Discussion
chapter 26 - the secret of primitive accumulation
- capitalist production presupposes the pre-existence of considerable masses of capital in the hands of some, and only labour power in the hands of the producers - this accumulation must have occurred prior to capitalism being established.
- the historical process of primitive accumulation is that of divorcing the producer from the means of production, emancipation from serfdom on the one hand and expropriation of the labourer on the other to create owners of money and "free" labourers.
chapter 27 - expropriation of the agricultural population from the land
- taking england as the prime example, we have peasants and labourers starting with not only a small piece of land, but also the commons. feudal retainers we the first to be thrown on the labour market as proletarians, followed by peasants driven from the land and commons being seized (largely illegally), fuelled by rise in price in wool, so the nobility could make lots of money from sheep. legislation tried to prevent this (so that the country still had good infantry).
- the reformation with the seizing of church lands gave this a huge impulse to the process and removed the religious bulwark of traditional conditions of landed property.
- feudal obligations of landowners to the state were replaced with taxes on the peasantry and modern property rights, huge amounts of state land were seized and eventually the seizing of commons was done by decree as well as force. independent yeomen were replaced with servile tenants and the commons were added to large farms.
- the highland clearances the largest scale of this process, the former heads of clans driving their clansmen off the land to replace them with first sheep, then these with deer.
chapter 28 - legislation against the expropriated
- the masses of newly "freed" proletarians were too numerous to be absorbed by manufacture, and became paupers and vagabonds. violent legislation was then enacted against them, beating them into submissive proletarians, selling their labour submissively and accepting their situation.
- legislation was also brought in to keep wages down, lengthen the working day and prevent workers' organisation, as to begin with the variable part of capital was comparatively large, and so the demand for labour grew faster than labouring population. the anti-organisation laws were only withdrawn after the pressure of the mass of the working class.
chapter 29 - genesis of the capitalist farmer
- the above only explains the creation of the "free" labourer - where did the possessor of money come from? some serfs, such as bailiffs, when freed became farmers provided with seed and implements by the landlord and employing wage labour, dividing profits with the landlord. this situation changed to the farmer paying rent and advancing his own capital.
- leases were long (99 years) so they paid the same even as money depreciated in value and the value of the product of the land grew.
chapter 30 - reaction of the agricultural revolution on industrial capital
- first, the new proletarians were not in the guilds, so could be more freely exploited.
- improvements in agriculture meant that more was being produced by fewer people, so large amounts of means of subsistence were "set free" and turned into the material element of variable capital with the "freed" labourer must buy back with his wage (where previously he would have grown it himself.
- similarly raw material that would have been used by individual peasants and artisans was now more plentiful and became the material element of constant capital - turning from means of independent existence for the weavers to means of command and sucking of unpaid labour.
- all this was the creation of the home market - what was previously sold to the peasant, the farmer now sold to the manufacturer, and what the peasant formerly consumed himself the manufacturer now sold to the country.
- as formerly discussed, manufacture had its base in handicrafts and domestic industry, so these kept re-emerging in one place as they were suppressed in another, until modern industry wiped them out and completed the conquest of the home market.
chapter 31 - genesis of the industrial capitalist
- some small guild masters, independent artisans, even wage labourers became small capitalists.
- however, the middle ages gave us 2 types of developed capital: usury and merchant. these were at first prevented from becoming industrial capital in the country by feudal constitution and in the towns by the guilds, until these were dissolved. so the set up at sea ports and inland points beyond their control.
- colonisation of the americas, asia and africa was the true dawn of the era of capitalist production, as it formed the principal form of primitive accumulation, followed by the commercial wars of the european nations.
- colonies, national debt, modern taxation and protectionism were all methods that employed the power of the state to hasten the transition to the capitalist mode of production.
- loot brought home from the colonies turned into capital. trade ripened and colonies became markets for manufacture, with accelerated accumulation thanks to the monopoly of trade.
- national debt - alienation of the state - the system of public credit, turned money into capital instantly with little risk, enriching middlemen, creating joint-stock companies, stock exchange gambling and the bankocracy. this further gave rise to the system of international credit, concealing the origin of primitive accumulation (one nation could go loot the colonies the lend the money to another with no access to the colonies).
- to pay these debts, the state had to increase taxation, leading to the need for more loans for new expenses. these were raised on the necessary means of subsistence, raising prices and worsening the conditions of the workers and aiding the forcible expropriation of the lower-middle class.
- protectionism destroyed independent labourers and industry in dependent states (such as ireland).
- child labour from stolen children was used extensively in the establishment of manufacture, as was primitive accumulation via the slave trade - wage slavery built on slavery proper.
chapter 32 - historical tendency of capitalist accumulation
- small individual proprietors flourished for a while, but production could only be primitive as no cooperation, and brought new material agencies into play which eventually destroyed it.
- as soon as labourers turned into proletarians and means of production turned into capital, capital turns from the expropriation of the labourer working for himself to the expropriation of other capitalists. with this, a socialised labour process develops, entangling everyone in the world market, developing the international character of the capitalist regime.
- with it, the revolt of the working class grows, organised and united by the capitalist mode of production. the monopoly of capital becomes a fetter on the mode of production.
- capitalist mode of appropriation the result of the capitalist mode of production produces capitalist private property, the negation of individual private property (founded on the labour of the proprietor). but capitalist production begets its own negation - the negation of negation (i'm guessed the original would being used here is everyone's favourite german word, aufheben!). this does not re-establish private property of the producer, but individual property based on the acquisitions of the capitalist era, i.e. cooperation and possession in common of land and means of production. the first transition was necessarily very violent as it was the expropriation of the masses by the few, the second transition must be less so as it is the expropriation of the few by the masses.
chapter 33 - the modern theory of colonisation
- whilst at home the laws of individual laws of private property were applied to its antithesis, capitalist private property, in the colonies the former was actively suppressed to create the latter.
- where protectionism strove to create capitalists, colonisation strove to create wage workers, as money, means of production etc. are not capital without the labourer - capital is a social relation.
- it was found that in the colonies there were not enough wage labourers as land was so cheap imported labourers could soon run off and work for themselves, or even become competitors to their former employers, they did not agree to a social contract of being exploited. in other words, the law of supply and demand of labour was not working as capital liked, so they tried to enforce it by making land prohibitively expensive, so that any labourer managing to buy land would pay for the importing of his replacement.
- all this achieved was diverting emigration, but soon the colonies were saturated, hastened by large land give-aways to capitalists and aristocrats in some places, speculative companies for railways, mines, etc. in others, accompanied by raising of taxes after american civil war.
- all this lead to the discovery that the capitalist mode of production has as its fundamental condition the annihilation of self-earned private property and the expropriation of the labourer.
Friday 27 March 2009
Friday 20 March 2009
Chapter 25
Discussion
section 1 - increased demand for labour poewr that accompanies accumulation, the composition of capital remaining the same.
- composition of capital: on the side of value, determined by the division in constant and variable capital; on the side of materials, determined by the division between means of production and living labour power - value composition & technical composition respectively. the value composition insofar as it is determined by technical composition and mirrors the latter's changes is called organic composition (and is what is meant by composition unless otherwise specified).
- different capitals have different compositions in each branch of industry - the average of all in one branch gives the branch composition, that of all the branches, the composition of the total social capital if a country, which is what will be analysed.
- composition of capital remaining the same, growth of capital means more variable capital, therefore more demand for labour & increase of the labourers' subsistence fund in proportion to the growth of capital. the requirements of accumulated capital may exceed the increase of labour powers - demand exceed supply - and wages may rise. the capitalist mode of production reproduces on a constantly increasing scale, and so we get more proletariat and more capitalists. in this case the relation of the labourer to capital is only more extensive, not intensive.
- however, the increase in wages can at best mean a quantitative decrease in unpaid labour, which is never allowed to be such that it threatens the system as a whole. either the price of labour keeps rising, because the rise does not interfere with the progress of accumulation. or accumulation slackens because of the rise, but then the reason for the fall in the rate of accumulation vanishes and the problem fixes itself.
- excess of capital makes exploitable labour powers insufficient, not the reverse. a relative diminution of capital makes the price of exploitable labour powers in excess. both appear caused by the movements of masses of labour powers, but aren't - it is the rate of accumulation which is the independent variable, rate of wages is a dependent variable. really it is a relation between the unpaid an paid labour of the labouring population - if the former rises very fast, more of the latter is required by capitalists, and the proportion of the former falls. once it falls past a certain point less paid labour is required.
section 2 - relative diminution of variable capital simultaneous with progress of accumulation and the accompanying concentration.
- degree of productivity of labour is expressed in the relative extent of the means of production that one labourer during a given time with the same tension of labour power turns into products.
- an increase in constant capital vs. variable part of the composition of capital leads to the value compared to the mass of means of production consumed to diminish, and the difference in the value composition is less than in the mass of means of production and labour into which they are converted. though the relative magnitude of variable capital can fall, the absolute magnitude can rise. all methods for raising the social productive power of labour are methods of increasing the production of surplus value, of producing capital by capital, of accelerated accumulation.
- the total social capital is divided into individual capitals. portions of these break off the original capitals and grow independently. their number grows with accumulation, each sphere of production divided into individual capitals who face each other as competitors.
- accumulation presents itself as on the one hand increased concentration of the means of production and command over labour, and on the other hand as the repulsion of many individual capitals from each other. this is counteracted by the attraction pulling many small capitals into a few large ones - the field of action of the latter being those capitals already existing so is centralisation rather than concentration of accumulation.
- the laws for this won't be discussed here, just hinted at: competition is fought via cheap commodities -> more productive labour, cheaper commodities -> this depends on the scale of production -> big capitals beat smaller ones. as more capital is required to start where the capitalist mode has already developed, small capitals crowd into new areas. competition is in direct proportion to their numbers and inverse proportion to their magnitude. it ends in the ruin of many small capitals, some swallowed by the big ones, some vanish.
- with capitalist production, credit emerges, drawing large and small money together, a specific machine for the centralisation of capitals.
- centralisation is more intense the more the mode of production is developed with accumulation, and becomes a lever of this development as separate processes become socially combined. the increased bulk of capital becomes the material basis for an uninterrupted revolution in the mode of production - old areas swallowed, new ones created, the labour in existing branches made more productive - more capital in means of production, less in labour. eventually even old capital is transformed as the machines are replaced, independent of the absolute growth of social capital, a process helped by centralisation turning number of old capitals into one.
- additional capital attracts fewer and fewer labourers in proportion to its magnitude and the old capital periodically reproduced with change in composition repels more and more of the labourers it formerly employed.
section 3 - progressive production of a relative surplus population or industrial reserve army
- as demand for labour is determined by variable capital, and this falls constantly both in old and new capital, it falls relative to the magnitude of the total capital and at an accelerated rate as this magnitude increases, the variable part increases but in a constantly diminishing proportion.
- the accelerated diminution of variable capital with the increase of total capital, the latter required to absorb more workers and keep those already employed, takes the form of the labouring population always increasing faster than the means of employment (variable capital). capital accumulation produces in direct ratio to its energy and extent a population of greater extent than suffices for the average needs of the self-expansion of capital - surplus population.
- the movement of the whole social capital accumulation causes periodic changes, the various phases distributed over all spheres - a change of magnitude, composition or lack thereof different in each. everywhere and increase of variable capital is always connected to violent fluctuations and transitory production of surplus population either by throwing workers out or not absorbing new ones fast enough.
- the faster the changes, the more is the population made surplus - labourers produce the means by which w\they are made redundant along with the accumulation of capital to an ever increasing extent.
- the surplus population becomes a condition of the existence of the capitalist mode of production - ever ready for exploitation, giving capital a power of sudden expansion that grows with productiveness and accumulation, not just for reasons already given, but also because the technical conditions allow rapid transformation of the surplus product into means of production. old and new branches require great numbers of labourers suddenly without injuring the other branches.
- expansion preliminary to contraction - the latter evokes the former, which is impossible without disposable human material, provided by the process of constantly "setting free" labourers. credit is a symptom, not a cause of this.
- as labour can also be made more intense, an increase in variable capital does not necessarily mean more labourers will be employed. the more extended the scale of production, the stronger is the motive to do so, and this force increases with accumulation of capital. so with the progress of accumulation, more variable capital sets in motion more labour but not more labourers, and variable capital of the same magnitude sets in motion more labour with the same mass of labour power, and finally a greater number of inferior labour powers are used by displacing higher ones.
- so the production of a surplus population is faster than both the technical revolution in the process of production and the relative diminution of the variable part of capital. overwork of the employed swells the ranks of the unemployed, and the competition of the latter forces the former to submit to overwork, which all becomes a source of enrichment for individual capitalists.
- the general movement of wages is exclusively regulated by the expansion and contraction of the industrial reserve army, which corresponds to changes of the industrial cycle, by the varying proportion the working class is divided into active and reserve army.
- relative surplus population becomes the pivot for the law of supply and demand of labour, confining the field of action of this law with limits absolutely convenient to the activity of exploitation and the domination of capital.
- increased demand for labour does not equal increase of capital; increase in supply of labour is not the same as increase of working class. capital works on both sides simultaneously.
section 4 - different forms of the relative surplus population. the general law of capitalist accumulation.
- the surplus population has three forms: floating, latent and stagnant.
- the floating are the workers in centres of industry sometimes attracted, sometimes repelled by capital, child workers discharged when too old - leading to the contradiction that the natural increase of labourers does not satisfy the requirements of accumulation, yet is always in excess because younger labourers are needed, and labourers are chained to one branch of industry by division of labour. the rate that capital uses up labour power also contributes to this population as workers drop out of employment earlier in life.
- as capitalist production in agriculture compensates repulsion of labourers less with attraction than in industry, part of the agricultural population is always on the point of passing into the urban population. this flow into towns presupposes a latent surplus population in the country (i.e. not completely proletarianised).
- the stagnant surplus population is that part of the active labour army with extremely irregular employment, with conditions of work below average, its main form being the domestic industries. this part of the working class takes a proportionally greater part in the increase of that class, with families in inverse proportion to the size of the wages. the category also includes the "dangerous" classes, and paupers such as orphans and those unable to work for various reasons. it grows with the general surplus population.
- greater the growth of capital, the greater is the industrial reserve army, both with the same causes. the greater is the reserve army in proportion to the active labour army, the greater is the mass of consolidated surplus population whose misery is in direct ratio to its torment of labour. the more extensive the layers of the working-class and the industrial reserve army, the greater official pauperism. this is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation - as all laws, modified by circumstances (ignored for now).
- the law of constantly increasing productiveness of labour allowing more to be done by less labour is in capitalist production inverted to become greater productiveness leads to greater pressure on means of employment and the more precarious the labourers' existence becomes. so in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer worsens regardless of pay. the law of surplus population fixes the labourer to capital. there is an accumulation of misery corresponding with the accumulation of capital - an antagonism inherent to capitalist production.
section 5 - illustrations of the general law of capitalist accumulation.
- england, 1846-66: greater centralisation of production leading to more cramped living space - the faster accumulation, the worse living spaces became. "improvement" of towns forcing the poor into worse places.
- the lot of nomadic workers put in makeshift villages by employers, and the diseases this spread. this even happened in the countryside thanks to the poor laws, cramming workers all together far from their work. the population situation being too many most of the year, but not enough for seasonal work.
- ireland: similar to england, but with massive depopulation thanks to famine and emigration. Here it was the agricultural reserve army that lived in towns, rather than industrial in cities as in england.
section 1 - increased demand for labour poewr that accompanies accumulation, the composition of capital remaining the same.
- composition of capital: on the side of value, determined by the division in constant and variable capital; on the side of materials, determined by the division between means of production and living labour power - value composition & technical composition respectively. the value composition insofar as it is determined by technical composition and mirrors the latter's changes is called organic composition (and is what is meant by composition unless otherwise specified).
- different capitals have different compositions in each branch of industry - the average of all in one branch gives the branch composition, that of all the branches, the composition of the total social capital if a country, which is what will be analysed.
- composition of capital remaining the same, growth of capital means more variable capital, therefore more demand for labour & increase of the labourers' subsistence fund in proportion to the growth of capital. the requirements of accumulated capital may exceed the increase of labour powers - demand exceed supply - and wages may rise. the capitalist mode of production reproduces on a constantly increasing scale, and so we get more proletariat and more capitalists. in this case the relation of the labourer to capital is only more extensive, not intensive.
- however, the increase in wages can at best mean a quantitative decrease in unpaid labour, which is never allowed to be such that it threatens the system as a whole. either the price of labour keeps rising, because the rise does not interfere with the progress of accumulation. or accumulation slackens because of the rise, but then the reason for the fall in the rate of accumulation vanishes and the problem fixes itself.
- excess of capital makes exploitable labour powers insufficient, not the reverse. a relative diminution of capital makes the price of exploitable labour powers in excess. both appear caused by the movements of masses of labour powers, but aren't - it is the rate of accumulation which is the independent variable, rate of wages is a dependent variable. really it is a relation between the unpaid an paid labour of the labouring population - if the former rises very fast, more of the latter is required by capitalists, and the proportion of the former falls. once it falls past a certain point less paid labour is required.
section 2 - relative diminution of variable capital simultaneous with progress of accumulation and the accompanying concentration.
- degree of productivity of labour is expressed in the relative extent of the means of production that one labourer during a given time with the same tension of labour power turns into products.
- an increase in constant capital vs. variable part of the composition of capital leads to the value compared to the mass of means of production consumed to diminish, and the difference in the value composition is less than in the mass of means of production and labour into which they are converted. though the relative magnitude of variable capital can fall, the absolute magnitude can rise. all methods for raising the social productive power of labour are methods of increasing the production of surplus value, of producing capital by capital, of accelerated accumulation.
- the total social capital is divided into individual capitals. portions of these break off the original capitals and grow independently. their number grows with accumulation, each sphere of production divided into individual capitals who face each other as competitors.
- accumulation presents itself as on the one hand increased concentration of the means of production and command over labour, and on the other hand as the repulsion of many individual capitals from each other. this is counteracted by the attraction pulling many small capitals into a few large ones - the field of action of the latter being those capitals already existing so is centralisation rather than concentration of accumulation.
- the laws for this won't be discussed here, just hinted at: competition is fought via cheap commodities -> more productive labour, cheaper commodities -> this depends on the scale of production -> big capitals beat smaller ones. as more capital is required to start where the capitalist mode has already developed, small capitals crowd into new areas. competition is in direct proportion to their numbers and inverse proportion to their magnitude. it ends in the ruin of many small capitals, some swallowed by the big ones, some vanish.
- with capitalist production, credit emerges, drawing large and small money together, a specific machine for the centralisation of capitals.
- centralisation is more intense the more the mode of production is developed with accumulation, and becomes a lever of this development as separate processes become socially combined. the increased bulk of capital becomes the material basis for an uninterrupted revolution in the mode of production - old areas swallowed, new ones created, the labour in existing branches made more productive - more capital in means of production, less in labour. eventually even old capital is transformed as the machines are replaced, independent of the absolute growth of social capital, a process helped by centralisation turning number of old capitals into one.
- additional capital attracts fewer and fewer labourers in proportion to its magnitude and the old capital periodically reproduced with change in composition repels more and more of the labourers it formerly employed.
section 3 - progressive production of a relative surplus population or industrial reserve army
- as demand for labour is determined by variable capital, and this falls constantly both in old and new capital, it falls relative to the magnitude of the total capital and at an accelerated rate as this magnitude increases, the variable part increases but in a constantly diminishing proportion.
- the accelerated diminution of variable capital with the increase of total capital, the latter required to absorb more workers and keep those already employed, takes the form of the labouring population always increasing faster than the means of employment (variable capital). capital accumulation produces in direct ratio to its energy and extent a population of greater extent than suffices for the average needs of the self-expansion of capital - surplus population.
- the movement of the whole social capital accumulation causes periodic changes, the various phases distributed over all spheres - a change of magnitude, composition or lack thereof different in each. everywhere and increase of variable capital is always connected to violent fluctuations and transitory production of surplus population either by throwing workers out or not absorbing new ones fast enough.
- the faster the changes, the more is the population made surplus - labourers produce the means by which w\they are made redundant along with the accumulation of capital to an ever increasing extent.
- the surplus population becomes a condition of the existence of the capitalist mode of production - ever ready for exploitation, giving capital a power of sudden expansion that grows with productiveness and accumulation, not just for reasons already given, but also because the technical conditions allow rapid transformation of the surplus product into means of production. old and new branches require great numbers of labourers suddenly without injuring the other branches.
- expansion preliminary to contraction - the latter evokes the former, which is impossible without disposable human material, provided by the process of constantly "setting free" labourers. credit is a symptom, not a cause of this.
- as labour can also be made more intense, an increase in variable capital does not necessarily mean more labourers will be employed. the more extended the scale of production, the stronger is the motive to do so, and this force increases with accumulation of capital. so with the progress of accumulation, more variable capital sets in motion more labour but not more labourers, and variable capital of the same magnitude sets in motion more labour with the same mass of labour power, and finally a greater number of inferior labour powers are used by displacing higher ones.
- so the production of a surplus population is faster than both the technical revolution in the process of production and the relative diminution of the variable part of capital. overwork of the employed swells the ranks of the unemployed, and the competition of the latter forces the former to submit to overwork, which all becomes a source of enrichment for individual capitalists.
- the general movement of wages is exclusively regulated by the expansion and contraction of the industrial reserve army, which corresponds to changes of the industrial cycle, by the varying proportion the working class is divided into active and reserve army.
- relative surplus population becomes the pivot for the law of supply and demand of labour, confining the field of action of this law with limits absolutely convenient to the activity of exploitation and the domination of capital.
- increased demand for labour does not equal increase of capital; increase in supply of labour is not the same as increase of working class. capital works on both sides simultaneously.
section 4 - different forms of the relative surplus population. the general law of capitalist accumulation.
- the surplus population has three forms: floating, latent and stagnant.
- the floating are the workers in centres of industry sometimes attracted, sometimes repelled by capital, child workers discharged when too old - leading to the contradiction that the natural increase of labourers does not satisfy the requirements of accumulation, yet is always in excess because younger labourers are needed, and labourers are chained to one branch of industry by division of labour. the rate that capital uses up labour power also contributes to this population as workers drop out of employment earlier in life.
- as capitalist production in agriculture compensates repulsion of labourers less with attraction than in industry, part of the agricultural population is always on the point of passing into the urban population. this flow into towns presupposes a latent surplus population in the country (i.e. not completely proletarianised).
- the stagnant surplus population is that part of the active labour army with extremely irregular employment, with conditions of work below average, its main form being the domestic industries. this part of the working class takes a proportionally greater part in the increase of that class, with families in inverse proportion to the size of the wages. the category also includes the "dangerous" classes, and paupers such as orphans and those unable to work for various reasons. it grows with the general surplus population.
- greater the growth of capital, the greater is the industrial reserve army, both with the same causes. the greater is the reserve army in proportion to the active labour army, the greater is the mass of consolidated surplus population whose misery is in direct ratio to its torment of labour. the more extensive the layers of the working-class and the industrial reserve army, the greater official pauperism. this is the absolute general law of capitalist accumulation - as all laws, modified by circumstances (ignored for now).
- the law of constantly increasing productiveness of labour allowing more to be done by less labour is in capitalist production inverted to become greater productiveness leads to greater pressure on means of employment and the more precarious the labourers' existence becomes. so in proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the labourer worsens regardless of pay. the law of surplus population fixes the labourer to capital. there is an accumulation of misery corresponding with the accumulation of capital - an antagonism inherent to capitalist production.
section 5 - illustrations of the general law of capitalist accumulation.
- england, 1846-66: greater centralisation of production leading to more cramped living space - the faster accumulation, the worse living spaces became. "improvement" of towns forcing the poor into worse places.
- the lot of nomadic workers put in makeshift villages by employers, and the diseases this spread. this even happened in the countryside thanks to the poor laws, cramming workers all together far from their work. the population situation being too many most of the year, but not enough for seasonal work.
- ireland: similar to england, but with massive depopulation thanks to famine and emigration. Here it was the agricultural reserve army that lived in towns, rather than industrial in cities as in england.
Friday 6 March 2009
Chapters 16-24
Discussion
chapter 16
- one can now be a productive labour without individually engaging in the physical act of creation by being part of the collective labourer. however, productive labour is only productive insofar as contributes to production of surplus labour, so to be a productive labourer is a misfortune.
- the two types of surplus value are inter-related - you cannot have relative surplus value without absolute, and once a particular change becomes universal, the relative surplus value vanishes. in practice, the difference presents itself as an extension of labour (absolute) and intensification of labour (relative).
- productiveness of labour depends initially on how much time is left over as spare time after the labour necessary to sustain oneself and ones family - so other things being constant, surplus labour varies with the physical conditions of labour, especially the fertility of the soil. the same labour satisfies in different countries different wants. once capital is the dominant form however, the historically developed social and natural productiveness appear to be the productiveness of capital.
chapter 17
- the value of labour power (LP) is determined by the value of the necessaries of life, the expense of developing the LP, and its natural diversity (differences between men women and children). we're not considering the later two factors for the moment. we also assume: 1) commodities sold at their price; 2) the price of LP is occasionally above but never below its value. then the relative magnitudes of surplus value and price of LP are determined by: 1) the length of the working day - extensive magnitude of labour; 2) normal intensity - intensive magnitude of labour; 3) productiveness of labour. we consider the main combinations of these.
- length of working day & intensity of labour constant, productiveness of labour variable: 1) a day of given length always produces the same value, regardless of variations in productivity (and so mass of product); 2) surplus value and value of labour power vary in opposite directions, the former varying in the same direction as productivity, though they don't vary in the same proportion - this depends on their original magnitudes; 3) an increase or diminution in surplus value is always consequent on and never the cause of the corresponding change in the value of LP. the limit to this change is given by the new value of LP but doesn't have to change as much -so it is possible to have a rise in productivity, a fall in the price of LP but still have the labourer receiving a greater amount of the means of subsistence.
- working day and constant productiveness of labour constant, intensity of labour variable: more products but each has same value as before (unlike previous case) so value produced varies. the price of LP may rise but if it doesn't compensate for the increased wear and tear on the labourer then it can still be a fall in value. if intensity is increased the same everywhere then its effect is not felt except on the international level (where the increase won't be the same).
- productiveness and intensity of labour constant, length of working day variable: 1) working day creates greater or lesser amount of value in proportion to its length; 2) every change in relation between magnitude of surplus value and value of LP arises from change in absolute magnitude of surplus labour and so of surplus value; 3) absolute value of LP can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus labour on wear and tear of LP, and so is the effect, not the cause of any change in the magnitude of surplus value. a) shortening of working day - value of LP is unchanged, surplus value reduced. b) lengthening of working day - value of LP unchanged but falls relatively, surplus value rises absolutely and relatively. price of LP and surplus value may simultaneously increase in equal or unequal quantities. beyond a certain point the wear and tear of LP is not compensated and the price of LP & degree of exploitation cease to be commensurable.
- simultaneous variations in all 3 factors: lots of possible combinations, all deducible from the above. consider two important cases.
- diminishing productivity of labour & lengthening of working day: absolute magnitude of surplus value may continue unaltered while relative magnitude diminishes; relative magnitude may be unchanged and absolute magnitude increase; or both may increase.
- increasing intense & productiveness of labour with shortening working day: both increases shorten necessary labour time. more productiveness increases, the shorter the day can be, the shorter the day, the more intense the labour can be. productiveness increases with economy of the means of production and useless labour. the capitalist mode of production enforces economy in individual businesses but through competition squanders LP and social means of production and creates superfluous employments.
- the intensity and productivity of labour given, spare time is greater the more labour is even divided. in capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting whole life-time of the masses in labour time.
chapter 18
- varies bourgeois formulae for the rate of surplus value and problems therewith. demystification of the expressions paid and unpaid labour.
- capital is command over unpaid labour. all forms of surplus value are materialisation of unpaid labour,
chapter 19
- labour is the substance of value but has no value, hence price of labour really means the price of LP for a definite length of time.
- when supply and demand balance, get natural price and supply and demand explains nothing.
- daily price of LP is calculated on a certain length of the worker's life, of which a certain part is the working day. this is the price for the whole working day, not just the necessary part, so the transformation of the value and price of LP into the wage form obscures all distinction between necessary and surplus labour, paid and unpaid labour - it all appears to be paid (unlike in slavery where even the paid labour appears unpaid).
- the labourer is paid after the labour has been performed, so money acts as means of payment. the use-value consumed is labour itself, not LP.
- in slavery individual differences in capacity for labour affect the seller - the slave owner. in capitalism, they also affect the seller - the labourer themselves.
chapter 20 - time wages
- the sale of LP for a definite period of time once converted into wages is time wages. laws for price and value of LP become laws of wages. the distinction between exchange value of LP and the sum of the necessaries of life now appear as nominal vs. real wages.
- given amount of labour, wages vary with price of labour. given price of labour, wages vary with amount of labour.
- hourly wages are calculated on a "normal" working day, depriving the ratio for the price of labour of meaning since it was based on a day of fixed length and allows greater exploitation.
- daily value of LP greater the longer it is employed. this is sometimes recognised in the form of better paid overtime, though the compensation is almost always inadequate and often the "normal" time is worse paid to force the acceptance of overtime.
- competition between labourers cause the price of labour to fall and length of working day to increase. competition between capitalists the drives down the price of the product enforcing the low paid hard work that allowed the lowering of the prices in the first place.
chapter 21 - piece wages
- piece wages are a converted form of time wages. the price for each piece is calculated on the product of an average worker in an average day, dividing the daily value of labour by the number of products rather than the hours of the working day as with time wages.
- the quality of the labour is then controlled by the work itself, as it allows easy and exact intensification of work.
- various parasites spring up as mediators between the capitalist and the labourer.
- for the capitalist, individual differences between workers balance out, but for the labourers it gives greater scope to individuality and leads to greater competition between workers.
chapter 22 - regional differences in wages.
- when comparing wages in different countries all factors previously mentioned that affect the value of LP must be taken into account. wages must be reduced to the average and translated into piece wages to measure productivity and intensity.
- within countries, it is the national average labour that counts, but on the international market it is the universal average.
- more intense labour -> more value -> more money. more productive nations count as more intense if competition doesn't force the lowering of their prices to their value.
- money has less value in more developed countries, as commodities have unequal international values, so nominal wages can be higher without real wages being higher. the relative price of labour compared to surplus value and the value of the product is higher in less developed countries.
part 7 - accumulation of capital.
for now we are assuming circulation to be normal, no problems in the market, no problems of effective demand. circulation is to be examined in volume 2. we are also assuming that the surplus is not split up - this will be examined in vol 3. and also assuming a closed system - no colonies, colonial trade etc.
chapter 23
- since society cannot stop producing, the process of production is also one of reproduction - part of the product must re-enter the production process as fresh means of production. so the conditions of production are also those of reproduction. simple reproduction means that no more and no less wealth is produced constantly - no expansion.
- in capitalist production and so reproduction, labour is the only means of self-expansion of capital, of reproducing the value advanced as capital. the surplus value thus produced acquires the form of a revenue flowing out of capital. if it is all used for the personal consumption of the capitalist we have simple reproduction.
- as the worker is paid after labour has been performed, he receives equivalent of what already produced, so he produces not just surplus value but also the fund out of which he is paid. from a class point of view this is a company store type situation. labour creates variable capital, it is no longer simply value advanced by the capitalist, it is a form of circulation going through worker's body.
- this process must have had a beginning - the capitalist must have started with some money. regardless of how he got it, the value of the capital advanced divided by the surplus value annually consumed, gives the number of years or reproduction periods at the end of which the capital originally advanced has been consumed by the capitalist and has disappeared. eventually all capital is accumulated capital.
- the conditions of capitalist production - capitalist with means of production and labourer without - are constantly recreated by the process. the worker produces the capitalist and vice versa.
- the worker consumes productively (at work) and individually (at home), respectively so that the capitalist may live and the worker may live. from a class point of view with production in motion, individual consumption produces the worker, the most indispensable means of production for the capitalist, so all consumption is productive. the labourer becomes but an appendage of capital even outside production. though capitalists want individual consumption reduced to a bare minimum.
chapter 24
- employing surplus value as capital is to accumulate capital, but to do so requires extending production, and so more means of production, which themselves must already be made in order to be bought and put to use. surplus value can only be converted into capital because the surplus product whose value it is consists of the material elements of new capital - means of production and, if work is not increasing intensively or extensively, means of subsistence for more workers.
- ownership of past unpaid labour becomes the sole condition for the appropriation of living unpaid labour on a constantly increasing scale - the laws of property become changed into their opposite, laws for capitalist appropriation.
- it is now only an apparent exchange of equivalents since the capital exchanged for LP is but a portion of the product of others' labour appropriated without equivalent, and this capital must be replaced by its producer plus a surplus. the original capital becomes a vanishing quantity compared to the directly accumulated capital.
- surplus value is used both for the personal consumption of the capitalist (revenue) and as new capital. the ratio of these parts determines the magnitude of accumulation, and this division is a deliberate act of the capitalist.
- as capital personified he forces humanity to produce for productions sake and forces the development of society's productive forces. the development of capitalist production requires a constantly increasing amount of capital to be laid out, and the laws of competition make the laws of capitalist production felt as external coercive laws. it forces extension to preserve.
- the capitalist gets rich not in proportion to his own labour and "abstinence" but in proportion to the squeezing of labour out of others and the enforcing of abstinence from life's enjoyments on the labourer.
- expenditure and accumulation can both grow together, neither restricting the other.
- given the division of surplus value into revenue and capital, the magnitude of accumulation depends on the magnitude of surplus value, so it is determined by the same things as the mass of surplus value.
- the forcible reduction of wages below their value transforms (within certain limits) the labourer's necessary consumption fund in a fund for the accumulation of capital. if the cost of labour were zero, the labourer could not be forced to work, so it is only a mathematical limit that capitalists aim for.
- augmenting the tension of LP allows augmentation of surplus value without the same increase of capital, especially in extractive and agricultural industries. in manufacturing industries, only raw materials must be increases, and they are supplied by the previous two.
- by incorporating land and labour power within itself, capital acquires a power of expansion beyond the limits apparently fixed by its own magnitude.
- the division of surplus value can remain the same but if surplus value increases, consumption can increase without decreasing accumulation, or if products become cheaper, the same revenue can buy more products.
- similarly, the same or even less capital can be embodied in more machinery, so it accelerates accumulation. the scale of reproduction extends materially, and production of surplus value increases faster than the value of additional capital.
- as instruments of labour are reproduced in improved forms, the improvements act on new capital and the existing capital (when replacing old machinery rather than expanding).
- thanks to science, more raw materials are discovered along with new uses for old ones and for the waste products of existing processes - raw material without any need for additional capital. so science also gives capital extra powers of expansion.
- labour in new machines allows the preservation of old value of raw materials and stimulates the production of more of the same - labour keeps up an always increasing capital, value reproduced in a form ever new.
- as capital increases, the difference between that employed (machines etc.) and that consumed (raw materials, wear & tear, etc.) increases (the value of the former increases and so its "gratuitous" service increases).
- give the degree of exploitation of LP, the mass of surplus value is determined by the number of workers simultaneously exploited.
- so capitalists can live better whilst showing more "abstinence".
- the labourer has no right to interfere in the division of social wealth (capital) into means of enjoyment for non-labourers and means of production. only in favourable and exceptional cases does the labourer have the power to enlarge the "labour fund" at the expense of the wealthy's "revenue".
chapter 16
- one can now be a productive labour without individually engaging in the physical act of creation by being part of the collective labourer. however, productive labour is only productive insofar as contributes to production of surplus labour, so to be a productive labourer is a misfortune.
- the two types of surplus value are inter-related - you cannot have relative surplus value without absolute, and once a particular change becomes universal, the relative surplus value vanishes. in practice, the difference presents itself as an extension of labour (absolute) and intensification of labour (relative).
- productiveness of labour depends initially on how much time is left over as spare time after the labour necessary to sustain oneself and ones family - so other things being constant, surplus labour varies with the physical conditions of labour, especially the fertility of the soil. the same labour satisfies in different countries different wants. once capital is the dominant form however, the historically developed social and natural productiveness appear to be the productiveness of capital.
chapter 17
- the value of labour power (LP) is determined by the value of the necessaries of life, the expense of developing the LP, and its natural diversity (differences between men women and children). we're not considering the later two factors for the moment. we also assume: 1) commodities sold at their price; 2) the price of LP is occasionally above but never below its value. then the relative magnitudes of surplus value and price of LP are determined by: 1) the length of the working day - extensive magnitude of labour; 2) normal intensity - intensive magnitude of labour; 3) productiveness of labour. we consider the main combinations of these.
- length of working day & intensity of labour constant, productiveness of labour variable: 1) a day of given length always produces the same value, regardless of variations in productivity (and so mass of product); 2) surplus value and value of labour power vary in opposite directions, the former varying in the same direction as productivity, though they don't vary in the same proportion - this depends on their original magnitudes; 3) an increase or diminution in surplus value is always consequent on and never the cause of the corresponding change in the value of LP. the limit to this change is given by the new value of LP but doesn't have to change as much -so it is possible to have a rise in productivity, a fall in the price of LP but still have the labourer receiving a greater amount of the means of subsistence.
- working day and constant productiveness of labour constant, intensity of labour variable: more products but each has same value as before (unlike previous case) so value produced varies. the price of LP may rise but if it doesn't compensate for the increased wear and tear on the labourer then it can still be a fall in value. if intensity is increased the same everywhere then its effect is not felt except on the international level (where the increase won't be the same).
- productiveness and intensity of labour constant, length of working day variable: 1) working day creates greater or lesser amount of value in proportion to its length; 2) every change in relation between magnitude of surplus value and value of LP arises from change in absolute magnitude of surplus labour and so of surplus value; 3) absolute value of LP can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus labour on wear and tear of LP, and so is the effect, not the cause of any change in the magnitude of surplus value. a) shortening of working day - value of LP is unchanged, surplus value reduced. b) lengthening of working day - value of LP unchanged but falls relatively, surplus value rises absolutely and relatively. price of LP and surplus value may simultaneously increase in equal or unequal quantities. beyond a certain point the wear and tear of LP is not compensated and the price of LP & degree of exploitation cease to be commensurable.
- simultaneous variations in all 3 factors: lots of possible combinations, all deducible from the above. consider two important cases.
- diminishing productivity of labour & lengthening of working day: absolute magnitude of surplus value may continue unaltered while relative magnitude diminishes; relative magnitude may be unchanged and absolute magnitude increase; or both may increase.
- increasing intense & productiveness of labour with shortening working day: both increases shorten necessary labour time. more productiveness increases, the shorter the day can be, the shorter the day, the more intense the labour can be. productiveness increases with economy of the means of production and useless labour. the capitalist mode of production enforces economy in individual businesses but through competition squanders LP and social means of production and creates superfluous employments.
- the intensity and productivity of labour given, spare time is greater the more labour is even divided. in capitalist society spare time is acquired for one class by converting whole life-time of the masses in labour time.
chapter 18
- varies bourgeois formulae for the rate of surplus value and problems therewith. demystification of the expressions paid and unpaid labour.
- capital is command over unpaid labour. all forms of surplus value are materialisation of unpaid labour,
chapter 19
- labour is the substance of value but has no value, hence price of labour really means the price of LP for a definite length of time.
- when supply and demand balance, get natural price and supply and demand explains nothing.
- daily price of LP is calculated on a certain length of the worker's life, of which a certain part is the working day. this is the price for the whole working day, not just the necessary part, so the transformation of the value and price of LP into the wage form obscures all distinction between necessary and surplus labour, paid and unpaid labour - it all appears to be paid (unlike in slavery where even the paid labour appears unpaid).
- the labourer is paid after the labour has been performed, so money acts as means of payment. the use-value consumed is labour itself, not LP.
- in slavery individual differences in capacity for labour affect the seller - the slave owner. in capitalism, they also affect the seller - the labourer themselves.
chapter 20 - time wages
- the sale of LP for a definite period of time once converted into wages is time wages. laws for price and value of LP become laws of wages. the distinction between exchange value of LP and the sum of the necessaries of life now appear as nominal vs. real wages.
- given amount of labour, wages vary with price of labour. given price of labour, wages vary with amount of labour.
- hourly wages are calculated on a "normal" working day, depriving the ratio for the price of labour of meaning since it was based on a day of fixed length and allows greater exploitation.
- daily value of LP greater the longer it is employed. this is sometimes recognised in the form of better paid overtime, though the compensation is almost always inadequate and often the "normal" time is worse paid to force the acceptance of overtime.
- competition between labourers cause the price of labour to fall and length of working day to increase. competition between capitalists the drives down the price of the product enforcing the low paid hard work that allowed the lowering of the prices in the first place.
chapter 21 - piece wages
- piece wages are a converted form of time wages. the price for each piece is calculated on the product of an average worker in an average day, dividing the daily value of labour by the number of products rather than the hours of the working day as with time wages.
- the quality of the labour is then controlled by the work itself, as it allows easy and exact intensification of work.
- various parasites spring up as mediators between the capitalist and the labourer.
- for the capitalist, individual differences between workers balance out, but for the labourers it gives greater scope to individuality and leads to greater competition between workers.
chapter 22 - regional differences in wages.
- when comparing wages in different countries all factors previously mentioned that affect the value of LP must be taken into account. wages must be reduced to the average and translated into piece wages to measure productivity and intensity.
- within countries, it is the national average labour that counts, but on the international market it is the universal average.
- more intense labour -> more value -> more money. more productive nations count as more intense if competition doesn't force the lowering of their prices to their value.
- money has less value in more developed countries, as commodities have unequal international values, so nominal wages can be higher without real wages being higher. the relative price of labour compared to surplus value and the value of the product is higher in less developed countries.
part 7 - accumulation of capital.
for now we are assuming circulation to be normal, no problems in the market, no problems of effective demand. circulation is to be examined in volume 2. we are also assuming that the surplus is not split up - this will be examined in vol 3. and also assuming a closed system - no colonies, colonial trade etc.
chapter 23
- since society cannot stop producing, the process of production is also one of reproduction - part of the product must re-enter the production process as fresh means of production. so the conditions of production are also those of reproduction. simple reproduction means that no more and no less wealth is produced constantly - no expansion.
- in capitalist production and so reproduction, labour is the only means of self-expansion of capital, of reproducing the value advanced as capital. the surplus value thus produced acquires the form of a revenue flowing out of capital. if it is all used for the personal consumption of the capitalist we have simple reproduction.
- as the worker is paid after labour has been performed, he receives equivalent of what already produced, so he produces not just surplus value but also the fund out of which he is paid. from a class point of view this is a company store type situation. labour creates variable capital, it is no longer simply value advanced by the capitalist, it is a form of circulation going through worker's body.
- this process must have had a beginning - the capitalist must have started with some money. regardless of how he got it, the value of the capital advanced divided by the surplus value annually consumed, gives the number of years or reproduction periods at the end of which the capital originally advanced has been consumed by the capitalist and has disappeared. eventually all capital is accumulated capital.
- the conditions of capitalist production - capitalist with means of production and labourer without - are constantly recreated by the process. the worker produces the capitalist and vice versa.
- the worker consumes productively (at work) and individually (at home), respectively so that the capitalist may live and the worker may live. from a class point of view with production in motion, individual consumption produces the worker, the most indispensable means of production for the capitalist, so all consumption is productive. the labourer becomes but an appendage of capital even outside production. though capitalists want individual consumption reduced to a bare minimum.
chapter 24
- employing surplus value as capital is to accumulate capital, but to do so requires extending production, and so more means of production, which themselves must already be made in order to be bought and put to use. surplus value can only be converted into capital because the surplus product whose value it is consists of the material elements of new capital - means of production and, if work is not increasing intensively or extensively, means of subsistence for more workers.
- ownership of past unpaid labour becomes the sole condition for the appropriation of living unpaid labour on a constantly increasing scale - the laws of property become changed into their opposite, laws for capitalist appropriation.
- it is now only an apparent exchange of equivalents since the capital exchanged for LP is but a portion of the product of others' labour appropriated without equivalent, and this capital must be replaced by its producer plus a surplus. the original capital becomes a vanishing quantity compared to the directly accumulated capital.
- surplus value is used both for the personal consumption of the capitalist (revenue) and as new capital. the ratio of these parts determines the magnitude of accumulation, and this division is a deliberate act of the capitalist.
- as capital personified he forces humanity to produce for productions sake and forces the development of society's productive forces. the development of capitalist production requires a constantly increasing amount of capital to be laid out, and the laws of competition make the laws of capitalist production felt as external coercive laws. it forces extension to preserve.
- the capitalist gets rich not in proportion to his own labour and "abstinence" but in proportion to the squeezing of labour out of others and the enforcing of abstinence from life's enjoyments on the labourer.
- expenditure and accumulation can both grow together, neither restricting the other.
- given the division of surplus value into revenue and capital, the magnitude of accumulation depends on the magnitude of surplus value, so it is determined by the same things as the mass of surplus value.
- the forcible reduction of wages below their value transforms (within certain limits) the labourer's necessary consumption fund in a fund for the accumulation of capital. if the cost of labour were zero, the labourer could not be forced to work, so it is only a mathematical limit that capitalists aim for.
- augmenting the tension of LP allows augmentation of surplus value without the same increase of capital, especially in extractive and agricultural industries. in manufacturing industries, only raw materials must be increases, and they are supplied by the previous two.
- by incorporating land and labour power within itself, capital acquires a power of expansion beyond the limits apparently fixed by its own magnitude.
- the division of surplus value can remain the same but if surplus value increases, consumption can increase without decreasing accumulation, or if products become cheaper, the same revenue can buy more products.
- similarly, the same or even less capital can be embodied in more machinery, so it accelerates accumulation. the scale of reproduction extends materially, and production of surplus value increases faster than the value of additional capital.
- as instruments of labour are reproduced in improved forms, the improvements act on new capital and the existing capital (when replacing old machinery rather than expanding).
- thanks to science, more raw materials are discovered along with new uses for old ones and for the waste products of existing processes - raw material without any need for additional capital. so science also gives capital extra powers of expansion.
- labour in new machines allows the preservation of old value of raw materials and stimulates the production of more of the same - labour keeps up an always increasing capital, value reproduced in a form ever new.
- as capital increases, the difference between that employed (machines etc.) and that consumed (raw materials, wear & tear, etc.) increases (the value of the former increases and so its "gratuitous" service increases).
- give the degree of exploitation of LP, the mass of surplus value is determined by the number of workers simultaneously exploited.
- so capitalists can live better whilst showing more "abstinence".
- the labourer has no right to interfere in the division of social wealth (capital) into means of enjoyment for non-labourers and means of production. only in favourable and exceptional cases does the labourer have the power to enlarge the "labour fund" at the expense of the wealthy's "revenue".
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