is determined is three fold the same commodity is offered for sale by various sellers whoever sells commodities of the same quality most cheaply is sure to drive the other sellers from the field and to secure the greatest market for himself the sellers therefore fight among themselves for the sales for the market each one of them wishes to sell and to sell as much as possible and if possible to sell alone to the exclusion of all other sellers each one sells cheaper than the other thus there takes place a competition among the sellers which forces down the price of the commodities offered by them but there is also a competition among the buyers this upon its side causes the price of the profit commodities to rise finally there is competition between the buyers and the sellers these wish to purchase as cheaply as possible those to sell as dearly as possible the result of this competition between buyers and sellers will depend upon the relations between the two above mentioned camps of competitors i.e. upon whether the competition in the army of sellers is stronger industry leads two great armies into the field against each other and each of these again is engaged in a battle among its own troops in its own ranks the army among whose troops there is less fighting carries off the victory over the opposing host let us suppose that there are 100 bales of cotton in the market and at the same time at purchases for a thousand bales of cotton in this case the demand is ten times greater than the supply competition among the buyers then will be very strong each of them tries to get hold of one bale if possible of the whole hundred bales this example is no arbitrary supposition in the history of commerce we have experienced periods of scarcity of cotton when some capitalists united together and sought to buy up not a hundred bales but the whole cotton supply of the world in the given case then one buyer seeks to drive the others from the field by offering a relatively higher price for the bales of cotton the cotton sellers who perceive the troops of the enemy in the most violent contention among themselves and who therefore are fully assured of the sale of their whole hundred bales will beware of pulling one another's hair in order to force down the price of cotton at the very moment in which their opponents race with one another to screw it up high so all of a sudden peace reigns in the army of sellers they stand opposed to the buyers like one man fold their arms in philosophic contentment and their claims would find no limit did not the offers of even the most importunate of buyers have a very definite limit if then the supply of a commodity is less than the demand for it competition among the sellers is very slight or there may be none at all among them in the same proportion in which this competition decreases the competition among the buyers increases result a more or less considerable rise in the prices of commodities it is well known that the opposite case with the opposite result happens more frequently great excessive supply over demand desperate competition among the sellers and a lack of buyers forced sales of commodities at ridiculously low prices but what is a rise and what a fall of prices what is a high and what a low price a grain of sand is high when examined through a microscope and a tower is low when compared with a mountain and if the price is determined by the relation of supply and demand by what is the relation of supply and demand determined let us turn to the first worthy citizen we meet he will not hesitate one moment but like Alexander the Great will cut this metaphysical knot with his multiplication table he will say to us that the price of commodities which I sell has cost me 100 pounds and out of the sale of these goods I make 110 pounds within the year you understand that's an honest sound reasonable profit but if in the exchange I receive 120 or 130 pounds that's a higher profit and if I should get as much as 200 pounds that would be an extraordinary an enormous profit what is it then a citizen as the standard of his profit the cost of the production of his commodities if in exchange for these goods he receives a quantity of other goods whose production has cost less he has lost if he receives in exchange for his goods a quantity of other goods whose production has cost more he has gained and he reckons the falling or rising of the profit according to the degree at which the exchange value of his goods stands or below his zero the cost of production we have seen how the changing relation of supply and demand causes now a rise now a fall of prices now high now low prices if the price of a commodity rises considerably owing to a failing supply or a disproportionately growing demand then the price of some other commodity must have fallen in proportion for of course the price of a commodity only expresses in money the proportion in which other commodities will be given in exchange for it if for example the price of a yard of silk rises from two to three shillings the price of silver has fallen in relation to the silk and in the same way the prices of all other commodities whose prices have remained stationary have fallen in relation to the price of silk a large quantity of them must be given in exchange in order to obtain the same amount of silk now what will be the consequence of a rise in the price of a particular commodity a mass of capital will be thrown into the prosperous branch of industry and this immigration of capital into the provinces of the favoured industry will continue until it yields no more than the customary profits or rather until the price of its products owing to overproduction sinks below the cost of production conversely if the price of a commodity falls below its cost of production then capital will be withdrawn from the production of this commodity except in the case of a branch of industry which has become obsolete and is therefore doomed to disappear the production of such a commodity that is its supply will owing to this flight of capital continue to decrease until it corresponds to the demand and the price of the commodity rises again to the level of its cost of production or rather until the supply has fallen below the demand and its price has risen above its cost of production for the current price of a commodity is always either above or below its cost of production we see how capital continually emigrates out of the province of one industry and immigrates into that of another the high price produces an excessive immigration and the low price an excessive emigration we could show from another point of view how not only the supply but also the demand is determined by the cost of production but this would lead us too far away from our subject we have just seen how the fluctuations of supply and demand always bring the price of a commodity back to its cost of production the actual price of a commodity indeed stands always above or below the cost of production but the rise and fall reciprocally balance each other so that within a certain period of time if the ebbs and flows of the industry are reckoned up together the commodities will be exchanged for one another in accordance with their cost of production their price is thus determined by their cost of production the determination of price by the cost of production is not to be understood in the sense of the bourgeois economists the economists say that the average price of commodities equals the cost of production that is the law the anarchic movement in which the rise is compensated for by a fall and the fall by a rise they regard as an accident we might just as well consider the fluctuations as the law and the determination of the price by the cost of production as an accident as is in fact done by certain other economists but it is precisely these fluctuations which viewed more closely carry the most frightful devastation in their train and, like an earthquake cause bourgeois society to shake to its very foundations it is precisely these fluctuations that force the price to conform to the cost of production in the totality of this disorderly movement is to be found its order in the course of this industrial anarchy in this circular movement competition balances as it were the one extravagance by the other we thus see that the price of a commodity is indeed determined by its cost of production but in such a manner that the periods in which the price of these commodities rises above the costs of production are balanced by the periods in which it sinks below the cost of production and vice versa of course this does not hold good for a single given product of an industry but only for that branch of industry so also it does not hold good for an individual manufacturer but only for the whole class of manufacturers the determination of price by cost of production is tantamount to the determination of price by the labour time requisite to the production of a commodity for the cost of production consists first of raw materials and wear and tear of tools etc i.e. of certain industrial products whose production has cost a certain number of work days which therefore represent a certain amount of labour time and secondly of direct labour which is also measured by its duration end of chapter 3 chapter 4 of wage labour and capital this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit Librivox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 4 by what are wages determined now the same general laws which regulate the price of commodities in general naturally regulate wages or the price of labour power wages will now rise now fall according to the relation of supply and demand according as competition shapes itself between the buyers of labour power the capitalists and the sellers of labour power the workers the fluctuations of wages correspond to the fluctuation in the price of commodities in general but within the limits of these fluctuations the price of labour power will be determined by the cost of production by the labour time necessary for the production of this commodity labour power what then is the cost of production of labour power it is the cost required for the maintenance of the labourer as a labourer and for his education and training as a labourer therefore the short of the time required for training up to a particular sort of work the smaller is the cost of production of the worker the lower is the price of his labour power his wages in those branches of industry in which hardly any period of apprenticeship is necessary and the mere bodily existence of the worker is sufficient the cost of his production is limited almost exclusively to the commodities necessary for keeping him in working condition the price of his work will therefore be determined by the price of his subsistence here however there enters another consideration the manufacturer who calculates his cost of production and in accordance with it the price of the product takes into account the wear and tear of the instruments of labour if a machine costs him for example a thousand shillings and this machine is used up in ten years he adds 100 shillings annually to the price of the commodities in ten years to replace the worn out machine with a new one in the same manner the cost of production of simple labour power must include the cost of propagation by means of which the race of workers is enabled to multiply itself and to replace worn out workers with new ones the wear and tear of the worker therefore is calculated in the same manner as the wear and tear of the machine thus the cost of production of simple labour power amounts to the cost of the existence and propagation of the worker the price of this cost of existence and propagation constitutes wages the wages thus determined are called the minimum of wages this minimum wage like the determination of the price of commodities in general by cost of production does not hold good for the single individual but only for the race individual workers indeed millions of workers do not receive enough to be able to exist and to propagate themselves but the wages of the whole working class adjust themselves within the limits of their fluctuations to this minimum now that we have come to an understanding in regard to the most general laws which govern wages as well as the price of every other commodity we can examine our subject more particularly end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of wage labour and capital this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by Karl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Karl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 5 the nature and growth of capital consists of raw materials instruments of labour and means of subsistence of all kinds which are employed in producing new raw materials new instruments and new means of subsistence all these components of capital are created by labour products of labour accumulated labour accumulated labour that serves as a means to new production is capital so say the economists what is a negro slave a man of the black race the one explanation is worthy of the other a negro is a negro only under certain conditions does he become a slave a cotton spinning machine is a machine for spinning cotton only under certain conditions does it become capital torn away from these conditions it is as little capital as gold is itself money or sugar is the price of sugar in the process of production human beings work not only upon nature but also upon one another they produce only by working together in a specified manner and reciprocally exchanging their activities in order to produce they enter into definite connections in relations to one another these social connections in relations does their influence upon nature operate i.e. does production take place these social relations between the producers and the conditions under which they exchange their activities and share in the total act of production will naturally vary according to the character of the means of production with the discovery of a new instrument of warfare the firearm the internal organization of the army was necessarily altered the relations within which individuals compose an army and can work as an army were transformed and the relation of different armies to one another was likewise changed we thus see that the social relations within which individuals produce the social relations of production are altered transformed with the change and developments of the material means of production the relations of production in their totality constitute what is called the social relations society and moreover a society at a definite stage of historical development a society with peculiar distinctive characteristics ancient society feudal society bourgeois or capitalist society are such totalities of relations of production each of which denotes a particular stage of development in the history of mankind capital also is a social relation of production it is a bourgeois relation of production a relation of production of bourgeois society the means of subsistence the instruments of labour the raw materials of which capital consists have they not been produced and accumulated under given social conditions within definite special relations are they not employed for new production under given special conditions within definite social relations and does not just the definite social character stamp the products which serve for new production as capital capital consists not only of means of subsistence instruments of labour and raw materials not only as material products it consists just as much of exchange values all products of which it consists are commodities capital consequently is not only a sum of material products it is a sum of commodities of exchange values of social magnitudes capital remains the same whether we put cotton in the place of wool rice in the place of wheat steamships in the place of railroads provided only that the cotton the rice the steamships the body of capital have the same exchange value the same price as the wool the wheat the railroads in which it was previously embodied the bodily form of capital may transform itself continually while capital does not suffer the least alteration but though every capital is a sum of commodities i.e. of exchange values it does not follow that every sum of commodities of exchange values is capital every sum of exchange values is an exchange value each particular exchange value is a sum of exchange values for example a house worth a thousand pounds is an exchange value of a thousand pounds a piece of paper worth one penny is a sum of exchange values of one hundred one hundredths of a penny products which are exchangeable for others commodities the definite proportion in which they are exchangeable forms their exchange value or expressed in money their price the quantity of these products can have no effect on their character as commodities as representing an exchange value as having a certain price whether a tree be large or small it remains a tree whether we exchange iron in penny weights or hundred weights or products does this alter its character its being a commodity or exchange value according to the quantity it is a commodity of greater or lesser value of higher or lower price how then does a sum of commodities of exchange values become capital thereby that is an independent social power i.e. as the power of a part of society it preserves itself and multiplies by exchange with direct living labour power the existence of a class which possess nothing but the ability to work is a necessary presupposition of capital it is only the dominion of past accumulated materialised labour over immediate living labour that stamps the accumulated labour with the character of capital capital does not consist in the fact that accumulated labour serves living labour as a means for new production it consists in the fact that living labour serves accumulated labour as the means of preserving and multiplying its exchange value end of chapter 5 chapter 6 of wage labour and capital this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit Librivox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 6 relation of wage labour to capital what is it that takes place in the exchange between the capitalist and the wage labour the labourer receives means of subsistence labour the productive activity of the labourer the creative force by which the worker not only replaces what he consumes but also gives to the accumulated labour a greater value than it previously possessed the labourer gets from the capitalist a portion of the existing means of subsistence for what purpose do these means of subsistence serve him for immediate consumption but as soon as I consume means of subsistence they are irrevocably lost to me unless I employ the time during which these means sustain my life in producing new means of subsistence in creating by my labour new values in place of the values lost in conditions of subsistence but as soon as I consume means subsistence new values in place of the values lost in consumption but it is just this noble reproductive power that the labourer surrenders to the capitalist in exchange for means of subsistence received consequently he has lost it for himself let us take an example for one shilling a labourer works all day long in the fields of a farmer to whom he thus secures a return of two shillings the farmer not only receives the replaced value which he has given to the day labourer he has doubled it therefore he has consumed the one shilling that he gave to the day labourer in a fruitful productive manner for the one shilling he has bought the labour power of the day labourer which creates products of the soil of twice the value and out of one shilling makes two the day labourer on the contrary receives in the place of his productive force whose results he has just surrendered to the farmer one shilling which he exchanges for means of subsistence which he consumes more or less quickly the one shilling has therefore been consumed in a double manner reproductively for the capitalist for it has been exchanged for labour power which brought forth two shillings unproductively for the worker for it has been exchanged for means of subsistence which are lost forever and whose value he can obtain again only by repeating the same exchange with the farmer capital therefore presupposes wage labour wage labour presupposes capital they condition each other each brings the other into existence does a worker in a cotton factory produce only cotton no he produces capital produces values which serve a new to command his work and to create by means of it new values capital can multiply itself only by exchanging itself for labour power by calling wage labour into life the labour power of the wage labourer can exchange itself for capital only by increasing capital by strengthening that very power whose slave it is increase of capital therefore is increase of the proletariat i.e. of the working class and so the bourgeoisie and its economists maintain that the interest of the capitalist and of the labourer is the same and in fact so they are the worker perishes if capital does not keep him busy capital perishes if it does not exploit labour power which in order to exploit it must buy the more quickly the capital destined for production the productive capital increases the more prosperous industry is the more the bourgeoisie enriches itself the better business gets so many more workers does the capitalist need so much the dearer does the worker sell himself the fastest possible growth of productive capital is therefore the indispensable condition for a tolerable life to the labourer but what is the growth of productive capital growth of the power of accumulated labour over living labour growth of the rule of the bourgeoisie over the working class when wage labour produces the alien wealth dominating it the power hostile to it capital there flow back to it its means of employment ie its means of subsistence under the condition that it again becomes a part of capital that it become again the lever whereby capital is to be forced into an accelerated expansive movement to say that the interests of capital and the interests of the workers are identical signifies only this that capital and wage labour are two sides of one and the same relation the one conditions the other in the same way that the user and the borrower condition each other as long as the wage labourer remains a wage labourer his lot is dependent upon capital that is what the boasted community of interests between worker and capitalists amounts to if capital grows the mass of wage labour grows the number of wage workers increases in a word the sway of capital extends over a greater mass of individuals let us suppose the most favourable case if productive capital grows the demand for labour grows it therefore increases the price of labour power wages a house may be large or small as long as the neighbouring houses are likewise small it satisfies all social requirement for a residence but let there arise next to the little house a palace and the little house shrinks to a hut the little house now makes it clear that its inmate has no social position at all to maintain or but a very insignificant one and however high it may shoot up in the course of civilisation if the neighbouring palace rises in equal or even in greater measure the occupant of the relatively little house will always find himself more uncomfortable more dissatisfied more cramped within his four walls an appreciable rise in wages presupposes a rapid growth of productive capital rapid growth of productive capital calls forth just as rapid a growth of wealth of luxury of social needs and social pleasures therefore although the pleasures of the labourer have increased the social gratification which they afford has fallen in comparison with the increased pleasures of the capitalist which are inaccessible to the worker in comparison with the stage of development of society in general our wants and pleasures have their origin in society we therefore measure them in relation to society we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification since they are of a social nature they are of a relative nature but wages are not at all determined merely by the sum of commodities for which they may be exchanged other factors enter into the problem what the workers directly receive for their labour power is a certain sum of money our wages determined merely by this money price in the 16th century the gold and silver circulation in Europe increased in consequence of the discovery of richer and more easily worked mines in America the value of gold and silver therefore fell in relation to other commodities the workers received the same amount of coin silver for their labour power as before the money price of their work remained the same and yet their wages had fallen for in exchange for the same amount of silver they obtained a smaller amount of other commodities this was one of the circumstances which furthered the growth of capital the rise of the bourgeoisie in the 18th century let us take another case in the winter of 1847 in consequence of bad harvest the most indispensable means of subsistence grains, meat, butter, cheese etc rose greatly in price let us suppose that the workers still received the same sum of money for their labour power as before did not their wages fall to be sure for the same money they received in exchange less bread meat etc their wages fell not because the value of silver was less but because the value of the means of subsistence had increased finally let us suppose that the money price of labour power remained the same while all agricultural had fallen in price because of the employment of new machines of favourable seasons etc for the same money the workers could now buy more commodities of all kinds their wages have therefore risen just because their money value has not changed the money price of labour power the nominal wages do not therefore coincide with the actual or real wages i.e. with the amount of commodities which are actually given in exchange for the wages if then we speak of a rise or fall of wages we have to keep in mind not only the money price of labour power the nominal wages but also the real wages but neither the nominal wages i.e. the amount of money for which the labourer sells himself to the capitalist nor the real wages i.e the amount of commodities which he can buy for this money exhaust the relations which are comprehended in the term wages wages are determined above all by their relation to the gain the profit of the capitalist in other words wages are a proportionate relative quantity real wages express the price of labour power in relation to the price of commodities relative wages on the other hand express the share of immediate labour in the value newly created by it in relation to the share of it which falls to accumulated labour to capital end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of wage labour and capital this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 7 the general law that determines the rise and fall of wages and profits we have said wages are not a share of the worker in the commodities produced by him wages are that part of already existing commodities with which the capitalist buys a certain amount of productive labour power but the capitalist must replace these wages out of the price for which he sells the product made by the worker he must so replace it that as a rule there remains to him a surplus above the cost of production expended by him, that is he must get a profit the selling price of the commodities produced by the worker is divided from the point of view of the capitalist into three parts first the replacement of the price of the raw materials advanced by him in addition to the replacement of the wear and tear of the tools, machines and other instruments of labour likewise advanced by him second the replacement of the wages advanced and third the surplus left over i.e. the profit of the capitalist while the first part merely replaces previously existing values it is evident that the replacement of the wages and the surplus the profit of capital are as a whole taken out of the new value which is produced by the labour of the worker and added to the raw materials and in this sense we can view wages as well as profit for the purpose of comparing them with each other as shares in the product of the worker real wages may remain the same they may even rise nevertheless the relative wages may fall let us suppose for instance that all means of subsistence have fallen two thirds in price while the days wages have fallen but one third for example from three to two shillings although the worker can now get a greater amount of commodities with these two shillings than he formally did with three shillings yet his wages have decreased in proportion to the gain of the capitalist the profit of the capitalist the manufacturers for instance has increased one shilling which means that for a smaller amount of exchange values which he pays to the worker the latter must produce a greater amount of exchange values than before the share of capital in proportion to the share of labour has risen the gain of social wealth between capital and labour has become still more unequal the capitalist commands a greater amount of labour with the same capital the power of the capitalist class over the working class has grown the social position of the worker has become worse has been forced down still another degree below that of the capitalist what then is the general law that determines the rise and fall of wages and profit in their reciprocal relation they stand in inverse proportion to each other the share of capital profit increases in the same proportion in which the share of labour wages falls advice versa profit rises in the same degree in which wages fall it falls in the same degree in which wages rise it might perhaps be argued that the capitalist class could gain by an advantageous exchange of his products with other capitalists by a rise in the demand for his commodities whether in consequence of the opening up of new markets or in consequence of temporarily decreasing demands in the old market and so on that the profit of the capitalist therefore may be multiplied by taking advantage of other capitalists independently of the rise and fall of wages of the exchange of value of labour power or that the profit of the capitalist may also rise through improvements in the instruments of labour new applications of the forces of nature and so on but in the first place it must be admitted that the result remains the same although brought about in an opposite manner profit indeed has not risen because wages have fallen but wages have fallen because profit has risen with the same amount of another man's labour the capitalist has brought a larger amount of exchange values without having paid more for the labour on that account i.e. the work is paid for less in proportion to the net gain which it yields to the capitalist in the second place it must be born in mind that despite the fluctuations in the prices of commodities the average price of every commodity the proportion in which it exchanges for other commodities is determined by its cost of production the acts of overreaching and taking advantage of one another within the capitalist ranks necessarily equalize themselves the improvements of machinery the new applications of the forces of nature in the service of production make it possible to produce in a given period of time with the same amount of labour and capital a larger amount of products but in no wise a larger amount of exchange values if by the use of the spinning machine I can furnish twice as much yarn in an hour as before its invention for instance a hundred pounds instead of fifty pounds in the long run I receive back in exchange for this hundred pounds no more commodities than I did before for fifty because the cost of production has fallen by one half or because I can furnish double the product at the same cost finally in whatsoever proportion the capitalist class whether of one country or of the entire world market distribute the net revenue of products among themselves the total amount of this net revenue always consists exclusively of the amount by which accumulated labour has been increased from the proceeds of direct labour this whole amount therefore grows in the same proportion in which labour augments capital i.e. in the same proportion in which profit rises as compared with wages end of chapter 7 chapter 8 of wage labour and capital this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 wage labour and capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels chapter 8 the interests of capital and wage labour are diametrically opposed effect of growth of productive capital on wages we thus see that even if we keep ourselves within the relation of capital and wage labour the interests of capital and the interests of wage labour are diametrically opposed to each other a rapid growth of capital is synonymous with a rapid growth of profits profits can grow rapidly only when the price of labour the relative wages decrease just as rapidly relative wages may fall although real wages rise simultaneously with nominal wages with the money value of labour provided only that the real wage does not rise in the same proportion as the profit if for instance in good business years wages rise 5% while profits rise 30% the proportional the relative wage has not increased but decreased if therefore the income of the worker increases with the rapid growth of capital there is at the same time a widening of the social chasm that divides the worker from the capitalist and increase in the power of capital over labour upon capital to say that the worker has an interest in the rapid growth of capital means only this that the more speedily the worker augments the wealth of the capitalist the larger will be the crumbs which fall to him the greater will be the number of workers that can be called into existence the more can the mass of slaves dependent upon capital be increased we have thus seen that even the most favourable situation for the working class namely the most rapid growth of capital however much it may improve the material life of the worker does not abolish the antagonism between his interests and the interests of the capitalist profit and wages remain as before in inverse proportion if capital grows rapidly wages may rise but the profit of capital rises disproportionately faster the material position of the worker has improved but at the cost of his social position the social chasm that separates him from the capitalist has widened finally to say that the most favourable condition for wage labour is the fastest possible growth of productive capital is the same as to say the quicker the working class multiplies and augments the power inimical to it the wealth of another which lords over that class the more favourable will be the conditions under which it will be permitted to toil anew at the multiplication of bourgeois wealth at the enlargement of the power of capital content thus to forge for itself the golden chains by which the bourgeoisie drags it in its train growth of productive capital and rise of wages are they really so indissolubly united as the bourgeois economists maintain we must not believe their mere words we dare not believe them even when they claim that the fatter capital is the more will its slave be pampered the bourgeoisie is too much enlightened it keeps its accounts much too carefully to share the prejudices of the feudal lord who makes an ostentatious display of the magnificence of his retinue the conditions of existence of the bourgeoisie compel it to attend carefully to its bookkeeping we must therefore examine more closely into the following question in what manner does the growth of productive capital affect wages if as a whole the productive capital of bourgeois society grows there takes place a more many-sided accumulation of labour the individual capitals increase in number and in magnitude the multiplication of individual capitals increases the competition among capitalists the increasing magnitude of increasing capitals provides the means of leading more powerful armies of workers with more gigantic instruments of war upon the industrial battlefield the one capitalist can drive the other from the field and carry off his capital only by selling more cheaply in order to sell more cheaply without ruining himself he must produce more cheaply i.e. increase the productive forces of labour as much as possible but the productive forces of labour are increased above all by a greater division of labour and by a more general introduction and constant improvement of machinery the larger the army of workers among whom the labour is subdivided the more gigantic the scale upon which machinery is introduced the more in proportion does the cost of production decrease the more fruitful is the labour and so there arises among the capitalists a universal rivalry for the increase of the division of labour and of machinery and for their exploitation upon the greatest possible scale if now by a greater division of labour by the application and improvement of new machines by a more advantageous exploitation of the forces of nature on a larger scale a capitalist has found the means of producing with the same amount of labour whether it be direct or accumulated labour a larger amount of products of commodities than his competitors if for instance he can produce a whole yard of linen in the same labour time in which his competitors weave half a yard how will this capitalist act he could keep on selling half a yard of linen at old market price but this would not have the effect of driving his opponents from the field and enlarging his own market but his need of a market has increased in the same measure in which his productive power has extended the more powerful and costly means of production that he has called into existence enable him, it is true to sell his wares more cheaply but they compel him at the same time to sell more wares to get control of a very much greater market for his commodities consequently this capitalist will sell his half yard of linen more cheaply than his competitors but the capitalist will not sell the whole yard so cheaply as his competitors sell the half yard although the production of the whole yard costs him no more than does that of the half yard to the others otherwise he would make no extra profit and would get back in exchange only the cost of production he might obtain a greater income from having set in motion a larger capital and from having made a greater profit on his capital than the others moreover he attains the object he is aiming at if he prices his goods only a small percentage lower than his competitors he drives them off the field he rests from them at least part of their market by underselling them and finally let us remember that the current price always stands either above or below the cost of production however commodity takes place in the favourable or unfavourable period of the industry according as the market price of the yard of linen stands above or below its former cost of production will the percentage vary at which the capitalist who has made use of the new and more faithful means of production sells above his real cost of production but the privilege of our capitalist is not of long duration other competing capitalists introduce the same machines the same division of labour and introduce them upon the same or even upon a greater scale and finally this introduction becomes so universal that the price of the linen is lowered not only below its old but even below its new cost of production the capitalists therefore find themselves in their mutual relations in the same situation in which they were before the introduction of the new means of production and if they are by these means enabled to offer double the product at the old price they are now forced to furnish double the product for less than the old price having arrived at the new point the new cost of production the battle for supremacy in the market has to be fought out anew given more division of labour and more machinery and their results a greater scale upon which division of labour and machinery are exploited and competition again brings the same reaction against this result End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Wage Labour and Capital This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by Carl Manchester 2007 Wage Labour and Capital by Carl Marx translated by Friedrich Engels Chapter 9 effect of capitalist competition on the capitalist class the middle class and the working class we thus see how the method of production and the means of production are constantly enlarged revolutionised how division of labour necessarily draws after it greater division of labour the employment of machinery greater employment of machinery work upon a large scale work upon a still greater scale this is the law that continually throws capitalist production out of its old roots and compels capital to strain evermore the productive forces of labour for the very reason that it has already strained them the law that grants it no respite and constantly shouts in its ear march, march this is no other law than that which within the periodical fluctuations of commerce necessarily adjusts the price of a commodity to its cost of production no matter how powerful the means of production which a capitalist may bring into the field competition will make their adoption general and from the very moment that they have been generally adopted the sole result of the greater productiveness of his capital will be that he must furnish at the same price 10, 20, 100 times as much as before but since he must find a market for perhaps 1,000 times as much in order to outweigh the lower selling price by the greater quantity of the sale since now a more extensive sale is necessary not only to gain a greater profit but also in order to replace the cost of production the instrument of production itself grows always more costly as we have seen and since this more extensive sale has become a question of life and death for him but also for his rivals the old struggle must begin again and it is all the more violent the more powerful the means of production already invented are the division of labour and the application of machinery will therefore take a fresh start and upon an even greater scale whatever be the power of the means of production which are implied competition seeks to rob capital of the golden fruits of this power by reducing the price of commodities to the cost of production in the same measure in which production is cheapened i.e. in the same measure in which more can be produced with the same amount of labour it compels by a law which is irresistible a still greater cheapening of production the sale of ever greater masses of product for smaller prices thus the capitalist will have gained nothing more by his efforts than the obligation to furnish a product in the same labour time in a word more difficult conditions for the profitable employment of his capital while competition therefore constantly pursues him with its law of the cost of production and turns against himself every weapon that he forges against his rivals the capitalist continually seeks to get the best of competition by relentlessly introducing further subdivision of labour and new machines though more expensive enable him to produce more cheaply instead of waiting until the new machines shall have been rendered obsolete by competition if we now conceive this feverish agitation as it operates in the market of the whole world we shall be in a position to comprehend how the growth accumulation and concentration of capital bring in their train an ever more detailed subdivision of labour an ever greater improvement of old machines and a constant application of new machines a process which goes on uninterruptedly with feverish haste and upon an ever more gigantic scale but what effect to these conditions which are inseparable from the growth of productive capital have upon the determination of wages the greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five ten or twenty labourers it therefore increases competition among the labourers five fold, ten fold or twenty fold the labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other but also by doing the work of five, ten or twenty and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour which is introduced and steadily improved by capital furthermore to the same degree in which the division of labour increases is the labour simplified the special skill of the labourer becomes worthless he becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production with neither physical nor mental elasticity his work becomes accessible to all therefore competitors press upon him from all sides moreover it must be remembered that the more simple the more easily learnt the work is so much the less is its cost to production the expense of its acquisition and so much the lower must the wages sink for like the price of any other commodity they are determined by the cost of production therefore in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory more repulsive do competition increase and wages decrease the labourer seeks to maintain the total of his wages for a given time by performing more labour either by working a greater number of hours or by accomplishing more in the same number of hours thus urged on by want he himself multiplies the disastrous effects of division of labour the result is the more he works the less wages he receives and for this simple reason the more he works the more he competes against his fellow workmen the more he compels them to compete against him and to offer themselves on the same wretched conditions as he does so that in the last analysis he competes against himself as a member of the working class machinery produces the same effects but upon a much larger scale it supplants skilled labourers by unskilled men by women adults by children where newly introduced it throws workers upon the streets in great masses and as it becomes more highly developed and more productive it discards them in additional those smaller numbers we have hastily sketched in broad outlines the industrial war of capitalists among themselves this war has the peculiarity that the battles in it are won less by recruiting than by discharging the army of workers the generals the capitalists as to who can discharge the greatest number of industrial soldiers the economists tell us to be sure that those labourers who have been rendered superfluous by machinery find new venues of employment they dare not assert directly that the same labourers that have been discharged find situations in new branches of labour facts cry out too loudly against this strictly speaking that new means of employment will be found for other sections of the working class for example for that portion of the young generation of labourers who were about to enter upon that branch of industry which had just been abolished of course this is a great satisfaction to the disabled labourers there will be no lack of fresh exploitable blood and muscle for the messas capitalists the dead may bury their dead this consolation seems to be intended more for the comfort of the capitalists themselves than their labourers if the whole class of the wage labourer were to be annihilated by machinery how terrible that would be for capital which without wage labour ceases to be capital but even if we assume that all who are directly forced out of employment by machinery as well as all of the rising generation who were waiting for a change of employment in the same branch of industry do actually find some new employment are we to believe that this new employment will pay as high wages as did the one they have lost if it did it would be in contradiction to the laws of political economy we have seen how modern industry always tends to the substitution of the simpler and more subordinate employments for the higher and more complex ones how then could a mass of workers thrown out of one branch of industry by machinery find refuge in another branch unless they were to be paid more poorly an exception to the law has been adduced, namely the workers who were employed in the manufacture of machinery itself as soon as there is in industry a greater demand for and a greater consumption of machinery it is said that the number of machines must necessarily increase consequently also the manufacture of machines consequently also the employment of workers in machine manufacture and the workers employed in this branch of industry are skilled even educated workers since the year 1840 this assertion which even before that date was only half true has lost all semblance of truth for the most diverse machines are now applied to the manufacture of the machines themselves on quite as extensive a scale as in the manufacture of cotton yarn and the labourers employed in machine factories can but play the role of very stupid machines alongside of the highly ingenious machines but in place of the man who has been dismissed by the machine the factory may employ perhaps three children and one woman must not the wages of the man have previously sufficed for the three children and one woman must not the minimum wages have sufficed for the preservation and propagation of the race what then to these beloved bourgeois phrases prove nothing more than that now four times as many workers' lives are used up as there were previously in order to obtain the livelihood of one working family to sum up the more productive capital grows the more it extends the division of labour and the application of machinery the more the division of labour and the application of machinery extend the more does competition extend among the workers the more do their wages shrink together in addition the working class is also recruited from the higher strata of society a mass of small business men and of people living upon the interest is precipitated into the ranks of the working class and they will have nothing else to do than to stretch out their arms alongside the arms of the workers thus the forest of outstretched arms begging for work grows ever thicker while the arms themselves grow ever leaner it is evident that the small manufacturer cannot survive in a struggle in which the first condition of success is production upon an ever greater scale it is evident that the small manufacturers are thereby increasing the number of candidates for the proletariat all this requires no further elucidation finally in the same measure in which the capitalists are compelled by the movement described above to exploit the already existing gigantic means of production on an ever increasing scale and for this purpose to set in motion all the mainsprings of credit in the same measure do they increase the industrial earthquakes in the midst of which the commercial world can preserve itself only by sacrificing a portion of its wealth, its products and even its forces of production to the gods of the lower world in short the crises increase they become more frequent and more violent if for no other reason than for this alone that in the same measure in which the massive products grows and there the needs for extensive markets in the same measure does the world market shrink ever more and ever fewer markets remain to be exploited since every previous crisis has subjected to the commerce of the world a hitherto unconquered or but superficially exploited market but capital not only lives upon labour like a master at once distinguished and barbarous it drags with it into its grave the corpses of its slaves whole hecatombs of workers who perish in the crisis we see that if capital grows rapidly competition among the workers grows with even greater rapidity i.e. the means of employment and subsistence for the working class decrease in proportion even more rapidly but this notwithstanding the rapid growth of capital is the most favourable condition for wage labour END OF CHAPTER IX