, that this
equivalent
is no equivalent.
Marx - Capital-Volume-I
?
(Galiani, --Della Moneta in Custodi, Parte Moderna,?
t.
iv.
, p.
244.
)
6 --L'e? change devient de? savantageux pour l'une des parties, lorsque quelque chose e? trange`re vient diminuer ou exage? rer le prix; alors l'e? galite? est blesse? e, mais la le? sion proce`de de cette cause et non de l'e? change. ? [--The exchange becomes unfavourable for one of the parties when some external circumstance comes to lessen or increase the price; then equality is infringed, but this infringement arises from that cause and not from the exchange itself. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 904. )
7 --L'e? change est de sa nature un contrat d'e? galite? qui se fait de valeur pour valeur e? gale. Il n'est donc pas un moyen de s'enrichir, puisque l'on donne autant que l'on rec? oit. ? [--Exchange is by its nature a contract which rests on equality, i. e. , it takes place between two equal values, and it is not a means of self-enrichment, since as much is given as is received. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 903. )
8 Condillac: --Le Commerce et le Gouvernement? (1776). Edit. Daire et Molinari in the --Me? langes d'Econ. Polit. ? Paris, 1847, pp. 267, 291.
9 Le Trosne, therefore, answers his friend Condillac with justice as follows: --Dans une . . . socie? te? forme? e il n'y a pas de surabondant en aucun genre. ? [--In a developed society absolutely nothing is superfluous. ? ] At the same time, in a bantering way, he remarks: --If both the persons who exchange receive more to an equal amount, and part with less to an equal amount, they both get the same. ? It is because Condillac has not the remotest idea of the nature of exchange-value that he has been chosen by Herr Professor Wilhelm Roscher as a proper person to answer for the soundness of his own childish notions. See Roscher's --Die Grundlagen der Nationalo? konomie, Dritte Auflage,? 1858.
10 S. P. Newman: --Elements of Polit. Econ. ? Andover and New York, 1835, p. 175.
11 --By the augmentation of the nominal value of the produce. . . sellers not enriched. . . since what they gain as sellers, they precisely expend in the quality of buyers. ? (--The Essential Principles of the Wealth of Nations. ? &c. , London, 1797, p. 66. )
? ? 115 Chapter 5
12 --Si l'on est force? de donner pour 18 livres une quantite? de telle production qui en valait 24, lorsqu'on employera ce me^me argent a` acheter, on aura e? galement pour 18 l. ce que l'on payait 24. ? [--If one is compelled to sell a quantity of a certain product for 18 livres when it has a value of 24 livres, when one employs the same amount of money in buying, one will receive for 18 livres the same quantity of the product as 24 livres would have bought otherwise. ? ] (Le Trosne, I. c. , p. 897. )
13 --Chaque vendeur ne peut donc parvenir a` renche? rir habituellement ses marchandises, qu'en se soumettant aussi a` payer habituellement plus cher les marchandises des autres vendeurs; et par la me^me raison, chaque consommateur ne peut payer habituellement moins cher ce qu'il ache`te, qu'en se soumettant aussi a` une diminution semblable sur le prix des choses qu'il vend. ? [--A seller can normally only succeed in raising the prices of his commodities if he agrees to pay, by and large, more for the commodities of the other sellers; and for the same reason a consumer can normally only pay less for his purchases if he submits to a similar reduction in the prices of the things he sells. ? ] (Mercier de la Rivie`re, l. c. , p. 555. )
14 Torrens. --An Essay on the Production of Wealth. ? London, 1821, p. 349.
15 The idea of profits being paid by the consumers, is, assuredly, very absurd. Who are the consumers? ? (G. Ramsay: --An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth. ? Edinburgh, 1836, p. 183. )
16 --When a man is in want of a demand, does Mr. Malthus recommend him to pay some other person to take off his goods? ? is a question put by an angry disciple of Ricardo to Malthus, who, like his disciple, Parson Chalmers, economically glorifies this class of simple buyers or consumers. (See --An Inquiry into those Principles Respecting the Nature of Demand and the Necessity of Consumption, lately advocated by Mr. Malthus,? &c. Lond. , 1821, p. 55. )
17 Destutt de Tracy, although, or perhaps because, he was a member of the Institute, held the opposite view. He says, industrial capitalists make profits because --they all sell for more than it has cost to produce. And to whom do they sell? In the first instance to one another. ? (I. c. , p. 239. )
18 --L'e? change qui se fait de deux valeurs e? gales n'augmente ni ne diminue la masse des valeurs subsistantes dans la socie? te? . L'e? change de deux valeurs ine? gales . . . ne change rien non plus a` la somme des valeurs sociales, bien qu'il ajoute a` la fortune de l'un ce qu'il o^te de la fortune de l'autre. ? [--The exchange of two equal values neither increases nor diminishes the amount of the values available in society. Nor does the exchange of two unequal values . . . change anything in the sum of social values, although it adds to the wealth of one person what ir removes fomr the wealth of another. ? ] (J. B. Say, l. c. , t. II, pp. 443, 444. ) Say, not in the least troubled as to the consequences of this statement, borrows it, almost word for word, from the Physiocrats. The following example will show how Monsieur Say turned to account the writings of the Physiocrats, in his day quite forgotten, for the purpose of expanding the --value? of his own. His most celebrated saying, --On n'ache`te des produits qu'avec des produits? [--Products can only be bought with products. ? ](l. c. , t. II. p. 441. ) runs as follows in the original physiocratic work: --Les productions ne se paient qu'avec des productions. ? [--Products can only be paid for with products. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 899. )
19 --Exchange confers no value at all upon products. ? (F. Wayland: --The Elements of Political Economy. ? Boston, 1843, p. 169. )
20 Under the rule of invariable equivalents commerce would be impossible. (G. Opdyke: --A Treatise on Polit. Economy. ? New York, 1851, pp. 66-69. ) --The difference between real value and exchange- value is based upon this fact, namely, that the value of a thing is different from the so-called equivalent given for it in trade, i. e.
, that this equivalent is no equivalent. ? (F. Engels, l. c. , p. 96).
21 Benjamin Franklin: Works, Vol. II, edit. Sparks in --Positions to be examined concerning National Wealth,? p. 376.
22 Aristotle, I. c. , c. 10.
? ? 116 Chapter 5
23 --Profit, in the usual condition of the market, is not made by exchanging. Had it not existed before, neither could it after that transaction. ? (Ramsay, l. c. , p. 184. )
24 From the foregoing investigation, the reader will see that this statement only means that the formation of capital must be possible even though the price and value of a commodity be the same; for its formation cannot be attributed to any deviation of the one from the other. If prices actually differ from values, we must, first of all, reduce the former to the latter, in other words, treat the difference as accidental in order that the phenomena may be observed in their purity, and our observations not interfered with by disturbing circumstances that have nothing to do with the process in question. We know, moreover, that this reduction is no mere scientific process. The continual oscillations in prices, their rising and falling, compensate each other, and reduce themselves to an average price, which is their hidden regulator. It forms the guiding star of the merchant or the manufacturer in every undertaking that requires time. He knows that when a long period of time is taken, commodities are sold neither over nor under, but at their average price. If therefore he thought about the matter at all, he would formulate the problem of the formation of capital as follows: How can we account for the origin of capital on the supposition that prices are regulated by the average price, i. e. , ultimately by the value of the commodities? I say --ultimately,? because average prices do not directly coincide with the values of commodities, as Adam Smith, Ricardo, and others believe.
25 --Hic Rhodus, hic saltus! ? - Latin, usually translated: --Rhodes is here, here is where you jump! ?
Originates from the traditional Latin translation of the punch line from Aesop's fable The Boastful Athlete which has been the subject of some mistranslations. In Greek, the maxim reads:
--? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
The story is that an athlete boasts that when in Rhodes, he performed a stupendous jump, and that there were witnesses who could back up his story. A bystander then remarked, ? Alright! Let's say this is Rhodes, demonstrate the jump here and now. ' The fable shows that people must be known by their deeds, not by their own claims for themselves. In the context in which Hegel used it in the Philosophy of Right, this could be taken to mean that the philosophy of right must have to do with the actuality of modern society, not the theories and ideals that societies create for themselves, nor, as Hegel goes on to say, to --teach the world what it ought to be. ?
The epigram is given by Hegel first in Greek, then in Latin (in the form --Hic Rhodus, hic saltus? ), and he then says: --With little change, the above saying would read (in German): --Hier ist die Rose, hier tanze? : --Here is the rose, dance here?
This is taken to be an allusion to the ? rose in the cross' of the Rosicrucians (who claimed to possess esoteric knowledge with which they could transform social life), implying that the material for understanding and changing society is given in society itself, not in some other-worldly theory, punning first on the Greek (Rhodos = Rhodes, rhodon = rose), then on the Latin (saltus = jump [noun], salta = dance [imperative]). [MIA Editors. ]
? ? Chapter 6: The Buying and Selling of Labour- Power
The change of value that occurs in the case of money intended to be converted into capital, cannot take place in the money itself, since in its function of means of purchase and of payment, it does no more than realise the price of the commodity it buys or pays for; and, as hard cash, it is value petrified, never varying. 1 Just as little can it originate in the second act of circulation, the re-sale of the commodity, which does no more than transform the article from its bodily form back again into its money-form. The change must, therefore, take place in the commodity bought by the first act, M-C, but not in its value, for equivalents are exchanged, and the commodity is paid for at its full value. We are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that the change originates in the use-value, as such, of the commodity, i. e. , in its consumption. In order to be able to extract value from the consumption of a commodity, our friend, Moneybags, must be so lucky as to find, within the sphere of circulation, in the market, a commodity, whose use-value possesses the peculiar property of being a source of value, whose actual consumption, therefore, is itself an embodiment of labour, and, consequently, a creation of value. The possessor of money does find on the market such a special commodity in capacity for labour or labour-power.
By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use- value of any description.
But in order that our owner of money may be able to find labour-power offered for sale as a commodity, various conditions must first be fulfilled. The exchange of commodities of itself implies no other relations of dependence than those which, result from its own nature. On this assumption, labour-power can appear upon the market as a commodity, only if, and so far as, its possessor, the individual whose labour-power it is, offers it for sale, or sells it, as a commodity. In order that he may be able to do this, he must have it at his disposal, must be the untrammelled owner of his capacity for labour, i. e. , of his person. 2 He and the owner of money meet in the market, and deal with each other as on the basis of equal rights, with this difference alone, that one is buyer, the other seller; both, therefore, equal in the eyes of the law. The continuance of this relation demands that the owner of the labour-power should sell it only for a definite period, for if he were to sell it rump and stump, once for all, he would be selling himself, converting himself from a free man into a slave, from an owner of a commodity into a commodity. He must constantly look upon his labour-power as his own property, his own commodity, and this he can only do by placing it at the disposal of the buyer temporarily, for a definite period of time. By this means alone can he avoid renouncing his rights of ownership over it. 3
The second essential condition to the owner of money finding labour-power in the market as a commodity is this - that the labourer instead of being in the position to sell commodities in which his labour is incorporated, must be obliged to offer for sale as a commodity that very labour- power, which exists only in his living self.
In order that a man may be able to sell commodities other than labour-power, he must of course have the means of production, as raw material, implements, &c. No boots can be made without leather. He requires also the means of subsistence. Nobody - not even --a musician of the future? - can live upon future products, or upon use-values in an unfinished state; and ever since the first
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moment of his appearance on the world's stage, man always has been, and must still be a consumer, both before and while he is producing. In a society where all products assume the form of commodities, these commodities must be sold after they have been produced, it is only after their sale that they can serve in satisfying the requirements of their producer. The time necessary for their sale is superadded to that necessary for their production.
For the conversion of his money into capital, therefore, the owner of money must meet in the market with the free labourer, free in the double sense, that as a free man he can dispose of his labour-power as his own commodity, and that on the other hand he has no other commodity for sale, is short of everything necessary for the realisation of his labour-power.
The question why this free labourer confronts him in the market, has no interest for the owner of money, who regards the labour-market as a branch of the general market for commodities. And for the present it interests us just as little. We cling to the fact theoretically, as he does practically. One thing, however, is clear - Nature does not produce on the one side owners of money or commodities, and on the other men possessing nothing but their own labour-power. This relation has no natural basis, neither is its social basis one that is common to all historical periods. It is clearly the result of a past historical development, the product of many economic revolutions, of the extinction of a whole series of older forms of social production.
So, too, the economic categories, already discussed by us, bear the stamp of history. Definite historical conditions are necessary that a product may become a commodity. It must not be produced as the immediate means of subsistence of the producer himself. Had we gone further, and inquired under what circumstances all, or even the majority of products take the form of commodities, we should have found that this can only happen with production of a very specific kind, capitalist production. Such an inquiry, however, would have been foreign to the analysis of commodities. Production and circulation of commodities can take place, although the great mass of the objects produced are intended for the immediate requirements of their producers, are not turned into commodities, and consequently social production is not yet by a long way dominated in its length and breadth by exchange-value. The appearance of products as commodities pre- supposes such a development of the social division of labour, that the separation of use-value from exchange-value, a separation which first begins with barter, must already have been completed. But such a degree of development is common to many forms of society, which in other respects present the most varying historical features. On the other hand, if we consider money, its existence implies a definite stage in the exchange of commodities. The particular functions of money which it performs, either as the mere equivalent of commodities, or as means of circulation, or means of payment, as hoard or as universal money, point, according to the extent and relative preponderance of the one function or the other, to very different stages in the process of social production. Yet we know by experience that a circulation of commodities relatively primitive, suffices for the production of all these forms. Otherwise with capital. The historical conditions of its existence are by no means given with the mere circulation of money and commodities. It can spring into life, only when the owner of the means of production and subsistence meets in the market with the free labourer selling his labour-power. And this one historical condition comprises a world's history. Capital, therefore, announces from its first appearance a new epoch in the process of social production. 4
We must now examine more closely this peculiar commodity, labour-power. Like all others it has a value. 5 How is that value determined?
The value of labour-power is determined, as in the case of every other commodity, by the labour- time necessary for the production, and consequently also the reproduction, of this special article. So far as it has value, it represents no more than a definite quantity of the average labour of
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society incorporated in it. Labour-power exists only as a capacity, or power of the living individual. Its production consequently pre-supposes his existence. Given the individual, the production of labour-power consists in his reproduction of himself or his maintenance. For his maintenance he requires a given quantity of the means of subsistence. Therefore the labour-time requisite for the production of labour-power reduces itself to that necessary for the production of those means of subsistence; in other words, the value of labour-power is the value of the means of subsistence necessary for the maintenance of the labourer. Labour-power, however, becomes a reality only by its exercise; it sets itself in action only by working. But thereby a definite quantity of human muscle, nerve. brain, &c. , is wasted, and these require to be restored. This increased expenditure demands a larger income. 6 If the owner of labour-power works to-day, to-morrow he must again be able to repeat the same process in the same conditions as regards health and strength. His means of subsistence must therefore be sufficient to maintain him in his normal state as a labouring individual. His natural wants, such as food, clothing, fuel, and housing, vary according to the climatic and other physical conditions of his country. On the other hand, the number and extent of his so-called necessary wants, as also the modes of satisfying them, are themselves the product of historical development, and depend therefore to a great extent on the degree of civilisation of a country, more particularly on the conditions under which, and consequently on the habits and degree of comfort in which, the class of free labourers has been formed. 7 In contradistinction therefore to the case of other commodities, there enters into the determination of the value of labour-power a historical and moral element. Nevertheless, in a given country, at a given period, the average quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the labourer is practically known.
The owner of labour-power is mortal. If then his appearance in the market is to be continuous, and the continuous conversion of money into capital assumes this, the seller of labour-power must perpetuate himself, --in the way that every living individual perpetuates himself, by procreation. ? 8 The labour-power withdrawn from the market by wear and tear and death, must be continually replaced by, at the very least, an equal amount of fresh labour-power. Hence the sum of the means of subsistence necessary for the production of labour-power must include the means necessary for the labourer's substitutes, i. e. , his children, in order that this race of peculiar commodity-owners may perpetuate its appearance in the market. 9
In order to modify the human organism, so that it may acquire skill and handiness in a given branch of industry, and become labour-power of a special kind, a special education or training is requisite, and this, on its part, costs an equivalent in commodities of a greater or less amount. This amount varies according to the more or less complicated character of the labour-power. The expenses of this education (excessively small in the case of ordinary labour-power), enter pro tanto into the total value spent in its production.
The value of labour-power resolves itself into the value of a definite quantity of the means of subsistence. It therefore varies with the value of these means or with the quantity of labour requisite for their production.
Some of the means of subsistence, such as food and fuel, are consumed daily, and a fresh supply must be provided daily. Others such as clothes and furniture last for longer periods and require to be replaced only at longer intervals. One article must be bought or paid for daily, another weekly, another quarterly, and so on. But in whatever way the sum total of these outlays may be spread over the year, they must be covered by the average income, taking one day with another. If the total of the commodities required daily for the production of labour-power = A, and those required weekly = B, and those required quarterly = C, and so on, the daily average of these commodities = (365A + 52B + 4C + &c) / 365. Suppose that in this mass of commodities
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requisite for the average day there are embodied 6 hours of social labour, then there is incorporated daily in labour-power half a day's average social labour, in other words, half a day's labour is requisite for the daily production of labour-power. This quantity of labour forms the value of a day's labour-power or the value of the labour-power daily reproduced. If half a day's average social labour is incorporated in three shillings, then three shillings is the price corresponding to the value of a day's labour-power. If its owner therefore offers it for sale at three shillings a day, its selling price is equal to its value, and according to our supposition, our friend Moneybags, who is intent upon converting his three shillings into capital, pays this value.
The minimum limit of the value of labour-power is determined by the value of the commodities, without the daily supply of which the labourer cannot renew his vital energy, consequently by the value of those means of subsistence that are physically indispensable. If the price of labour-power fall to this minimum, it falls below its value, since under such circumstances it can be maintained and developed only in a crippled state. But the value of every commodity is determined by the labour-time requisite to turn it out so as to be of normal quality.
It is a very cheap sort of sentimentality which declares this method of determining the value of labour-power, a method prescribed by the very nature of the case, to be a brutal method, and which wails with Rossi that, --To comprehend capacity for labour (puissance de travail) at the same time that we make abstraction from the means of subsistence of the labourers during the process of production, is to comprehend a phantom (e^tre de raison). When we speak of labour, or capacity for labour, we speak at the same time of the labourer and his means of subsistence, of labourer and wages. ? 10 When we speak of capacity for labour, we do not speak of labour, any more than when we speak of capacity for digestion, we speak of digestion. The latter process requires something more than a good stomach. When we speak of capacity for labour, we do not abstract from the necessary means of subsistence. On the contrary, their value is expressed in its value. If his capacity for labour remains unsold, the labourer derives no benefit from it, but rather he will feel it to be a cruel nature-imposed necessity that this capacity has cost for its production a definite amount of the means of subsistence and that it will continue to do so for its reproduction. He will then agree with Sismondi: --that capacity for labour . . . is nothing unless it is sold. ? 11
One consequence of the peculiar nature of labour-power as a commodity is, that its use-value does not, on the conclusion of the contract between the buyer and seller, immediately pass into the hands of the former. Its value, like that of every other commodity, is already fixed before it goes into circulation, since a definite quantity of social labour has been spent upon it; but its use- value consists in the subsequent exercise of its force. The alienation of labour-power and its actual appropriation by the buyer, its employment as a use-value, are separated by an interval of time. But in those cases in which the formal alienation by sale of the use-value of a commodity, is not simultaneous with its actual delivery to the buyer, the money of the latter usually functions as means of payment.
6 --L'e? change devient de? savantageux pour l'une des parties, lorsque quelque chose e? trange`re vient diminuer ou exage? rer le prix; alors l'e? galite? est blesse? e, mais la le? sion proce`de de cette cause et non de l'e? change. ? [--The exchange becomes unfavourable for one of the parties when some external circumstance comes to lessen or increase the price; then equality is infringed, but this infringement arises from that cause and not from the exchange itself. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 904. )
7 --L'e? change est de sa nature un contrat d'e? galite? qui se fait de valeur pour valeur e? gale. Il n'est donc pas un moyen de s'enrichir, puisque l'on donne autant que l'on rec? oit. ? [--Exchange is by its nature a contract which rests on equality, i. e. , it takes place between two equal values, and it is not a means of self-enrichment, since as much is given as is received. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 903. )
8 Condillac: --Le Commerce et le Gouvernement? (1776). Edit. Daire et Molinari in the --Me? langes d'Econ. Polit. ? Paris, 1847, pp. 267, 291.
9 Le Trosne, therefore, answers his friend Condillac with justice as follows: --Dans une . . . socie? te? forme? e il n'y a pas de surabondant en aucun genre. ? [--In a developed society absolutely nothing is superfluous. ? ] At the same time, in a bantering way, he remarks: --If both the persons who exchange receive more to an equal amount, and part with less to an equal amount, they both get the same. ? It is because Condillac has not the remotest idea of the nature of exchange-value that he has been chosen by Herr Professor Wilhelm Roscher as a proper person to answer for the soundness of his own childish notions. See Roscher's --Die Grundlagen der Nationalo? konomie, Dritte Auflage,? 1858.
10 S. P. Newman: --Elements of Polit. Econ. ? Andover and New York, 1835, p. 175.
11 --By the augmentation of the nominal value of the produce. . . sellers not enriched. . . since what they gain as sellers, they precisely expend in the quality of buyers. ? (--The Essential Principles of the Wealth of Nations. ? &c. , London, 1797, p. 66. )
? ? 115 Chapter 5
12 --Si l'on est force? de donner pour 18 livres une quantite? de telle production qui en valait 24, lorsqu'on employera ce me^me argent a` acheter, on aura e? galement pour 18 l. ce que l'on payait 24. ? [--If one is compelled to sell a quantity of a certain product for 18 livres when it has a value of 24 livres, when one employs the same amount of money in buying, one will receive for 18 livres the same quantity of the product as 24 livres would have bought otherwise. ? ] (Le Trosne, I. c. , p. 897. )
13 --Chaque vendeur ne peut donc parvenir a` renche? rir habituellement ses marchandises, qu'en se soumettant aussi a` payer habituellement plus cher les marchandises des autres vendeurs; et par la me^me raison, chaque consommateur ne peut payer habituellement moins cher ce qu'il ache`te, qu'en se soumettant aussi a` une diminution semblable sur le prix des choses qu'il vend. ? [--A seller can normally only succeed in raising the prices of his commodities if he agrees to pay, by and large, more for the commodities of the other sellers; and for the same reason a consumer can normally only pay less for his purchases if he submits to a similar reduction in the prices of the things he sells. ? ] (Mercier de la Rivie`re, l. c. , p. 555. )
14 Torrens. --An Essay on the Production of Wealth. ? London, 1821, p. 349.
15 The idea of profits being paid by the consumers, is, assuredly, very absurd. Who are the consumers? ? (G. Ramsay: --An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth. ? Edinburgh, 1836, p. 183. )
16 --When a man is in want of a demand, does Mr. Malthus recommend him to pay some other person to take off his goods? ? is a question put by an angry disciple of Ricardo to Malthus, who, like his disciple, Parson Chalmers, economically glorifies this class of simple buyers or consumers. (See --An Inquiry into those Principles Respecting the Nature of Demand and the Necessity of Consumption, lately advocated by Mr. Malthus,? &c. Lond. , 1821, p. 55. )
17 Destutt de Tracy, although, or perhaps because, he was a member of the Institute, held the opposite view. He says, industrial capitalists make profits because --they all sell for more than it has cost to produce. And to whom do they sell? In the first instance to one another. ? (I. c. , p. 239. )
18 --L'e? change qui se fait de deux valeurs e? gales n'augmente ni ne diminue la masse des valeurs subsistantes dans la socie? te? . L'e? change de deux valeurs ine? gales . . . ne change rien non plus a` la somme des valeurs sociales, bien qu'il ajoute a` la fortune de l'un ce qu'il o^te de la fortune de l'autre. ? [--The exchange of two equal values neither increases nor diminishes the amount of the values available in society. Nor does the exchange of two unequal values . . . change anything in the sum of social values, although it adds to the wealth of one person what ir removes fomr the wealth of another. ? ] (J. B. Say, l. c. , t. II, pp. 443, 444. ) Say, not in the least troubled as to the consequences of this statement, borrows it, almost word for word, from the Physiocrats. The following example will show how Monsieur Say turned to account the writings of the Physiocrats, in his day quite forgotten, for the purpose of expanding the --value? of his own. His most celebrated saying, --On n'ache`te des produits qu'avec des produits? [--Products can only be bought with products. ? ](l. c. , t. II. p. 441. ) runs as follows in the original physiocratic work: --Les productions ne se paient qu'avec des productions. ? [--Products can only be paid for with products. ? ] (Le Trosne, l. c. , p. 899. )
19 --Exchange confers no value at all upon products. ? (F. Wayland: --The Elements of Political Economy. ? Boston, 1843, p. 169. )
20 Under the rule of invariable equivalents commerce would be impossible. (G. Opdyke: --A Treatise on Polit. Economy. ? New York, 1851, pp. 66-69. ) --The difference between real value and exchange- value is based upon this fact, namely, that the value of a thing is different from the so-called equivalent given for it in trade, i. e.
, that this equivalent is no equivalent. ? (F. Engels, l. c. , p. 96).
21 Benjamin Franklin: Works, Vol. II, edit. Sparks in --Positions to be examined concerning National Wealth,? p. 376.
22 Aristotle, I. c. , c. 10.
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23 --Profit, in the usual condition of the market, is not made by exchanging. Had it not existed before, neither could it after that transaction. ? (Ramsay, l. c. , p. 184. )
24 From the foregoing investigation, the reader will see that this statement only means that the formation of capital must be possible even though the price and value of a commodity be the same; for its formation cannot be attributed to any deviation of the one from the other. If prices actually differ from values, we must, first of all, reduce the former to the latter, in other words, treat the difference as accidental in order that the phenomena may be observed in their purity, and our observations not interfered with by disturbing circumstances that have nothing to do with the process in question. We know, moreover, that this reduction is no mere scientific process. The continual oscillations in prices, their rising and falling, compensate each other, and reduce themselves to an average price, which is their hidden regulator. It forms the guiding star of the merchant or the manufacturer in every undertaking that requires time. He knows that when a long period of time is taken, commodities are sold neither over nor under, but at their average price. If therefore he thought about the matter at all, he would formulate the problem of the formation of capital as follows: How can we account for the origin of capital on the supposition that prices are regulated by the average price, i. e. , ultimately by the value of the commodities? I say --ultimately,? because average prices do not directly coincide with the values of commodities, as Adam Smith, Ricardo, and others believe.
25 --Hic Rhodus, hic saltus! ? - Latin, usually translated: --Rhodes is here, here is where you jump! ?
Originates from the traditional Latin translation of the punch line from Aesop's fable The Boastful Athlete which has been the subject of some mistranslations. In Greek, the maxim reads:
--? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
The story is that an athlete boasts that when in Rhodes, he performed a stupendous jump, and that there were witnesses who could back up his story. A bystander then remarked, ? Alright! Let's say this is Rhodes, demonstrate the jump here and now. ' The fable shows that people must be known by their deeds, not by their own claims for themselves. In the context in which Hegel used it in the Philosophy of Right, this could be taken to mean that the philosophy of right must have to do with the actuality of modern society, not the theories and ideals that societies create for themselves, nor, as Hegel goes on to say, to --teach the world what it ought to be. ?
The epigram is given by Hegel first in Greek, then in Latin (in the form --Hic Rhodus, hic saltus? ), and he then says: --With little change, the above saying would read (in German): --Hier ist die Rose, hier tanze? : --Here is the rose, dance here?
This is taken to be an allusion to the ? rose in the cross' of the Rosicrucians (who claimed to possess esoteric knowledge with which they could transform social life), implying that the material for understanding and changing society is given in society itself, not in some other-worldly theory, punning first on the Greek (Rhodos = Rhodes, rhodon = rose), then on the Latin (saltus = jump [noun], salta = dance [imperative]). [MIA Editors. ]
? ? Chapter 6: The Buying and Selling of Labour- Power
The change of value that occurs in the case of money intended to be converted into capital, cannot take place in the money itself, since in its function of means of purchase and of payment, it does no more than realise the price of the commodity it buys or pays for; and, as hard cash, it is value petrified, never varying. 1 Just as little can it originate in the second act of circulation, the re-sale of the commodity, which does no more than transform the article from its bodily form back again into its money-form. The change must, therefore, take place in the commodity bought by the first act, M-C, but not in its value, for equivalents are exchanged, and the commodity is paid for at its full value. We are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that the change originates in the use-value, as such, of the commodity, i. e. , in its consumption. In order to be able to extract value from the consumption of a commodity, our friend, Moneybags, must be so lucky as to find, within the sphere of circulation, in the market, a commodity, whose use-value possesses the peculiar property of being a source of value, whose actual consumption, therefore, is itself an embodiment of labour, and, consequently, a creation of value. The possessor of money does find on the market such a special commodity in capacity for labour or labour-power.
By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he exercises whenever he produces a use- value of any description.
But in order that our owner of money may be able to find labour-power offered for sale as a commodity, various conditions must first be fulfilled. The exchange of commodities of itself implies no other relations of dependence than those which, result from its own nature. On this assumption, labour-power can appear upon the market as a commodity, only if, and so far as, its possessor, the individual whose labour-power it is, offers it for sale, or sells it, as a commodity. In order that he may be able to do this, he must have it at his disposal, must be the untrammelled owner of his capacity for labour, i. e. , of his person. 2 He and the owner of money meet in the market, and deal with each other as on the basis of equal rights, with this difference alone, that one is buyer, the other seller; both, therefore, equal in the eyes of the law. The continuance of this relation demands that the owner of the labour-power should sell it only for a definite period, for if he were to sell it rump and stump, once for all, he would be selling himself, converting himself from a free man into a slave, from an owner of a commodity into a commodity. He must constantly look upon his labour-power as his own property, his own commodity, and this he can only do by placing it at the disposal of the buyer temporarily, for a definite period of time. By this means alone can he avoid renouncing his rights of ownership over it. 3
The second essential condition to the owner of money finding labour-power in the market as a commodity is this - that the labourer instead of being in the position to sell commodities in which his labour is incorporated, must be obliged to offer for sale as a commodity that very labour- power, which exists only in his living self.
In order that a man may be able to sell commodities other than labour-power, he must of course have the means of production, as raw material, implements, &c. No boots can be made without leather. He requires also the means of subsistence. Nobody - not even --a musician of the future? - can live upon future products, or upon use-values in an unfinished state; and ever since the first
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moment of his appearance on the world's stage, man always has been, and must still be a consumer, both before and while he is producing. In a society where all products assume the form of commodities, these commodities must be sold after they have been produced, it is only after their sale that they can serve in satisfying the requirements of their producer. The time necessary for their sale is superadded to that necessary for their production.
For the conversion of his money into capital, therefore, the owner of money must meet in the market with the free labourer, free in the double sense, that as a free man he can dispose of his labour-power as his own commodity, and that on the other hand he has no other commodity for sale, is short of everything necessary for the realisation of his labour-power.
The question why this free labourer confronts him in the market, has no interest for the owner of money, who regards the labour-market as a branch of the general market for commodities. And for the present it interests us just as little. We cling to the fact theoretically, as he does practically. One thing, however, is clear - Nature does not produce on the one side owners of money or commodities, and on the other men possessing nothing but their own labour-power. This relation has no natural basis, neither is its social basis one that is common to all historical periods. It is clearly the result of a past historical development, the product of many economic revolutions, of the extinction of a whole series of older forms of social production.
So, too, the economic categories, already discussed by us, bear the stamp of history. Definite historical conditions are necessary that a product may become a commodity. It must not be produced as the immediate means of subsistence of the producer himself. Had we gone further, and inquired under what circumstances all, or even the majority of products take the form of commodities, we should have found that this can only happen with production of a very specific kind, capitalist production. Such an inquiry, however, would have been foreign to the analysis of commodities. Production and circulation of commodities can take place, although the great mass of the objects produced are intended for the immediate requirements of their producers, are not turned into commodities, and consequently social production is not yet by a long way dominated in its length and breadth by exchange-value. The appearance of products as commodities pre- supposes such a development of the social division of labour, that the separation of use-value from exchange-value, a separation which first begins with barter, must already have been completed. But such a degree of development is common to many forms of society, which in other respects present the most varying historical features. On the other hand, if we consider money, its existence implies a definite stage in the exchange of commodities. The particular functions of money which it performs, either as the mere equivalent of commodities, or as means of circulation, or means of payment, as hoard or as universal money, point, according to the extent and relative preponderance of the one function or the other, to very different stages in the process of social production. Yet we know by experience that a circulation of commodities relatively primitive, suffices for the production of all these forms. Otherwise with capital. The historical conditions of its existence are by no means given with the mere circulation of money and commodities. It can spring into life, only when the owner of the means of production and subsistence meets in the market with the free labourer selling his labour-power. And this one historical condition comprises a world's history. Capital, therefore, announces from its first appearance a new epoch in the process of social production. 4
We must now examine more closely this peculiar commodity, labour-power. Like all others it has a value. 5 How is that value determined?
The value of labour-power is determined, as in the case of every other commodity, by the labour- time necessary for the production, and consequently also the reproduction, of this special article. So far as it has value, it represents no more than a definite quantity of the average labour of
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society incorporated in it. Labour-power exists only as a capacity, or power of the living individual. Its production consequently pre-supposes his existence. Given the individual, the production of labour-power consists in his reproduction of himself or his maintenance. For his maintenance he requires a given quantity of the means of subsistence. Therefore the labour-time requisite for the production of labour-power reduces itself to that necessary for the production of those means of subsistence; in other words, the value of labour-power is the value of the means of subsistence necessary for the maintenance of the labourer. Labour-power, however, becomes a reality only by its exercise; it sets itself in action only by working. But thereby a definite quantity of human muscle, nerve. brain, &c. , is wasted, and these require to be restored. This increased expenditure demands a larger income. 6 If the owner of labour-power works to-day, to-morrow he must again be able to repeat the same process in the same conditions as regards health and strength. His means of subsistence must therefore be sufficient to maintain him in his normal state as a labouring individual. His natural wants, such as food, clothing, fuel, and housing, vary according to the climatic and other physical conditions of his country. On the other hand, the number and extent of his so-called necessary wants, as also the modes of satisfying them, are themselves the product of historical development, and depend therefore to a great extent on the degree of civilisation of a country, more particularly on the conditions under which, and consequently on the habits and degree of comfort in which, the class of free labourers has been formed. 7 In contradistinction therefore to the case of other commodities, there enters into the determination of the value of labour-power a historical and moral element. Nevertheless, in a given country, at a given period, the average quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the labourer is practically known.
The owner of labour-power is mortal. If then his appearance in the market is to be continuous, and the continuous conversion of money into capital assumes this, the seller of labour-power must perpetuate himself, --in the way that every living individual perpetuates himself, by procreation. ? 8 The labour-power withdrawn from the market by wear and tear and death, must be continually replaced by, at the very least, an equal amount of fresh labour-power. Hence the sum of the means of subsistence necessary for the production of labour-power must include the means necessary for the labourer's substitutes, i. e. , his children, in order that this race of peculiar commodity-owners may perpetuate its appearance in the market. 9
In order to modify the human organism, so that it may acquire skill and handiness in a given branch of industry, and become labour-power of a special kind, a special education or training is requisite, and this, on its part, costs an equivalent in commodities of a greater or less amount. This amount varies according to the more or less complicated character of the labour-power. The expenses of this education (excessively small in the case of ordinary labour-power), enter pro tanto into the total value spent in its production.
The value of labour-power resolves itself into the value of a definite quantity of the means of subsistence. It therefore varies with the value of these means or with the quantity of labour requisite for their production.
Some of the means of subsistence, such as food and fuel, are consumed daily, and a fresh supply must be provided daily. Others such as clothes and furniture last for longer periods and require to be replaced only at longer intervals. One article must be bought or paid for daily, another weekly, another quarterly, and so on. But in whatever way the sum total of these outlays may be spread over the year, they must be covered by the average income, taking one day with another. If the total of the commodities required daily for the production of labour-power = A, and those required weekly = B, and those required quarterly = C, and so on, the daily average of these commodities = (365A + 52B + 4C + &c) / 365. Suppose that in this mass of commodities
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requisite for the average day there are embodied 6 hours of social labour, then there is incorporated daily in labour-power half a day's average social labour, in other words, half a day's labour is requisite for the daily production of labour-power. This quantity of labour forms the value of a day's labour-power or the value of the labour-power daily reproduced. If half a day's average social labour is incorporated in three shillings, then three shillings is the price corresponding to the value of a day's labour-power. If its owner therefore offers it for sale at three shillings a day, its selling price is equal to its value, and according to our supposition, our friend Moneybags, who is intent upon converting his three shillings into capital, pays this value.
The minimum limit of the value of labour-power is determined by the value of the commodities, without the daily supply of which the labourer cannot renew his vital energy, consequently by the value of those means of subsistence that are physically indispensable. If the price of labour-power fall to this minimum, it falls below its value, since under such circumstances it can be maintained and developed only in a crippled state. But the value of every commodity is determined by the labour-time requisite to turn it out so as to be of normal quality.
It is a very cheap sort of sentimentality which declares this method of determining the value of labour-power, a method prescribed by the very nature of the case, to be a brutal method, and which wails with Rossi that, --To comprehend capacity for labour (puissance de travail) at the same time that we make abstraction from the means of subsistence of the labourers during the process of production, is to comprehend a phantom (e^tre de raison). When we speak of labour, or capacity for labour, we speak at the same time of the labourer and his means of subsistence, of labourer and wages. ? 10 When we speak of capacity for labour, we do not speak of labour, any more than when we speak of capacity for digestion, we speak of digestion. The latter process requires something more than a good stomach. When we speak of capacity for labour, we do not abstract from the necessary means of subsistence. On the contrary, their value is expressed in its value. If his capacity for labour remains unsold, the labourer derives no benefit from it, but rather he will feel it to be a cruel nature-imposed necessity that this capacity has cost for its production a definite amount of the means of subsistence and that it will continue to do so for its reproduction. He will then agree with Sismondi: --that capacity for labour . . . is nothing unless it is sold. ? 11
One consequence of the peculiar nature of labour-power as a commodity is, that its use-value does not, on the conclusion of the contract between the buyer and seller, immediately pass into the hands of the former. Its value, like that of every other commodity, is already fixed before it goes into circulation, since a definite quantity of social labour has been spent upon it; but its use- value consists in the subsequent exercise of its force. The alienation of labour-power and its actual appropriation by the buyer, its employment as a use-value, are separated by an interval of time. But in those cases in which the formal alienation by sale of the use-value of a commodity, is not simultaneous with its actual delivery to the buyer, the money of the latter usually functions as means of payment.
