Karl Marx Capital Volume I

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Capital, Volume I
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Capital, Volume I (1867), by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of

capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic
laws of the capitalist mode of production, how it was the
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precursor of the socialist mode of production, and of the class
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struggle rooted in the capitalist social relations of production.
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The first of three volumes of Das Kapital, Kritik der
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politischen konomie (Capital: Critique of Political
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Economy) was published on 14 September 1867, and was the
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sole volume published in Marx's lifetime. This volume is
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registered in the Memory of the World Programme of UNESCO
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together with manuscripts of The Communist Manifesto in
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The Penguin Classics edition of

Das Kapital Volume 1
June 2013.[1]
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Contents [hide]
Marxism
1 Part One: Commodities and Money

1.1 Chapter 1: The Commodity
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1.1.1 Section 1. The Two Factors of the
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Commodity
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1.1.2 Section 2. The Dual Character of the

Labour Embodied in Commodities
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1.1.3 Section 3. The Value-Form or Exchange-
Value
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1.1.4 Section 4. The Fetishism of the
Trke
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Commodity and Its Secret

1.2 Chapter 2: Exchange
1.3 Chapter 3: Money, or the Circulation of
Commodities
1.3.1 Section 1. The Measure of Values
1.3.2 Section 2. The Means of Circulation
1.3.3 Section 3. Money
2 Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital
3 Part Three: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
4 Part Four: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value
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4.1 Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus-
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Value
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4.2 Chapter 13: Co-operation

4.3 Chapter 14: The Division of Labour and
V T E
Manufacture
4.4 Chapter 15: Machinery and Large-Scale
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Industry
5 Part Five: The Production of Absolute and Relative
Surplus-Value
5.1 Chapter 16: The Rise of Surplus Value
5.2 Chapter 17: Changes of Magnitude in the price
of Labor-Power and in Surplus-Value
6 Part Six: Wages
6.1 Chapter 19: The Transformation of the Value
(and Respective Price) of Labour-Power into
Wages
6.2 Chapter 20: Time-Wages
6.3 Chapter 21: Piece-Wages
7 Part Seven: The Process of Accumulation of Capital
7.1 Chapter 23: Simple Reproduction
7.2 Chapter 24: The Transformation of SurplusValue into Capital
7.3 Chapter 25, Sections 3 and 4: The General Law
of Capitalist Accumulation
8 Part Eight: So-Called Primitive Accumulation
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Part One: Commodities and Money

[edit]
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It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article
titled Capital, Volume I, Part One. (Discuss) Proposed since
September 2014.
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are a theoretical discussion of the commodity, value, exchange, and the
genesis of money. As Marx writes, "Beginnings are always difficult in all sciences ... the section that
contains the analysis of commodities, will therefore present the greatest difficulty."[2] The modern
reader is often perplexed about Marx going on about "one coat is equal to twenty yards of linen".
Professor John Kenneth Galbraith reminds us that "the purchase of a coat by an average citizen
was an action comparable in modern times to the purchase of an automobile or even a house."[3]
Chapter 1: The Commodity [edit]

Section 1. The Two Factors of the Commodity [edit]
A "commodity" according to Marx is a use-value and also an exchange-value. Marx explains that as
a use-value the commodity is something that meets a human want or need of any kind, it is a
useful thing. Marx explains that the commodity is a "use-value". The use-value is determined by
how useful the commodity is.[4][note 1] The actual use-value, however, is immeasurable. He explains
that use-value can only be determined "in use or consumption". After determining the commodity
as being a use-value, he explains that a commodity is also an "exchange-value". He explains this
as the quantity of other commodities that it will exchange for.[5][note 2] He gives the example of corn
and iron. No matter their relationship, there will always be an equation where a certain amount of
corn will exchange for a certain amount of iron. He sets up this example to say that all commodities
are in essence parallel in that they can always be exchanged for certain quantities of other
commodities. He also explains that one cannot determine the exchange-value of the commodity
simply by looking at it or examining its natural qualities. The exchange-value is not material but a
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measure made by humans. In order to determine the exchange-value, one must see the
commodity being exchanged with other commodities. Marx explains that these two aspects of
commodities are at the same time separate but also connected in that one cannot be discussed
without the other. Marx explains that while the use-value of something can only change in quality,
the exchange-value can only change in quantity.
Marx then goes on to explain that the exchange-value of a commodity is merely an expression of
its value. Value is what connects all commodities so that they can all be exchanged with each
other. The value of a commodity is determined by its socially necessary labour time, defined as
"the labour time required to produce any use-value under the conditions of production, normal for
a given society and with the average degree of skill and intensity of labour prevalent in that
society." Therefore, Marx explains, the value of a commodity does not stay constant as it advances
or it varies in labour productivity, which may occur for many reasons. However, value does not
mean anything unless it conjoins back to use value. If a commodity is produced and no one wants
it or it has no use, then "the labour does not count as labour," and therefore it has no value. He
also says that one can produce use-value without being a commodity. If one produces a
commodity solely for his own benefit or need, he has produced use-value but no commodity. Value
can only be derived when the commodity has use-value for others. Marx calls this social use-value.
He writes all of this to explain that all aspects of the commodity (use-value, exchange-value, and
value) are all separate from each other, but are also essentially connected to each other.
Section 2. The Dual Character of the Labour Embodied in Commodities [edit]
Marx in this section discusses the relationship between labor and value. He states if there is a
change in the quantity of labor expended to produce an article, the value of the article will change.
This is a direct correlation. Marx gives as an example the value of linen versus cloth to explain the
worth of each commodity in a capitalist society. Linen is hypothetically twice as valuable as thread
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because more socially necessary labor time was used to create it. Use-value of every commodity is
produced by useful labor. Use-value measures the actual usefulness of a commodity, whereas
value is a measurement of exchange value. Objectively speaking, linen and thread have some
value. Different forms of labor create different kinds of use-values. The value of the different usevalues created by different types of labor can be compared because both are expenditures of
human labor. One coat and twenty yards of linen take the same amount of socially necessary labor
time to make, so they have the same value. As we have expected in the production of the
commodities, it lessen the capacity to create a high value of products.
Section 3. The Value-Form or Exchange-Value
[edit]
(a) The Simple, Isolated, or Accidental Form of Value

In this section Marx explains that commodities come in double form: natural form and value form.
We do not know commodities' value until we know how much human labor was put in it.[6][note 3]
Commodities are traded for one another after their values are decided socially. Then there is
value-relation, which lets us trade between different kind of commodities. Marx explains value
without using money. Marx uses 20 yards of linen and a coat to show the value of each other (20
yards of linen = 1 coat, or 20 yards of linen are worth 1 coat). The statement "20 yards of linen are
worth 1 coat" label two forms of value. The first form, the relative form of value, is the commodity
that comes first in the statement (the 20 yards of linen in the example). The second form, the
equivalent form of value, is the commodity that comes second in the statement (the 1 coat in the
example). He adds that comparing 20 yards of linen to itself (20 yards of linen = 20 yards of linen,
or 20 yards of linen are worth 20 yards of linen) is meaningless, because there is no expression of
value. Linen is an object of utility whose value cannot be determined until it is compared to another
commodity. Determining the value of a commodity depends on its position in the expression of
comparative exchange value.
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(b) The Total or Expanded Form of Value

Marx begins this section with an equation for the expanded form of value: "z commodity A = u
commodity B or = v commodity C or = w commodity D or = x commodity E or = etc." where the lower
case letters (z, u, v, w, and x) represent quantities of a commodity and upper case letters (A, B, C,
D, and E) represent specific commodities so that an example of this could be: "20 yards of linen =
1 coat or = 10 lb. tea or = 40 lb. coffee or = 1 quarter of corn or = 2 ounces of gold or = ton of
iron or = etc."[7] Marx explains that with this example of the expanded form of value the linen "is
now expressed in terms of innumerable other members of the world of commodities. Every other
commodity now becomes a mirror of linen's value."[7] At this point, the particular use-value of linen
becomes unimportant, but rather it is the magnitude of value (determined by socially necessary
labor time) possessed in a quantity of linen which determines its exchange with other commodities.
This chain of particular kinds (different commodities) of values is endless: it contains every
commodity and changes constantly as new commodities come into being.
(c) The General Form of Value
Marx begins this section with the table:
[8]
Then he divides this sub-set of section 3 into three parts:

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(1) The changed character of the form of value. After highlighting the previous two sub-sets Marx
explains that these commodities now have a unified exchange-value, expressed through
comparisons to one single kind of commodity. All commodities are now differentiated from their
use-values and are equated to each other as exchange-values. [9] The general value-form, which
represents all products of labour, shows that it is the social resume of the world of commodities. In
the world of commodities the character possessed by all labour of being human labour constitutes
its specific social character.[10]
(2) The development of the relative and equivalent forms of value: their interdependence. Here
Marx writes about the interrelatedness of the relative form and the equivalent form. He first
explains that there is a correlation between them even though they are polar opposites. He states
that we must also realize that the equivalent form is a representation and an offshoot of the
relative form.
"This equivalent has no relative form of value in common with other commodities; its value is
rather, expressed relatively in the infinite series of all other physical commodities."[11]
Things cannot be either completely relative or completely equivalent. There must be a combination
to express the magnitude and universal equivalency. That form is the expanded relative form of
value, which is a "specific relative form of value of the equivalent commodity."[11]
(3) The transition from the general form of value to the money form. This is the transitional idea
between taking the general form (the universal equivalent form for all general commodities) and
turning it into the money form. Here Marx describes how there can be a commodity so universal to
all commodities that it actually excludes itself to the point of no longer being an equivalent
commodity but rather a representation of a commodity. Acceptance of its commodity exchange
value is so universal that it can transition into a form of money, for example, gold.
(d) The Money Form
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[12]
Here Marx illustrates the shift to "money form". Universal equivalent form or universal
exchangeability has caused gold to take the place of linen in the socially accepted customs of
exchange. Once it had reached a set value in the world of commodities gold became the money
commodity. Money form is distinct from Sections A, B, and C.
Now that gold has a relative value against a commodity (such as linen), it can attain price form:
"The price form' of linen is therefore: 20 yards of linen = 2 ounces of gold, or, if 2 ounces of
gold when coined are 2, 20 yards of linen = 2."[13]
This illustrates the application of price form as a universal equivalent. Marx concludes this section
by pointing out that "the simple commodity-form is therefore the germ of the money-form."[13] And,
the simplified application of this idea is then illustrated as:
x of commodity A = y of commodity B
Section 4. The Fetishism of the Commodity and Its Secret [edit]
Marx's inquiry in this section focuses on the nature of the commodity, apart from its basic usevalue. In other words, why does the commodity appear to have an exchange-value as if it was an
intrinsecal characteristic of the commodity instead of a measurement of the homogenous human
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labor spent to do the commodity? Marx explains that this sort of fetishism, which attributes to a
thing a characteristic when it is actually a social product, originates in the fact that under a
commodity based society the social labour, the social relations between producers and their
mutual interdependence, solely manifest in the market, in the process of exchange. Therefore, the
value of the commodity is determined independently from private producers so it seems that it is
the market which determines the value apparently based on a characteristic of the commodity; it
seems as if there are relations between commodities instead of relations between producers.
Marx also explains that due to the historical circumstances of capitalist society, the values of
commodities are usually studied by political economists in their most advanced form: money.
These economists see the value of the commodity as something metaphysically autonomous from
the social labor that is the actual determinant of value. Marx calls this fetishismthe process
whereby the society that originally generated an idea eventually, through the distance of time,
forgets that the idea is actually a social and therefore all-too-human product. This society will no
longer look beneath the veneer of the idea (in this case the value of commodities) as it currently
exists. The society will simply take the idea as a natural and/or God-given inevitability that they are
powerless to alter it.
Marx compares this fetishism to the manufacturing of religious belief: people initially create a deity
to fulfill whatever desire or need they have in present circumstances, but then these products of
the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own and enter into a
relations both with each other and with the human race.[14] Similarly, commodities only enter into
relation with each other through exchange, which is a purely social phenomenon. Before that, they
are simply useful items, but not commodities. Value itself cannot come from use-value because
there is no way to compare the usefulness of an item; there are simply too many potential
functions.
Once in exchange, commodities' values are determined by the amount of socially useful labor-time
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put into them, because labor can be generalized. For example, it takes longer to mine diamonds
than it does to dig quartz, so diamonds are worth more. Fetishism within capitalism occurs once
labor has been socially divided and centrally coordinated, and the worker no longer owns the
means of production. They no longer have access to the knowledge of how much labor went into a
product, because they no longer control its distribution. The only obvious determinant of value
remaining to the mass of people is the value that was assigned in the past. Thus, the value of a
commodity seems to arise from a mystical property inherent to it, rather than from labor-time, the
actual determinant of value.
Chapter 2: Exchange [edit]

In chapter 2 Marx explains the social and private characteristics of the process of exchange.
According to Marx, owners of commodities must recognise one another as owners of commodities
which embody value. He explains exchange not merely as a swapping of items, but as a contract
between the two. It is this exchange which also allows the commodity in question to realise its
exchange value, and he explains that the realisation of exchange value always precedes that of
use value because one must obtain the item in question before its actual utility is realised.
Furthermore, Marx explains that the use value in question can only be realised by he who
purchases the commodity, whereas he who is selling a commodity must find no utility in the item,
save the utility of its exchange value. Marx concludes the chapter with an abstraction about the
necessitated advent of money wherever exchange takes place, starting between nations, and
gradually becoming more and more domestic. This money form which arises out of the necessity of
liquidating exchange becomes the universal equivalent form which is set aside from all
commodities as a mere measure of value, creating a money:commodities dualism.Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities [edit]

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Section 1. The Measure of Values [edit]

a) Functions of Metallic Money
In chapter 3, section I Marx examines the functions of money commodities. According to Marx the
main function of money is to provide commodities with the medium for the expression of their
values, i.e. labor time. The function of money as a measure of value serves only in an imaginary or
ideal capacity. That is, the money that performs the functions of a measure of value is only
imaginary because it is society that has given the money its value. The value of one ton of iron for
example, is expressed by an imaginary quantity of the money commodity, which contains the same
amount of labor as the iron.
(b) Multiple Forms of Metallic Money
As a measure of value and a standard of price, Money performs two functions. First, it is the
measure of value as the social incarnation of human labor. Second, it serves as a standard of
price as a quantity of metal with a fixed weight. As in any case where quantities of the same
denomination are to be measured the stability of the measurement is of the utmost importance.
Hence the less the unit of measurement is subject to variations the better it fulfills its role. Metallic
currency can only serve as a measure of value because it is itself a product of human labor.
Commodities with definite prices appear in this form: a commodity A = x gold; b commodity B = y
gold; c commodity C = z gold, etc. where a, b, c represent definite quantities of the commodities A,
B, C and x, y, z definite quantities of gold.
In spite of the varieties of commodities their values become magnitudes of the same denomination:
gold-magnitudes. Since these commodities are all magnitudes of gold they are comparable and
interchangeable.
(c) Price
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Price is the money-name of the labor objectified in a commodity. Like the relative form of value in
general, price expresses the value of a commodity by asserting that a given quantity of the
equivalent is directly interchangeable. The price form implies both the exchangeability of
commodities for money and the necessity of exchange. Gold serves as an ideal measure of value
only because it has already established itself as the money commodity in the process of exchange.
Section 2. The Means of Circulation [edit]
(a) The Metamorphosis of Commodities
In this section Marx further examines the paradoxical nature of the exchange of commodities. The
contradictions that exist within the process of exchange provide the structure for "social
metabolism". The process of social metabolism "transfers commodities from hands in which they
are non-use-values to hands in which they are use-values."[15] Commodities can only exist as
"values" for a seller and "use-values" for a buyer. In order for a commodity to be both a "value"
and a "use-value" it must be produced for exchange. The process of exchange alienates the
ordinary commodity when its antithesis, the "money commodity" becomes involved. During
exchange, the money commodity confronts the ordinary commodity disguising the true form of the
ordinary commodity. Commodities as use-values, and money as exchange-value are now on the
opposite poles, and exist as separate entities. In practice, in the process of exchange, gold or
money functions as "exchange-value" while commodities function as "use-values." A commodity's
existence is only validated through the form of money, and money is only validated through the
form of a commodity. This dualistic phenomenon involving money and commodities is directly
related to Marx's concept of "use-value" and "value."
Commodity-Money-Commodity
Marx examines the two metamorphoses of the commodity through sale and purchase. In this
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process, "as far as concerns its material content, the movement is C-C, the exchange of one
commodity for another, the metabolic interaction of social labor, in whose result the process itself
becomes extinguished."[16]
First metamorphosis of the commodity, or sale.
In the process of sale, the value of a commodity, which is measured by socially necessary labortime, is then measured by the universal equivalent, gold.
The second or concluding metamorphosis of the commodity: purchase.
Through the process of purchase all commodities lose their form by the universal alienator,
money. "Since every commodity disappears when it becomes money it is impossible to tell from the
money itself how it got into the hands of its possessor, or what article has been changed into it".[17]
A purchase represents a sale although they are two separate transformations. This process allows
for the movement of commodities and the circulation of money.
(b) The Circulation of Money
The circulation of money is first initiated by the transformation of a commodity into money. The
commodity is taken from its natural state and transformed into its monetary state. When this
happens the commodity "falls out of circulation into consumption." The previous commodity now in
its monetary form replaces a new and different commodity continuing the circulation of money. In
this process, money is the means for the movement and circulation of commodities. Money
assumes the measure of value of a commodity, i.e. the socially necessary labor-time. The
repetition of this process constantly removes commodities from their starting places, taking them
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repetition of this process constantly removes commodities from their starting places, taking them
out of the sphere of circulation. Money circulates in the sphere and fluctuates with the sum of all
the commodities that co-exist within the sphere. The price of commodities varies by three factors:
"the movement of prices, the quantity of commodities in circulation, and the velocity of circulation
of money."[18]
(c) Coin
The Symbol of Value
Money takes the shape of a coin because of how it behaves in the sphere of circulation. Gold
became the universal equivalent by the measurement of its weight in relation to commodities. This
process was a job that belonged to the state. The problem with gold was that it wore down as it
circulated from hand to hand, so the state introduced new circulating media: silver, copper, and
inconvertible paper money issued by the State as a representation of gold. Marx views money as a
"symbolic existence" which haunts the sphere of circulation and arbitrarily measures the product of
labor.
Section 3. Money [edit]
(a) Hoarding
The exchange of money is a continuous flow of sales and purchase. Marx writes, "In order to be
able to buy without selling, [one] must have previously sold without buying." This simple illustration
demonstrates the essence of hoarding. In order to potentially buy without selling a commodity in
your possession, you must have hoarded some degree of money in the past. Money becomes
greatly desired due to potential purchasing power. If one has money, one can exchange it for
commodities, and vice versa. However, while satisfying this newly arisen fetish for gold, the hoard
causes the hoarder to make personal sacrifices and explains its amorality "doing away all
distinctions" by citing Timon of Athens by Shakespeare.[19]
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(b) Means of Payment

In this section Marx analyzes the relationship between debtor and creditor and exemplifies the idea
of the transfer of debt. In relation to this, Marx discusses how the money-form has become a
means of incremental payment for a service or purchase. He states that the "function of money as
means of payment begins to spread out beyond the sphere of circulation of commodities. It
becomes the universal material of contracts." Due to fixed payments and the like, debtors are
forced to hoard money in preparation for these dates. "While hoarding, as a distinct mode of
acquiring riches, vanishes with the progress of civil society, the formation of reserves of the means
of payment grows with that progress."
(c) World Money
Countries have reserves of gold and silver for two purposes: (1) Home Circulation, and (2)
External Circulation in World Markets. Marx says that it is essential for countries to hoard, as
money is needed "as the medium of the home circulation and home payments, and in part out of
its function of money of the world." Accounting for this hoarding in the context of hoarded money's
inability to contribute to the growth of a capitalist society, Marx states that banks are the relief to
this problem:
Countries in which the bourgeois form of production is developed to a certain extent,
limit the hoards concentrated in the strong rooms of the banks to the minimum
required for the proper performance of their peculiar functions. Whenever these
hoards are strikingly above their average level, it is, with some exceptions, an
indication of stagnation in the circulation of commodities, of an interruption in the even
flow of their metamorphoses.[20]
Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital

[edit]
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Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital

In Part II of Volume I of Capital, Karl Marx explains the three components necessary to create
capital through the process of circulation: the first section of Part II, Chapter 4, explains the
general formula for capital; Chapter 5 delves further by explaining the contradictions of the general
formula; and the last section of Part II, Chapter 6, describes the sale and purchase of labor power
within the general formula.
Money, as described by Marx, can only be transformed into capital through the circulation of
commodities. Money originates not as capital, but only as means of exchange. Money becomes
capital when it is used as a standard for exchange. The circulation of commodities has two forms
that make up the general formula: C-M-C and M-C-M. C-M-C represents the process of first selling
a commodity for money (C-M) and then using that money to buy another commodity (M-C): "selling
in order to buy".[21] M-C-M describes transacting money for a commodity (M-C) and then selling
the commodity for more capital, (C-M).
The largest distinction between the two forms appears through the result of each. During C-M-C, a
commodity sold will be replaced by a commodity bought. In this form money only acts as a means
of exchange. The transaction ends there, with the exchange of use-values and the money has,
according to Marx, "been spent once and for all."[22] The C-M-C form facilitates the exchange of
one use-value for another. On the contrary, during M-C-M, money is essentially exchanged for
more money. The person who invested money into a commodity sells it for money. The money
returns to the initial starting place, so the money is not spent, as in the C-M-C form of exchange,
but instead advanced. The only function of this process lies in its ability to valorize. By withdrawing
more money from circulation than the amount put in, money can be reinvested in circulation
creating repeated accumulation of monetary wealtha never ending process. Thus M-C-M'
becomes the objective of M-C-M. M' stands for the money returned in the circulative process (M)
plus the additional surplus value gained (M): M'=M+M. Capital can only be created once the
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process of M-C-M has been completed and money returns to the starting point to be re-entered
into circulation.
Karl Marx points out that, "in its pure form, the exchange of commodities is an exchange of
equivalents, and thus it is not a method of increasing value,"[23] and so a contradiction reveals
itself. If the participating individuals exchanged equal values, neither of the individuals would
increase capital. The needs being satisfied would be the only gain. The creation of surplus-value
then becomes rather peculiar for Marx, because commodities, in accordance with socially assigned
necessary values, should not create surplus-value if traded fairly. Marx investigates the matter and
concludes, "surplus-value cannot arise from circulation, and therefore that, for it to be formed,
something must take place in the background which is not visible in the circulation itself."[24]
According to Marx, labor determines the value of a commodity. Through the example of a piece of
leather, Marx then describes how humans can, through the means of labor, increase the value of a
commodity. Turning the leather into boots increases the value of the leather, because now more
labor has been applied to the leather. Marx then explains the contradiction of the general formula.
Capital cannot be created from circulation because equal exchange of commodities creates no
surplus value, and unequal exchange of commodities changes the distribution of wealth, but still
does not produce surplus-value. Capital cannot be created without circulation either, because
labor creates value within the general formula. Marx writes, "It must have its origin both in
circulation and not in circulation."[24] A "double result" remains: The capitalist must buy
commodities at their value, sell them at their value, and yet conclude the process with more money
than at the beginning. The profit seemingly originates both inside and outside the general
formula.[24]
The intricacies of the general formula relate to the role of labor-power.
In the last section of Part II, Marx investigates labor-power as a commodity. Labor-power existing
on the market depends on two fulfillment's: the workers must offer it for temporary sale on the
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market and the workers must not possess the means to their own subsistence. As long as the
labor-power is sold temporarily then the worker is not considered a slave. Worker dependence for
a means of subsistence ensures a large working force, necessary for the production of capital.
The value of labor bought on the market as a commodity represents the definite amount of socially
necessary labor objectified in the worker, or according to Marx, "the labor-time necessary for the
production [of the worker],"[25] which means the food, education, shelter, health, etc., required to
create and maintain a worker. The capitalists need workers to combine with their means of
production to create a sell-able commodity, and workers need capitalists to provide a wage that
pays for a means of subsistence. Within the capitalist mode of production it is custom to pay for
labor-power only after it has been exercised over a period of time, fixed by a contract (i.e. the work
week).
Part Three: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value
[edit]
In Part Three of Capital Volume I, Karl Marx explores the production of Absolute Surplus Value. To
understand this one must first understand the labor process itself. According to Marx, the
production of absolute surplus value arises directly out of the labor process.
There are two sides to the labor process. On one side there is the buyer of labor power, or the
capitalist. On the other side there is the worker. For the capitalist the worker possesses only one
use-value, that of labor power. The capitalist buys from the worker his labor power, or his ability to
do work, and in return the worker receives a wage, or a means of subsistence.
Marx says this of the labor process: "In the labor process, therefore, man's activity, via the
instruments of labor, effects an alteration in the object of labor. The product of the process is a
use-value, a piece of natural material adapted to human needs by means of change in its form.
Labor has become bound up in its object: labor has been objectified, the object has been worked
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on"[26] The labor that the worker has put forth to produce the object has been transferred to the
object, thus giving it value.
Under capitalism it is the capitalist who owns everything in the production process such as: the raw
materials that the commodity is made of, the means of production, and the labor power (worker)
itself. At the end of the labor process it is the capitalist who owns the product of their labor, not the
workers who produced the commodities. Since the capitalist owns everything in the production
process he is free to sell it for his own profit. The capitalist wants to produce: "An article destined
to be sold, a commodity; and secondly he wants to produce a commodity greater in value than the
sum of the values of the commodities used to produce it, namely the means of production and the
labor-power he purchased with his good money on the open market. His aim is to produce not only
a use-value, but a commodity; not only use-value, but value; and not just value, but also surplus
value."[27]
The goal of the capitalist is to produce surplus value. However, producing surplus value proves to
be difficult. If all goods are purchased at their full price then profit cannot be made. Surplus value
cannot arise from buying the inputs of production at a low price and then selling the commodity at
a higher price. This is due to the economic law of one price which states "that if trade were free,
then identical goods should sell for about the same price throughout the world".[28] What this law
means is that profit cannot be made simply through the purchase and sale of goods. Price
changes on the open market will force other capitalists to adjust their prices in order to be more
competitive, resulting in one price.
So, where does surplus value originate? Quite simply, the origin of surplus value arises from the
worker. To better understand how this happens consider the following example from Marx's Capital
Volume I. A capitalist hires a worker to spin ten pounds of cotton into yarn. Suppose the value of
the cotton is one dollar per pound. The entire value of the cotton is 10 dollars. The production
process naturally causes wear and tear on the machinery that is used to help produce the yarn.
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Suppose this wearing down of machinery costs the capitalist two dollars. The value of labor power
is three dollars per day. Now also suppose that the working day is six hours. In this example the
production process yields up 15 dollars, and also costs the capitalist 15 dollars. Thus there is no
profit.
Now consider the process again, but this time the working day is 12 hours. In this case there is 20
dollars produced from the 20 pounds of cotton. Wear and tear on machinery now costs the
capitalist four dollars. However, the value of labor power is still only three dollars per day. The
entire production process costs the capitalist 27 dollars. However, the capitalist can now sell the
yarn for 30 dollars. This is because the yarn still holds 12 hours of socially necessary labor time in
it (equivalent to six dollars).
The key to this is that workers exchange their labor power in return for a means of subsistence. In
this example, the means of subsistence has not changed; therefore the wage is still only 3 dollars
per day. Notice that while the labor only costs the capitalist 3 dollars, the labor power produces 12
hours worth of socially necessary labor time. The secret of surplus value resides in the fact that
there is a difference between the value of labor power and what that labor power can produce in a
given amount of time. Labor power can produce more than its own value.
So, by working on materials during the production process the worker both preserves the value of
the material and adds new value to the material. This value is added because of the labor that is
necessary to transform the raw material into a commodity. But, according to Marx, value only exists
in use-values, so how does the worker transfer value to a good? It is because "Man himself,
viewed merely as the physical existence of labor power, is a natural object, a thing, although a
living, conscious thing, and labor is the physical manifestation of that power."[29] In order for
commodities to be produced with surplus value two things must be true. Man must be a living
commodity, a commodity that produces labor power, and it must be the nature of this labor power
to produce more than its own value.
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When capitalists begin production they initially spend their money on two inputs. These inputs can
be represented with the capital advanced equation:
; where C is capital advanced, c
is constant capital, and v is variable capital. Constant capital is nothing more than the means of
production (factories, machinery, raw materials, etc.). Constant capital has a fixed value which can
be transferred to the commodity, though the value added to the commodity can never be more
than the value of constant capital itself. The source of surplus value comes instead from Variable
capital or labor power. Labor power is the only commodity capable of producing more value than it
possesses.
The accumulation of capital occurs after the production process is completed. The equation for the
accumulation of capital is
'
. Here C' is the value created during the production
process. C' is equal to constant capital plus variable capital plus some extra amount of surplus
value (s), which arises out of variable capital. Marx says that surplus value is "merely a congealed
quantity of surplus labor-time nothing but objectified surplus labor."[30]
To better understand the rate of surplus value one must understand that there are two parts to the
working day. One part of the working day is the time necessary in order to produce the value of
the workers labor power. The second part of the working day is surplus labor time, which produces
no value for the laborer, but produces value for the capitalist. The rate of surplus value is a ratio of
surplus labor time (s) to necessary labor time (v). The rate of surplus value (s/v) is also referred to
by Marx as the rate of exploitation.
Capitalists often maximize profits by manipulating the rate of surplus value, which can be done
through the increase of surplus labor time. This method is referred to as the production of
absolute surplus value. In this case capitalists merely increase the length of the working day.
Though there are physical restrictions to the working day, such as general human needs, the
working day is by no means fixed. This allows for great flexibility in the amount of hours worked per
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day.
This flexibility in working hours leads to a class struggle between capitalist and worker. The
capitalists argue that they have the right to extract all of the value from a day's labor, since that is
what they bought. Similarly, the worker demands the full value of his own commodity. The worker
needs to be able to renew his labor power so that it can be sold again anew. The capitalist sees
working fewer hours as theft from capital, and the worker see working too many hours as theft from
laborers. This class struggle can be seen throughout history, and eventually laws such as Factory
Acts were put in place to limit the length of a working day and child labour. This forced capitalists
to find a new way in which to exploit workers.
Part Four: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value
[edit]
titled Capital, Volume I, Part Four. (Discuss) Proposed since
September 2014.
Part Four of Capital, Volume I consists of four chapters: 12: The Concept of Relative SurplusValue, 13: Co-operation, 14: Division of Labour and Manufacture, and 15: Machinery and Modern
Industry. In Chapter 12, Marx explains a decrease in the value of labour power by increasing
production. Chapters 1315 examine ways in which the productivity of this labour is increased.
Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value [edit]

A B C
The section from A to B represents the necessary labour, and the section from B to C represents
the surplus labour. Remember, the value of labour-power is "the labour-time necessary to produce
labour-power."[31] What is of interest to Marx is, "How can the production of surplus-value be
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increased, i.e. how can surplus labour be prolonged, without any prolongation, or independently of
any prolongation, of the line AC?"[32] Marx says it is in the best interest of the capitalist to divide
the working day like this:
A B' B C
This is showing that the amount of surplus labour is increased, while the amount of necessary
labour is decreased. Marx calls this decrease in necessary labour and increase in surplus value as
relative surplus-value (whereas when there is an actual lengthening in the working day and surplus
value is produced, this is called absolute surplus-value.) For this to happen, the productivity of
labour must increase. The perpetual drive of capital, according to Marx, is to increase the
productivity of labor, leading to a decrease in the value of commodities. In this, the value of the
workers means of subsistence decreases, resulting in a decrease in the value of his labour power.
Chapter 13: Co-operation [edit]

According to Marx, co-operation happens "when numerous workers work together side by side in
accordance with a plan, whether in the same process, or in different but connected processes."[33]
Co-operation also shortens the time needed to complete a given task. Marx says, "If the labour
process is complicated, then the sheer number of the co-operators permits the apportionment of
various operations to different hands, and consequently their simultaneous performance. The time
necessary for the completion of the whole work is thereby shortened."[34] The effort by the
capitalist to organize co-operation is simply for reasons of increasing production. While this is the
case, Marx is quick to note that the collective powers of co-operation are not created by Capital.
This, according to Marx, is a disguise or a fetish. Marx cites the building of the pyramids, which
occurred prior to the organization of a capitalist mode of production.
Chapter 14: The Division of Labour and Manufacture [edit]

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Section 1. The Dual Origin of Manufacture

In this section 1, The Dual Origin of Manufacture, Marx examines manufacture as a method of
production involving specialized workers, or craftsmen, working on their own detailed task. Marx
cites the assembly of a carriage as an example of the first way this is brought about. In this,
multiple skilled workers are brought together to produce specialized parts once unique to their
craft, contributing to the overall production of the commodity. Another way this manufacture arises
is by splitting up a single handicraft into multiple specialized areas, further introducing a division of
labour.
Section 2. The Specialized Worker and his Tools
In this section, Marx argues that a worker who performs only one task throughout his life will
perform his job at a faster and more productive rate, forcing capital to favor the specialized worker
to the traditional craftsman.[35] Marx also states that a specialized worker doing only one task can
use a more specialized tool, which cannot do many jobs but can do the one job well, in a more
efficient manner than a traditional craftsman using a multi-purpose tool on any specific task.[36]
Section 3. The Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture- Heterogeneous and Organic
In this section, Marx argues that a division of labour within production produces a hierarchy of
labor, skilled and unskilled, and also a variation in wages. Yet according to Marx, this division
within the labour process reduces a workers skills collectively, which devalues their labour power.
Section 4. The Division of Labour in Manufacture and the Division of Labour in Society
In this section, Marx states that division of labour has existed in society long before the
establishment of a capitalist mode of production. Marx argues that despite its existence prior to
capital, division of labor is unique under capital because its goal is to increase the rate and mass
of surplus value, not create a "combined product of specialized labours."[37]
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Section 5. The Capitalist Character of Division

In this section, Marx discusses an increased class struggle that is brought about by capital, or in
this case in the division of labour. By creating such a division, it disguises the efforts and work of
such a division as that of the capitalist. Division of labour under capitalism, according to Marx, is a
subdivision of a workers potential and sets limitations on his mental and physical capacity, making
him reliant upon the capitalist to exercise his specialized skill.
Chapter 15: Machinery and Large-Scale Industry [edit]

Section 1. Development of Machinery
In this section, Marx explains the significance of machinery to capitalists and how it is applied to the
workforce. The goal of introducing machinery into the workforce is to increase productivity. When
productivity is increased, the commodity being produced is cheapened. Relative surplus value is
amplified because machinery shortens the part of the day that the worker works for his or her
means of subsistence and increases the time that the worker produces for the capitalist.
Marx discusses tools and machines and their application to the process of production. Marx claims
that many experts, including himself, cannot distinguish between tools and machines. Marx states
that they "call a tool a simple machine and a machine a complex tool."[38] Marx continues to
elaborate on this misinterpretation of definition, explaining that some people distinguish between a
tool and a machine "by saying that in the case of the tool, man is the motive power, whereas the
power behind the machine is a natural force independent of man, for instance an animal, water,
wind and so on."[39] Marx explains a flaw with this approach comparing two examples. He points out
that a plow, which is powered by an animal, would be considered to be a machine and Claussen's
circular loom, which is able to weave at a tremendous speed, is in fact powered by one worker and
there fore considered to be a tool. Marx gives a precise definition of the machine when he says
"The machine, therefore, is a mechanism that, after being set in motion, performs with its tools the
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same operation as the worker formerly did with similar tools. Whether the motive power is derived
from man, or in turn from a machine, makes no difference here."[40]
There are three parts to fully developed machinery:
1. The motor mechanism powers the mechanism. Be it a steam engine, water wheel or a
person's caloric engine.
2. The transmitting mechanism, wheels, screws, and ramps and pulleys. These are the moving
parts of the machine.
3. The working machine uses itself to sculpt whatever it was built to do.
Marx believes the working machine is the most important part of developed machinery. It is in fact
what began the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century and even today it continues to turn
craft into industry.
The machine is able to replace a worker, who works at one specific job with one tool, with a
mechanism that accomplishes the same task, but with many similar tools and at a much faster rate.
One machine doing one specific task soon turns into a fleet of co-operating machines
accomplishing the entire process of production. This aspect of automation enables the capitalist to
replace large numbers of human workers with machines which creates a large pool of available
workers that the capitalist can choose from to form his human workforce. The worker no longer
needs to be skilled in a particular trade because their job has been reduced to oversight and
maintenance of their mechanical successors.
The development of machinery is an interesting cycle where inventors started inventing machines
to complete necessary tasks. The machine making industry grew larger and worker's efforts
started focusing toward creating these machines, the objects which steal work from its own creator.
With so many machines being developed, the need for new machines to create old machines
increased. For example, the spinning machine started a need for printing and dyeing, and the
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designing of the cotton gin. "Without steam engines, the hydraulic press could not have been
made. Along with the press, came the mechanical lathe and an iron cutting machine. Labor
assumes a material mode of existence which necessitates the replacement of human force by
natural forces."[41]
Section 2. The Value Transferred by Machinery to the Product
As seen in the previous section, the machine does not replace the tool, which is powered by man.
The tool multiplies and expands into the working machine that is created by man. Workers now go
to work not to handle the tools of production but to work with the machine, which handles the tools.
It is clear that large-scale industry increase the productivity of labor to an extraordinary degree by
incorporating its fast paced efficiency within the process of production. What is not as clear is that
this new increase in productivity does not require an equal increase in expended labor by the
worker. Machinery creates no new value. The machine accumulates value from the labor, which
went into producing it, and it merely transfers its value into the product it's producing until its value
is used up.
Only labor power, which is bought by capitalists, can create new value. Machinery transfers its
value into the product at a rate, which is dependent upon how much the total value of the
machinery is. "The less value it gives up, the more productive it is, and the more its services
approach those rendered by natural forces."[42] The general rule of machinery is that the labor
used to create it must be less than how much human work it replaces when it is used in the
process of production. Otherwise, the machinery would not be effective in raising surplus value
and instead depreciate it. This is why some machinery is not chosen to replace actual human
workers because it would not be cost effective.
Section 3. The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman
Section Three examines some of the effects of the industrial revolution on the individual worker. It
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is divided into three subsections, the first of which discusses how the use of industrial equipment
enables capitalists to appropriate supplementary labor. Marx notes that, since machinery can
reduce the reliance upon a worker's physical strength, it enables the employment of women and
children to carry out work that could previously only be done by men. It thus depreciates an
individual's labour-power by introducing many more potential workers into the exploitable pool of
laborers.
The second subsection describes how mechanisation, by increasing labor productivity, can
effectively shorten the working-time needed to produce an individual commodity item. However,
because of the need to recoup the capital outlay required to introduce a given machine, it must be
productively operated for as long as possible every day.
In the third subsection, Marx discusses how mechanization influences the intensification of labor.
Although the introduction of the Factory Acts limited the allowable length of the work day, it did
nothing to halt the drive for more efficiency. Control over workers' tools is transferred to the
machine, which prevents them from setting their own work pace and rhythm. As the machines are
continuously adapted and streamlined, the effect is an ever-increasing intensification of the
laborer's work activity.
Section 4. The Factory
Marx begins this section with two descriptions of the factory as a whole.
"Combined co-operation of many orders of workpeople, adult and young, in tending with assiduous
skill, a system of productive machines, continuously impelled by a central power" (the prime
mover); on the other hand, as "a vast automaton, composed of various mechanical and intellectual
organs, acting in uninterrupted concert for the production of a common object, all of them being
subordinate to a self-regulated moving force."[43]
This twofold description shows the characteristics of the relationship between the collective body of
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labor power and the machine. In the first description, the workers, or collective labor power, are
viewed as separate entities from the machine. In the second description, the machine is the
dominant force, with the collective labor acting as mere appendages of the self operating machine.
Marx uses the latter description to display the characteristics of the modern factory system under
capitalism.
In the factory, the tools of the worker disappear, and the worker's skill is passed on to the machine.
The division of labor and specialization of skills re-appear in the factory, only now as a more
exploitative form of capitalist production (work is still organized into co-operative groups.) Work in
the factory usually consists of two groups, people who are employed on the machines and those
who attend to the machines. The third group, outside of the factory, is a superior class of workers,
trained in the maintenance and repair of the machines.
Factory work begins at childhood to ensure that a person may adapt to the systematic movements
of the automated machine, therefore increasing productivity for the capitalist. Marx describes this
work as being extremely exhausting to the nervous system and void of intellectual activity. Factory
work robs workers of basic working conditions like clean air, light, space, and protection. Marx
ends this section by asking if Fourier was wrong when he called factories mitigated jails'?
Section 5. The Struggle between Worker and Machine
This section opens with a historical summary of workers' revolts against the imposition of
mechanical instruments of production, such as ribbon weaving. Marx notes that, by the early
nineteenth century, the introduction of power looms and other manufacturing equipment resulted
in widespread destruction of machinery by the Luddite movement. These attacks in turn gave the
government at the time a pretext for severe crackdowns. "It took both time and experience before
workers learned to distinguish between machinery and their employment by capital, and therefore
to transfer their attacks from the material instruments of production to the form of society which
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utilizes those instruments."[44]

Marx describes the machine as the instrument of labor for the capitalists' material mode of
existence. The machine competes with the worker, diminishing the use-value of the worker's laborpower. Marx also points out that with the advance in technology of machines led to the substitution
of less skilled work for more skilled work which ultimately led to a change in wages. During the
progression of machinery the numbers of skilled workers decreased, while child labor flourished,
increasing profits for the capitalist.
Section 6. The Compensation Theory, With Regard to the Workers Displaced by
Machinery
In this section, Marx sets forth to illuminate the error within the compensation theory of the political
economists. According to this theory, the displacement of workers by machinery will necessarily
"set free" an equal stable, amount of variable capital previously used for the purchase of laborpower and remains available for the same purpose. However, Marx argues that the introduction of
machinery is simply a shift of variable capital to constant capital. The capital "set free" cannot be
used for compensation since the displacement of variable capital available becomes embodied in
the machinery purchased.[45]
The capital that may become available for the compensation will always be less than the total
amount of capital previously used to purchase labor-power before the addition of machinery.
Furthermore, the remainder of variable capital available is directed towards hiring workers with the
expertise skills to operate new machinery. Therefore the conversion of the greater part of the total
capital is now used as constant capital, a reduction of variable capital necessarily follows. As a
result of machinery, displaced workers are not so quickly compensated by employment in other
industries but are forced into an expanding labor-market at a disadvantage and available for
greater capitalist exploitation without the ability to procure the means of subsistence for survival.[46]
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Furthermore, Marx argues that the introduction of machinery may increase employment in other
industries, yet this expansion "has nothing in common with the so-called theory of
compensation."[47] Greater productivity will necessarily generate an expansion of production into
peripheral fields that provide raw materials. Conversely, machinery introduced to industries that
produce raw materials will lead to an increase in those industries that consume them. The
production of greater surplus-value leads to greater wealth of the ruling classes, an increase in the
labor-market, and consequently the establishment of new industries. As such Marx cites the growth
of the domestic service industry equated to greater servitude by the exploited classes.[48]
Section 7. Repulsion and Attraction of Workers Through The Development of Machine
Production, Crises in the Cotton Industry
The political economist apology for the displacement of workers by machinery asserts that there is
a corresponding increase in employment. Marx is quick to cite the example of the silk industry in
which an actual decrease of employment appears simultaneously with an increase of existing
machinery. On the other hand an increase in the number of factory workers employed is the result
of "the gradual annexation of neighboring branches of industry" and "the building of more factories
or the extension of old factories in a given industry."[49]
Furthermore, Marx argues that an increase in factory workers is relative since the displacement of
workers creates a proportionately wider gap between the increase of machinery and a
proportionate decrease of labor required to operate that machinery.[50] The constant expansion of
capitalism and ensuing technical advances leads to extension of markets until it reaches all
corners of the globe thus creating cycles of economic prosperity and crisis.[51] Finally, the
"repulsion and attraction" of workers therefore results as a cycle in which there is a constant
displacement of workers by machinery which necessarily leads to increased productivity followed
by a relative expansion of industry and higher employment of labor. This sequence renews itself as
all components of the cycle lead to novel technological innovation for "replacing labor-power."[52]
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Part Five: The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value

[edit]
Chapters 16-18 examine how the capitalist strategies for the production of both absolute and
relative surplus-value are combined and can function simultaneously.
Chapter 16: The Rise of Surplus Value [edit]

Marx describes the process of taking the worker's individual productive actions and making them a
collective effort of many workers. This action takes the worker further away from the actual
production of the commodity and then allows the capitalist to use the worker only to create surplus
value. The surplus value is increased first through absolute methods, such as extending the work
day, then through relative methods, such as increasing worker productivity. These actions are the
general foundations of capitalism as described by Marx.[53]
The worker's transformation from producer of commodities for use in survival to producer of
surplus value is necessary in the progression to capitalism. In production outside the capitalist
system the worker produces everything they need to survive. When the worker moves beyond
producing what they need to survive, they can provide their work for a wage and create part of
some product in return for a wage to buy what they need to survive. Capitalism takes advantage of
this extra time by paying the worker a wage that allows them to survive but is less than the value
the same worker creates. Through large scale manufacturing and economies of scale the workers
are placed progressively further away from manufacturing products themselves and only function
as part of a whole collective that creates the commodities. This changes the concept of productive
labor from the production of commodities to the production of surplus value.[54] The worker is only
productive to the capitalist if they can maximize the surplus value the capitalist is earning.
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Not simply content with the transformation of the worker from a creator of commodities to creator of
surplus value, capitalist must devise new ways to increase the surplus that he is receiving. The
first, or absolute, way the capitalist can increase surplus value is through the prolongation of the
working day so the worker has more time to create value.[55] The second, or relative, way the
capitalist can increase surplus value is to revolutionize changes in the production method.[55] If the
worker can only produce the means for himself in the time he works during the day there would be
no extra time for him to create surplus value for the capitalist. The capitalist must then either
enable the worker to complete the paid work time more quickly through relative means, or he must
increase the work day in absolute terms. Without enabling unpaid work to exist the capitalist
system would not be able to sustain itself.
With surplus labor resting on a natural basis, there are no natural obstacles preventing one man
from imposing his labor burden on another. As a worker looks into the possible options of getting
out of capitalist exploitation or the initial "animal condition", one of the obvious options is becoming
a capitalist himself. This is called socialized labor which exists when the surplus labor of one worker
becomes necessary for the existence of another.
Marx mentions two natural conditions of wealth that are helpful in understanding the progression of
socialized labor over time. The two conditions are natural wealth in the means of subsistence and
natural wealth in the instruments of labor. Over time, society has moved more from the former to
the latter. It was not that long ago that the majority of society produced for themselves and did not
have to be concerned about producing surplus labor for others. We did labor for others, but it was
not in effort to create surplus value, it was to help others.
Marx uses the Egyptians as an example to illustrate a society's potential when there is extra time
that does not have to be used toward creating surplus value. The Egyptians lived in a very fertile
land (natural subsistence wealth) so could raise children at a very low cost. This is the main
reason why the population grew so large. One might think all the great Egyptian structures were
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possible because of the large population, but is due to the availability of labor time.
In regards to capitalism, you might think that a greater natural wealth of subsistence would result in
greater growth and capitalist production (like the Egyptians), but that is not the case. So why is
capitalism so strong in many countries that do not have excess natural resources? The answer is
the necessity of bringing a natural force under the control of society (irrigation in Persia and India,
flow of water in Egypt, etc.) As Marx says, "favourable conditions provide the possibility, not the
reality of surplus labour."
Marx displays an example of surplus labor occurring in these favorable conditions in the case of
the East Indies. The inhabitants would be able to produce enough to satisfy all of his needs with
only twelve working hours per week. This provides for more than enough leisure time until capitalist
production takes hold. Then he may be required to work six days per week to satisfy his needs
there can be no explanation of why it is necessary for him to provide the extra five days of surplus
labor.
Marx then critiques famed economist David Ricardo and the lack of addressing the issue of
surplus-value. Ricardo does not take the time to discuss the origin of surplus-value and
sidestepped the entire issue altogether. Agreeing with classical economists, John Stuart Mill finds
that the productive power, surplus value, is the source of profits, but adds that the necessities of
life take less time to produce than is required by society. Therefore, this becomes the reason
capital will realize a profit. Mill goes on to assert that profit can only be gleaned from productive
power and not exchange which falls in line with Marx's theories.
The next critique of Mill goes on to the percentage that is gained from the laborer. Marx finds it to
be "absolutely false" in the fact that the percentage of surplus labor will always be more than the
profits. This is due to the amount of capital invested. Following his conclusions, Marx calls Mill's
ideas an optical illusion as he looks into the advancing of capital. Mill looks at laborers and
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considers them to be a form of capitalistthey are advancing the capitalist their labor ahead of
time and receiving it at the end of the project for more of a share. Marx hits the idea out with the
analogy of the American peasant being his own slave as he is doing forced labor for himself.
Karl Marx examined surplus value and showed it to be a necessity in capitalism. This surplus value
is derived from the difference between the value the worker creates and the wage he earns.
Chapter 16 looked into the ways in which the capitalist is able to increase surplus-value and takes
a direct attack against economists David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill.
Chapter 17: Changes of Magnitude in the price of Labor-Power and in SurplusValue [edit]
The Value of Labor power, also known as wage, is the first thing that Marx begins to re-explain in
the opening of the chapter, stressing that it is equal to the quantity of the "necessaries of life
habitually required by the average laborer." By re-stressing the importance of this concept he is
building a foundation on which he can begin to elaborate his argument on the changing price of
labor. In order to make his argument, Marx states that he will leave out two certain factors of
change (the expenses of labor power that differ with each mode of production and the diversity of
labor power between men and women, children and adults) and that he will also be making two
assumptions. The two assumptions made are first, the commodities are sold at their values, and
second, the price of labor-power occasionally rises above its value, but never falls beneath it.
Given these assumptions Marx begins to formulate his argument by first establishing the three
determinants of the price of labor power. These three determinants, or circumstances as Marx
calls them, are: the length of the working day, the normal intensity of labor, and the productiveness
of labor. Formulating these three circumstances into different combinations of variables and
constants Marx begins to clarify the changes in magnitude in the price of labor-power. The majority
of Chapter XVII is dedicated to the chief combinations of these three factors.
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I. Length of the working day and Intensity of labor constant; Productiveness of labor
variable.
Starting out with these assumptions Marx explains that there are three laws that determine the
value of labor-power. The first of these three laws states that a working day of given amount of
hours will always produce the same amount of value. This value will always be a constant, no
matter the productiveness of labor, or the price of the commodity produced. The second states
that the surplus-value and labor-power are negatively correlated or that when surplus-value
increases a unit and value stays the same labor-power must decrease one unit also. The third of
these laws is that a change in surplus-value presupposes a change in that of the labor-power.
Given these three laws Marx explains how the productiveness of labor, being the variable, changes
the magnitude of labor-value. Marx explains saying "a change in the magnitude of surplus-value,
presupposes a movement in the value of labour-power, which movement is brought about by a
variation in the productiveness of labour." This variation in the productiveness of labor is what
eventually leads to the developing change in value, which is then divided by either the laborers,
through extra labor-value, or the capitalist, through extra surplus value.
II. Working-day constant; Productiveness of labor constant; Intensity of labor variable.
The Intensity of labor is the expenditure that the laborer puts into a commodity. The increase in the
intensity of labor results in the increase of value that the labor is producing. This increase that the
laborer is producing is again divided amongst the capitalist and laborer in the form of either
surplus-value or an increase in the value of labor power. Though they may both increase
simultaneously the addition to the labor may not be an addition if the extra payment received from
his increase in intensity does not cover the wear and tear it has on the laborer.
III. Productivity and Intensity of Labor Constant; Length of Working Day variable.
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In this example it is possible to change the length of the working day by either lengthening of
shortening the time spent at work. Leaving the other two variables constant, reducing the length of
the work day leaves the labor-power's value the same as it was before. This reducing of the length
of the work day will reduce the surplus labor and surplus value dropping it below its value.
The other option in changing the workday is to lengthen it. If the labor-power stays the same with a
longer workday then the surplus-value will increase relatively and absolutely. The relative value of
labor-power will fall even though it will not absolutely. With the lengthening of the workday and the
nominal price staying the same, the price of labor-power possibly could fall below its value. The
value is estimated to be what is produced by the worker and a longer workday will affect the
production and therefore the value.
It is fine to assume the other variables stay constant, but a change in the work day with the others
constant will not result in the outcomes supposed here. A change in the work day by the capitalists
will most definitely affect the productivity and intensity of the labor.
IV. Simultaneous Variations in the Duration, Productivity and Intensity of Labor.
In the real world it is almost never possible to isolate each of the aspects of labor. Two or even
three of the variables may vary and in different aspects. One may move up while another moves
down, or in the same direction. The combinations are endless, but may be characterized by the
first three examples. However, Marx limits his analysis to two cases.
1. "Diminishing productivity of labor with a simultaneous lengthening of the workday." This
example is one where workers are working longer hours paying less attention or dedication
on the job and productivity is in turn reduced; or productivity decreases, increasing the
workday to achieve the same output. Therefore, the magnitude of these changes will
continue on its path causing longer and longer workdays with lower productivity until the
system can sustain no more.
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2. "Increasing intensity and productivity of labor with simultaneous shortening of the working
day." Productivity and intensity are closely related and offer similar outcomes. Higher
productivity and intensity will increase the workers output allowing for the workday to be
shorter as they will achieve their necessary subsistence. The working day can shrink
multiple times so long as the other elements live up to their sides of the bargain.
The price of labor-power is affected by many things that can be broken down. The three main
elements of intensity, productivity and length of workday were broken down and analyzed
separately and then together. From the examples presented it is possible to see what would
happen in any and all situations.
Part Six: Wages
[edit]
In part six, Chapters from 19 to 22, Marx examines the ways in which capital manipulates the
money wage as ways of both concealing exploitation and of extorting increased amounts of unpaid
labor from workers.
Chapter 19: The Transformation of the Value (and Respective Price) of LabourPower into Wages [edit]
In this Chapter, Marx discusses how the "value of labor-power is represented in its converted form
as wages." The form of wages is intended to disguise the division of the working day into
"necessary labor" (labor that is for the value of labor-power) and "surplus labor" (labor that is
totally toward the profit of the capitalist). In other words, paid and unpaid labor for the worker.[56]
The worker in this situation feels as though he is using his labor as means of producing surplus for
his own consumption, when in reality his labor-power has already been purchased by the capitalist
and he merely works as a means to produce surplus value for the capitalist.
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There are two distinct forms of wages that is used in the production of capital: Time-wages and
Piece-wages. These forms facilitate the illusion of the actual value of labor-power and the increase
of productivity from the worker employed.
Chapter 20: Time-Wages [edit]

Marx presents the unit for measurement of time-wages to be the value of the day's labour-power
divided by the number of hours in the average working day.[57] However, an extension in the period
of labour produces a fall in the price of labour, culminating in the fall in the daily or weekly wage.[58]
Yet as Marx specifies this is to the advantage of the capitalist, as more hours of production leads
to surplus value for the capitalist. "If one man does the work of 1 or 2 men, the supply of labor
increases, although the supply of labor-power on the market remains constant. The competition
thus created between the workers allows the capitalist to force down the price of labor, while the
fall in price allows him, on the other hand, to force up the hours of work even further."[59] To make
the worker feel his extra time and labour is well spent, the capitalist employs the trick of "overtime".
Chapter 21: Piece-Wages [edit]

Marx explains the exploitative nature of the piece-wage system. Under this system workers are paid
a pre-determined amount for each piece they produce, creating a modified form of the time-wage
system. A key difference is in the fact that the piece-wage system provides an exact measure of
the intensity of labor. Meaning that the capitalists' know about how long it takes to produce one
piece of finished product. Those who cannot meet these standards of production will not be
allowed to keep their jobs. This system also allows for middlemen (wholesaler or reseller) to usurp
positions between the capitalists and laborers. These middlemen make their money solely from
paying labor less than capitalists are actually allotting, thus, bringing about worker on worker
exploitation.
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Logic would lead a laborer to believe that straining one's labor power "as intensely as possible"
works in one's own interests because the more efficiently they produce the more they will be paid.
Therefore, the workday will lengthen to the extent that worker's allow and necessitate. However,
prolongation in the workday requires the price of labor to fall. Marx elucidates that, "the piecewage therefore has a tendency, while raising the wages of individuals above the average, to lower
this average itself," and "it is apparent that the piece-wage is the form of wage most appropriate to
the capitalist mode of production." Marx gives examples of the weaving industry around the time of
the Anti-Jacobin War where "piece-wages had fallen so low that in spite of the very great
lengthening of the working day, the daily wage was then lower than it had been before." So in this
example we are able to see how piece-wages do nothing but decrease the value of labor and
better disguise the true way the workers are exploited.[60]
Part Seven: The Process of Accumulation of Capital
[edit]
titled Capital, Volume I, Part Seven. (Discuss) Proposed since
September 2014.
In Part Seven, Chapters from 23 to 25, Marx explores the ways in which profits are used to
recreate capitalist class relations on an ever expanding scale and the ways in which this expansion
of capitalism creates periodic crises for capitalist accumulation. For Marx, these crises in
accumulation are also always crises in the perpetuation of the class relations necessary for
capitalist production and so are also opportunities for revolutionary change.
Chapter 23: Simple Reproduction [edit]

This section contains too many quotations for an
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encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing

it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them
as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct
quotations to Wikiquote. (November 2014)
"The economic character of capitalist becomes firmly fixed to a man only if his money constantly
functions as capital." - 711 "surplus-value acquires the form of a revenue arising out of capital. If
this revenue serves the capitalist only as a fund to provide for his consumption, and if it is
consumed as periodically as it is gained, then, other things being equal, simple reproduction takes
place." - 712 "When a person consumes the whole of his property, by taking upon himself debts
equal to the value of that property, it is clear that his property represents nothing but the sum total
of his debts. And so it is with the capitalist; when he has consumed the equivalent of his original
capital, the value of his present capital represents nothing but the total amount of surplus-value
appropriated by him without payment. Not a single atom of the value of his old capital continues to
exist." - 715 "The fact that the worker performs acts of individual consumption in his own interest,
and not to please the capitalist, is something entirely irrelevant to the matter. The consumption of
food by a beast of burden does not become any less a necessary aspect of the production
process because the beast enjoys what it eats." - 718 "The reproduction of the working class
implies at the same time the transmission and accumulation of skills from one generation to
another." - 719 "In reality, the worker belongs to capital before he has sold himself to the capitalist.
His economic bondage is at once mediated through and concealed by, the periodic renewal of the
act by which he sells himself, his change of masters, and the oscillations in the market-price of his
labour." - 723-4
Chapter 24: The Transformation of Surplus-Value into Capital [edit]

This section contains too many quotations for an
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encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing

it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them
as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct
quotations to Wikiquote. (November 2014)
- Capitalist production on a progressively increasing scale. The inversion which converts the
property laws of commodity production into laws of capitalist appropriation
"surplus-value can be transformed into capital only because the surplus product, whose value it is,
already comprises the material components of a new quantity of capital." - 727 "All capital needs to
do is to incorporate this additional labour-power, annually supplied by the working class in the
shape of labour-powers of all ages, with the additional means of production comprised in the
annual product" - 727 "the working class creates by the surplus labour of one year the capital
destined to employ additional labour in the following year. And this is what is called creating capital
out of capital." - 729 "The constant sale and purchase of labour-power is the form;the content is
the constant appropriation by the capitalist, without equivalent, of a portion of the labour of others
which has already been objectified, and his repeated exchange of this labour for a greater quantity
of the living labour of others." - 730 - The political economists' erroneous conception of
reproduction on an increasing scale
"The classical economists are therefore quite right to maintain that the consumption of surplus
product by productive, instead of unproductive, workers is a characteristic feature of the process
of accumulation." - 736 "The movements of the individual capitals and personal revenues cross
and intermingle, and become lost in a general alternation of positions, i.e. in the circulation of
society's wealth." - 737 - Division of surplus-value into capital and revenue. The abstinence theory
"One part of the surplus-value is consumed by the capitalist as revenue, the other part is
employed as capital, i.e. it is accumulated...the ratio of these parts determines the magnitude of
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accumulation." - 738 "the development of capitalist production makes it necessary constantly to

increase the amount of capital laid out in a given industrial undertaking, and competition
subordinates every individual capitalist to the immanent laws of capitalist production as external
and coercive laws. It compels him to keep extending his capital, so as to preserve it, and he can
only extend it by means of progressive accumulation." - 739 "Accumulation is the conquest of the
world of social wealth." - 739 "Accumulation for the sake of accumulation, production for the same
of production: this was the formula in which classical economics expressed the historical mission of
the bourgeoisie in the period of its domination." - 742 - The circumstances which, independently of
the proportional division of surplus-value into capital and revenue, determine the extent of
accumulation:
the degree of exploitation of labour-power the productivity of labour the growing difference in
amount between capital employed and capital consumed the magnitude of the capital advanced
Chapter 25, Sections 3 and 4: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation [edit]
The accumulation of capital, though originally appearing as its quantitative extension only, is
effected, as we have seen, under a progressive qualitative change in its composition, under a
constant increase of its constant, at the expense of its variable constituent.
Capitalist production can by no means content itself with the quantity of disposable labour-power
which the natural increase of population yields. It requires for its free play an industrial reserve
army independent of these natural limits.
Up to this point it has been assumed that the increase or diminution of the variable capital
corresponds rigidly with the increase or diminution of the number of labourers employed.
The number of labourers commanded by capital may remain the same, or even fall, while the
variable capital increases. This is the case if the individual labourer yields more labour, and
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therefore his wages increase and this although the price of labour remains the same or even falls,
only more slowly than the mass of labour rises. Increase of variable capital, in this case, becomes
an index of more labour, but not of more labourers employed. It is the absolute interest of every
capitalist to press a given quantity of labour out of a smaller, rather than a greater number of
labourers, if the cost is about the same. In the latter case, the outlay of constant capital increases
in proportion to the mass of labour set in action; in the former that increase is much smaller. The
more extended the scale of production, the stronger this motive. Its force increases with the
accumulation of capital.
We have seen that the development of the capitalist mode of production and of the productive
power of labourat once the cause and effect of accumulationenables the capitalist, with the
same outlay of variable capital, to set in action more labour by greater exploitation (extensive or
intensive) of each individual labour-power. We have further seen that the capitalist buys with the
same capital a greater mass of labour-power, as he progressively replaces skilled labourers by
less skilled, mature labour-power by immature, male by female, that of adults by that of young
persons or children.
On the one hand, therefore, with the progress of accumulation, a larger variable capital sets more
labour in action without enlisting more labourers; on the other, a variable capital of the same
magnitude sets in action more labour with the same mass of labour-power; and, finally, a greater
number of inferior labour-power by displacement of higher.
The production of a relative surplus-population, or the setting free of labourers, goes on therefore
yet more rapidly than the technical revolution of the process of production that accompanies, and
is accelerated by, the advances of accumulation; and more rapidly than the corresponding
diminution of the variable part of capital as compared with the constant. If the means of production,
as they increase in extent and effective power, become to a less extent means of employment of
labourers, this state of things is again modified by the fact that in proportion as the productiveness
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of labour increases, capital increases its supply of labour more quickly than its demand for
labourers. The over-work of the employed part of the working class swells the ranks of the reserve,
whilst conversely the greater pressure that the latter by its competition exerts on the former, forces
these to submit to over-work and to subjugation under the dictates of capital. The condemnation of
one part of the working-class to enforced idleness by the over-work of the other part, and the
converse, becomes a means of enriching the individual capitalists,17 and accelerates at the same
time the production of the industrial reserve army on a scale corresponding with the advance of
social accumulation. How important is this element in the formation of the relative surpluspopulation, is shown by the example of England. Her technical means for saving labour are
colossal. Nevertheless, if to-morrow morning labour generally were reduced to a rational amount,
and proportioned to the different sections of the working-class according to age and sex, the
working population to hand would be absolutely insufficient for the carrying on of national
production on its present scale. The great majority of the labourers now "unproductive" would have
to be turned into "productive" ones.
This is the place to return to one of the grand exploits of economic apologetics. It will be
remembered that if through the introduction of new, or the extension of old, machinery, a portion of
variable capital is transformed into constant, the economic apologist interprets this operation which
fixes capital and by that very act sets labourers free, in exactly the opposite way, pretending
that it sets free capital for the labourers. Only now can one fully understand the effrontery of these
apologists. What are set free are not only the labourers immediately turned out by the machines,
but also their future substitutes in the rising generation, and the additional contingent, that with the
usual extension of trade on the old basis would be regularly absorbed. They are now all set free,
and every new bit of capital looking out for employment can dispose of them. Whether it attracts
them or others, the effect on the general labour demand will be nil, if this capital is just sufficient to
take out of the market as many labourers as the machines threw upon it. If it employs a smaller
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number, that of the supernumeraries increases; if it employs a greater, the general demand for
labour only increases to the extent of the excess of the employed over those set free. The
impulse that additional capital, seeking an outlet, would otherwise have given to the general
demand for labour, is therefore in every case neutralised to the extent of the labourers thrown out
of employment by the machine. That is to say, the mechanism of capitalistic production so
manages matters that the absolute increase of capital is accompanied by no corresponding rise in
the general demand for labour. And this the apologist calls a compensation for the misery, the
sufferings, the possible death of the displaced labourers during the transition period that banishes
them into the industrial reserve army out of antagonism of capital accumulation.[61] The demand
for labour is not identical with increase of capital, nor supply of labour with increase of the working
class. It is not a case of two independent forces working on one another. Les ds sont pips.
Capital works on both sides at the same time. If its accumulation, on the one hand, increases the
demand for labour, it increases on the other the supply of labourers by the setting free of them,
whilst at the same time the pressure of the unemployed compels those that are employed to
furnish more labour, and therefore makes the supply of labour, to a certain extent, independent of
the supply of labourers. The action of the law of supply and demand of labour on this basis
completes the despotism of capital. As soon, therefore, as the labourers learn the secret, how it
comes to pass that in the same measure as they work more, as they produce more wealth for
others, and as the productive power of their labour increases, so in the same measure even their
function as a means of the self-expansion of capital becomes more and more precarious for them;
as soon as they discover that the degree of intensity of the competition among themselves
depends wholly on the pressure of the relative surplus population; as soon as, by Trades Unions,
&c., they try to organise a regular co-operation between employed and unemployed in order to
destroy or to weaken the ruinous effects of this natural law of capitalistic production on their class,
so soon capital and its sycophant, Political Economy, cry out at the infringement of the eternal
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and so to say sacred law of supply and demand. Every combination of employed and
unemployed disturbs the harmonious action of this law. But, on the other hand, as soon as (in
the colonies, e.g.) adverse circumstances prevent the creation of an industrial reserve army and,
with it, the absolute dependence of the working class upon the capitalist class, capital, along with
its commonplace Sancho Panza, rebels against the sacred law of supply and demand, and tries
to check its inconvenient action by forcible means and State interference.
Part Eight: So-Called Primitive Accumulation
[edit]
In order to understand the desire for and techniques utilized by the bourgeoisie to accumulate
capital before the rise of capitalism itself, one must look to the notion of primitive accumulation as
the main impetus for this drastic change in history. Primitive accumulation refers to the essential
lucrative method employed by the capitalist class that brought about the transition in to the
capitalist mode of production following the end of the feudal system.[62] Karl Marx states that the
means of production and a bare level of subsistence must be stripped from the common producer
to allow for this to take place.[63] The means of production refers to the tools or processes used to
create a product or provide a service.
The central process for and secret behind primitive accumulation involved the expropriation of
agricultural lands and any form of wealth from the population of commoners by the capitalists,
which typically was characterized by brutal and violent struggles between the two opposing
classes.[64] Since the peasantry was not subjected to the laws of feudalism any longer, they were
ultimately freed from their lords and the land to assimilate into this new mode of production as a
wage laborer.[62] Every freed proletariat as a result had only their labor power to sell to the
bourgeoisie to meet their needs to simply survive.[62]
Unfortunately, the integration process into this new mode of production came at a cost to the
proletariat since the strenuous demands of finding alternative work proved to be too much of a
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proletariat since the strenuous demands of finding alternative work proved to be too much of a
burden for most. As a result, the working class often initially resorted to thievery and begging to
meet their needs under this new form of human existence.[65] To make matters worse, harsh
legislation seen in England and France as Marx points out declared these individuals to be
vagabonds and rogues subject to the laws of the state.[66] Furthermore, the working class also
suffered due to legislative measures taken in England to keep working wages astonishingly low
while the cost of living rose.[67]
The origin of the capitalists in England spawned out of the "great landed proprietors" who reaped
the benefits of the surplus value made from the expropriated land they had acquired at practically
no cost. The progressive fall of the value of precious metals and money brought more profit to the
capitalist farmers as the wage laborers beneath them were forced to accept lower wages.[68] It
comes as no surprise that the class of capitalist farmers in England became enormously wealthy
given the circumstances of the time.[69]
The British Agricultural Revolution (17th19th centuries) not only caused many changes in the way
people worked but in social structure as well. When industrialization provided the cheapest and
most efficient tools for agricultural production, it caused a reduced need for the peasant farm
workers, which displaced most of the working class from the countryside. Faced with the choice of
selling their labor for a wage or becoming a capitalist, there emerged a class of entrepreneurs who
through the exploitation of wage laborers became the capitalist class. As the system grew, there
became a need for cheaper and more readily available materials. Thus colonization was born. By
expanding into new territories and enslaving indigenous cultures, primitive accumulation became a
source of quick and easy capital. Famine even became a tool for capitalists in 17691770 when
England raised the price of rice in India so that only the rich could afford it.[70] National debt soon
became a tool of control for capitalists who turned unproductive money into capital through lending
and exchange. Encouraged to participate in the creation of debt, each worker participates in the
creation of "joint-stock companies, the stock-exchange, and modern bankocracy."[71] The
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international credit system conceals the source of its generation; the exploitation of slave and
wage laborers.
The shift in the ownership of the means of production from the proletariat to the bourgeoisie left
the common producer with only his labor power to sell. This means they are free proprietors of the
conditions of their labor.[72] During this process of transference, private property was replaced by
capitalist private property through the highest form of exploitation, and the shift from the days of
free labor to wage labor had taken place. Capitalist private property was formed from the capital
mode of appropriation, which dwindled away the once existent private property founded on the
personal labor of workers.
Marx states that as capitalism grows the number of wage laborers grows exponentially. Therefore,
ultimately there will be a revolution in which the capitalists are expropriated from their means of
wealth by the majority. In other words, the seeds of destruction are already implanted within
capitalism. Marx stresses that the demise of capitalism does not necessarily mean the return of
feudalism and private property, but rather "it does indeed establish individual property on the basis
of the achievements of the capitalist era: namely co-operation and the possession in common of
the land and the means of production produced by labor itself".[73] That is to say that the
transformation will revert to the time where private property is seen as social property.
Marx claims that two types of private property exist in a political economy. The first form is the labor
of the producer himself and the other form rests in a capitalist's exploitation of others. In the
industrialized capitalist world of Western Europe, this is easily attained through the usage of laws
and private property. However, capitalists constantly find obstacles in the colonies where workers
work for their own enrichment rather than that of the capitalist. Capitalists overcome this obstacle
by the use of force and by the political backing of the "mother land". If domination over the workers
free will cannot be achieved, Marx then asks, "how did capital and wage-labour come into
existence?"[74] This comes about through the division of workers into owners of capital and owners
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of labor. This system causes workers to essentially expropriate themselves in order to accumulate
capital.[75] This self-expropriation served as primitive accumulation for the capitalists, and
therefore, was the catalyst for capitalism in the colonies.
See also
[edit]
Das Kapital
Capital, Volume II
Capital, Volume III
Notes
[edit]
1. ^ "The natural worth* of anything consists in its fitness to supply the necessities, or serve the
conveniencies of human life." [4]
In English writers of the 17th century we frequently find "worth" in the sense of value in use, and
"value" in the sense of exchange-value.
2. ^ "La valeur consiste dans le rapport d'echange qui se trouve entre telle chose et telle autre, entre
telle mesure d'une production et telle mesure d'une autre." ("The value consists in the exchange ratio
between one thing and another, between the measure of a production process and another.")[5]
3. ^ "Trade in general being nothing else but the exchange of labour for labour, the value of all things is
... most justly measured by labour." [6]
1. ^ Schriften von Karl Marx: "Das Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei" und "Das Kapital" erster
Band , 1867
2. ^ Marx 1990, p. 89.
3. ^ Galbraith 1977, p. 12.
4. ^ a
Locke 1997, p. 28.
5. ^ a
Le Trosne 1846, p. 889.
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6. ^ a
Franklin 1836, p. 267.
7. ^ a
Marx 1990, p. 155.
8. ^ Marx 1990, p. 157.

9. ^ Marx 1990, p. 158.
10. ^ Marx 1990, p. 160.
11. ^ a
Marx 1990, p. 161.
12. ^ Marx 1990, p. 162.

13. ^ a
Marx 1990, p. 163.
14. ^ Marx 1990, p. 165.

15. ^ Marx 1990, p. 198.
16. ^ Marx 1990, p. 200.
17. ^ Marx 1990, p. 205.
18. ^ Marx 1990, p. 218.
19. ^ Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold!... Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, wrong
right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. ... Why this? what this, you gods? Why this will lug
your priests and servants from your sides, pluck stout men's pillows from below their head: This
yellow slave will knit and break religion, bless the accused. from Timon of Athens, Act IV Scene III
20. ^ Marx 1990, p. 244.
21. ^ Marx 1990, p. 247.
22. ^ Marx 1990, p. 249.
23. ^ Marx 1990, p. 261.
24. ^ a
bc
Marx 1990, p. 268.
25. ^ Marx 1990, p. 274.

26. ^ Marx 1990, p. 287.
27. ^ Marx 1990, p. 293.
28. ^ Cowen 2009, p. 418.
29. ^ Marx 1990, p. 310.
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30. ^ Marx 1990, p. 325.

31. ^ Marx 1990, p. 490.
32. ^ Marx 1990, p. 429.
33. ^ Marx 1990, p. 443.
34. ^ Marx 1990, p. 445.
35. ^ Marx 1990, p. 458.
36. ^ Marx 1990, p. 460.
37. ^ Marx 1990, p. 475.
38. ^ Marx 1990, p. 492.
39. ^ Marx 1990, p. 493.
40. ^ Marx 1990, p. 495.
41. ^ Marx 1990, p. 508.
42. ^ Marx 1990, p. 512.
43. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 544545.
44. ^ Marx 1990, p. 554.
45. ^ Marx 1990, p. 565.
46. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 566568.
47. ^ Marx 1990, p. 570.
48. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 570575.
49. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 576577.
50. ^ Marx 1990, p. 578.
51. ^ Marx 1990, p. 580.
52. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 582583.
53. ^ Burnham 2003.
54. ^ Marx 1990, p. 644.
55. ^ a
Marx 1990, p. 646.
56. ^ Marx 1990, p. 680.

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57. ^ Marx 1990, p. 685.

58. ^ Marx 1990, p. 688.
59. ^ Marx 1990, p. 689.
60. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 697698.
61. ^ "Capital, Volume I", Chapter 25, where he cites his book The Poverty of Philosophy (Chapter II,
Section 1, 7) to explain this in relation with relations of production
62. ^ a
bc
Marx 1990, p. 874.
63. ^ Marx 1990, p. 875.

64. ^ Marx 1990, p. 885.
65. ^ Marx 1990, p. 888.
66. ^ Marx 1990, pp. 887889.
67. ^ Marx 1990, p. 901.
68. ^ Marx 1990, p. 906.
69. ^ Marx 1990, p. 907.
70. ^ Marx 1990, p. 917.
71. ^ Marx 1990, p. 919.
72. ^ Marx 1990, p. 927.
73. ^ Marx 1990, p. 929.
74. ^ Marx 1990, p. 933.
75. ^ Marx 1990, p. 934.
References
[edit]
Burnham, Peter (2003). Capitalism: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Oxford University.
Cowen, Tyler (2009). Modern Principles: Macroeconomics (1st ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
Franklin, Benjamin (1836). http://books.google.com/books?id=xWMsAAAAMAAJ&oe=UTF-8
|chapterurl= missing title (help). In Sparks, Jared. The Works of Benjamin Franklin II. Boston:
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Hilliard Gray.
Galbraith, John Kenneth (1977). "1". The Age of Uncertainty. London: BBC.
Le Trosne, Guillaume Franois (1846). Physiocrates, ed. De l'intrt social [On Social Interest] (in
French). Paris: Daire.
Locke, John (1997) [1777]. "Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest
(1691)"
. In Law, Edmund. Collected Works of John Locke [Works] II (1st octavo ed.). London: Taylor
& Francis.
Marx, Karl (1990) [1867]. Capital, Volume I. Trans. Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin Books.
Further reading
[edit]
Althusser, Louis and Balibar, tienne. Reading Capital. London: Verso, 2009.
Louis Althusser (1969) How to Read Marx's Capital
from Marxism Today, October 1969,
302-305. Originally appeared (in French) in Humanit on April 21, 1969.

Bottomore, Tom, ed. A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
Fine, Ben. Marx's Capital. 5th ed. London: Pluto, 2010.
Harvey, David. A Companion to Marx's Capital. London: Verso, 2010.
Harvey, David. The Limits of Capital. London: Verso, 2006.
Mandel, Ernest. Marxist Economic Theory. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.
Postone, Moishe. Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical
Theory. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Shipside, Steve. Karl Marx's Das Kapital: A Modern-day Interpretation of a True Classic.
Oxford: Infinite Ideas, 2009. ISBN 978-1-906821-04-3
Wheen, Francis. Marx's Das Kapital--A Biography. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006.
ISBN 0-8021-4394-6; ISBN 978-0-8021-4394-5.
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External links
[edit]
Capital in Lithographs
Capital, Volume I
Capital, Volume I
, by Hugo Gellert.
at marxism.org
, HTML5 version of the 1887 English
Wikisource has original text

related to this article:
Capital, Volume I
Edition
Capital, Volume I
in audio format, from LibriVox.
Japan gives a comic twist to 'Das Kapital'

Reading Marx's Capital
An open course consisting of a close reading of the text of Marx's Capital
Volume I in 13 video lectures with David Harvey

Reading Notes on Marx's Capital
, by Michael Hardt.
Study Guide to Capital, Volume I
, by Harry Cleaver.
Synopsis of Capital, Volume I
, by Friedrich Engels.
The MarX-Files: Resources on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Reading Notes on Marx's Capital Volume I
[http://digamo.free.fr/dhcompa.pdf
by Gary Teeple
Reading Notes on Marx's Capital Volume I by David Harvey
[http://marxismocritico.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/guide-to-capital.pdf
Reading Notes on Marx's
Capital Volume I,II,III by Simon Clarke

[http://gruppegrundrisse.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/rosdolsky-the-making-of-marxs-capital_cs.pdf
Rosdolsky The Making of Marx's Capital
Categories: 1867 books
Books by Karl Marx
Economics books
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Capital, Volume I (1867), by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of

precursor of the socialist mode of production, and of the class

struggle rooted in the capitalist social relations of production.

The first of three volumes of Das Kapital, Kritik der

politischen konomie (Capital: Critique of Political

What links here

Economy) was published on 14 September 1867, and was the

sole volume published in Marx's lifetime. This volume is

registered in the Memory of the World Programme of UNESCO

together with manuscripts of The Communist Manifesto in

The Penguin Classics edition of

1 Part One: Commodities and Money

1.1.1 Section 1. The Two Factors of the

1.1.2 Section 2. The Dual Character of the

1.1.3 Section 3. The Value-Form or Exchange-

1.1.4 Section 4. The Fetishism of the

Commodity and Its Secret

4.1 Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus-

4.2 Chapter 13: Co-operation

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Part One: Commodities and Money

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Chapter 1: The Commodity [edit]

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(a) The Simple, Isolated, or Accidental Form of Value

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(b) The Total or Expanded Form of Value

Then he divides this sub-set of section 3 into three parts:

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Chapter 2: Exchange [edit]

Chapter 3: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities [edit]

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Section 1. The Measure of Values [edit]

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(b) Means of Payment

Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital

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Part Two: The Transformation of Money into Capital

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Part Three: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value

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; where C is capital advanced, c

. Here C' is the value created during the production

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Part Four: The Production of Relative Surplus-Value

Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value [edit]

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