chapter 10
- what is the limit of the working day? first there is the lower limit - the time required to reproduce the value of the labour power. the amount above this can be seen from the rate of surplus value, and has an upper limit: determined by the physical bounds of labour - it cannot be more than 24 hours, in fact for the labourer to be able to even partially reproduce his labour power it must be considerably less.
- since labour-power is sold for a day, the capitalist who bought it wants to maximise his use of it so tries to extend it as long as possible. but the labourer needs to be able to reproduce the same labour-power each day for the length of his working life, so if more is taken from him, shortening his working-life, he is being robbed. so under the laws of commodity exchange, both are have equal rights, the one as buyer and the other as seller, and so the length of the working day is determined by a struggle between the capitalist class and the working class.
- the example of corvee labour in the danubian principalities (most of which are now romania i think) as they joined a world market dominated by the capitalist form of production. there time spent working for oneself and for one's boss was physically divided - the first you did one your own land, the second on the lord's land. as the lords started trading more with the outside world, the amount of hours the demanded be expended on their land was ratcheted up further and further, but was obvious to the labourers, unlike under capitalism where the division of time is hidden.
- we then get an extensive history of the struggle over the length of the working day in england up to the 1860s. i'm not going to summarise it, but here are the basic points it illustrates: the effect of overwork on the health of workers; the gradual organisation of the working class; the need even on the part of capital to limit the working day to a natural one (not destroying it's workforce/cannon fodder for wars, ensure equal exploitation by all capitalists); the constant attempts to get around the new laws by capitalists; the fact that competition forced "good" capitalists to have bad practices until laws preventing them were passed and enforced.
- then there is a summary of struggle elsewhere, namely france and america, illustrating the centrality of struggles over the length of the working day.
- the labour comes out of the production process other than as he entered. at the market he appeared a free agent, but then finds that the time he is free to sell his labour power is the time he is forced to sell it. the working class has to band together and force an impassable social barrier to prevent the sale of their labour power being the sale of themselves and their families into slavery and death.
chapter 11
- the mass of surplus value produced for the capitalist by the labour-power he has bought for $3 is, if the rate of surplus value is 100%, $3.
- the value of variable capital he advances is equal to the average value of labour power employed multiplied by the number of labour-powers employed. so the magnitude of var capital varies directly as no. of labour powers. therefore the mass of surplus value produced = amount of var capital advanced times the rate of surplus value. i.e. it is determined by the compound ratio of the no. of labour powers exploited and the degree of exploitation of each individual labour power. or: with S= mass of surplus value, s=surplus value supplied by each labour power in an average day, v=variable capital advanced each day for one labour power, V= total var capital, P=value of average labour-power, a'/a (surplus labour/necessary labour) = degree of exploitation, n=no. of labour powers then:
S=s/v x V and P x a'/a x n
(supposing that the value of average labour power is constant and all labour powers employed are average)
- a decrease of one factor can be compensated by a corresponding increase in another. e.g. a decrease in variable capital can be compensated by an increase in exploitation; a decrease in no. of labour powers increase by an increase in hours. therefore within certain limits the supply of exploitable labour is independent of the supply of labourers. the mass of surplus value is unaltered if a fall in degree of exploitation is compensated by a proportional increase in variable capital/no. of labour powers. the natural limit of the working day sets the limit of this compensation. if the value of labour power and rate of surplus value are given, the mass of surplus value varies directly to amount of variable capital advanced but is unaffected by the ratio of constant to variable capital. this apparent contradiction is going to be addressed later.
- the labour set in motion by the total capital of society each day can be regarded as a single working day. if the length of the day is given, physically or socially, the mass of surplus value can only be increased by increasing the no. of labourers. population growth is the limit to production of surplus value by society's capital. if the population is given, the limit is set by the possible lengthening of the working day. this only holds for the form of surplus value considered thus far - see next chapter for a different kind.
- it can be seen that there is a minimum of exchange value in money or commodities required before it can be transformed into capital. first there is the minimum constant capital required and variable capital for at least one labourer. more means of production are required than if the labourer was working for themselves. if the capitalist also works he is but a hybrid between capitalist and worker, at some stage he must devote his whole time to the role of capitalist - appropriating and controlling the labour of others and the sale of the products. medieval guilds limited the no. of labourers employed by 1 mast - one only starts to truly become a capitalist when these limits are greatly exceeded - when a quantitative difference becomes a qualitative one.
- at different stages and in different spheres of capitalist production, the sum required to become a capitalist varies. sometimes the minimum required is greater than any individual has, giving rise to state subsidies and the formation of societies holding legal monopolies.
- in the process of production capital acquired the command over labour (functioning labour-power). as personified capital, the capitalist takes care that labour does work regularly and with the proper intensity.
- capital becomes a coercive relation compelling the working class to do more work than their life wants demand. it first does so under the existing technical conditions - hence the extension of the working day as prevalent in traditional industries such as baking as in the modern ones.
- from the point of view of the simple labour process the labourer stands in relation to the means of production as mere means and material of their own intelligent productive activity. from the point of view of the valorisation process the means of production are transformed in the means for absorbing the labour of others. the labour no longer employs the means of production, but vice versa. instead of being consumed by him as material elements of productive activity, they consume him as the ferment necessary to their own life process, and the life process of capital consists only in its movement as value constantly expanding and multiplying itself.
- the transformation of money into means of production transforms the means of production into a title and right to the labour and surplus labour of others. it is the inversion of the relation between dead and living labour, value and the value-creating force, mirrored in the consciousness of capitalists.
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