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.