It should be noted that this raising of the rate of profit by means of a depreciation in the value of the constant capi- tal, in other words, by a reduction of its expensiveness, is entirely independent of the fact whether the line of indus- try, in which this takes place, produces articles of luxury, necessities of life for the individual consumption of laborers, or means of production. This circumstance would be of ma- terial importance only in the case that it would be a question of the rate of surplus-value, which depends essentially on the Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. loi value of labor-power, and consequently on the value of the customary necessities of the laborer. But in the present case the surplus-value and the rate of surplus-value have been as- sumed as given. The proportion of the surplus-value to the total capital, which determines the rate of profit, depends under these circumstances exclusively on the value of the con- stant capital, and in no way on the use-value of the elements of which this capital is composed.
A relative cheapening of the means of production does not, of course, exclude the absolute increase of their aggregate values. For the absolute scope of their application grows extraordinarily with the development of the productive power of labor and the parallel extension of the scale of production. The economies in the use of constant capital, from whatever point of view they may be considered, are the result, either exclusively of the fact that the means of production serve as co-operative materials for the combined laborers, so that the resulting economies appear as products of the social nature of directly productive labor itself; or, in part, of the fact that the productivity of labor is developed in those spheres which supply capital with means of production, and in that case these economies present themselves once more as products of the development of the productive forces of social labor, pro- vided only that the total labor is compared with the total cap- ital, and not simply with the laborers employed by the indi- vidual capitalist owning this particular constant capital. The difference in this case is merely that the capitalist takes ad- vantage not only of the productivity of labor in his own es- tablishment, but also of that in other establishments. Nevertheless, the capitalist presumes that the economies of his con- stant capital are wholly independent of his laborers and have nothing at all to do with them. On the other hand, the capi- talist is always well aware that the laborer has something to do with the fact whether the employer buys much or little labor with the same amount of money (for this is the form in which this transaction between the laborer and the capitalist appears in the mind of the latter). The economies realized in the application of constant capital, this method of getting I02 Capitalist Production.
a certain result out of the means of production with the small- est possible expense, is regarded more than any other power inherent in labor as a peculiar gift of capital and as a method characteristic of the capitalist mode of production.
This conception is so much less surprising as it seems to be borne out by facts. For the conditions of capitalist pro- duction conceal the internal connection of things by the utter indifference, alienation, and expropriation practiced against the laborer in the matter of the material means in which his labor must be incorporated.
In the first place, the means of production constituting the constant capital represent only the money of the capitalist (just as the body of the Koman debtor represented the money of his creditor, according to Linguet). The laborer comes in contact with them only in the direct process of production, in which he handles them as use-values of production, as instru- ments of labor and materials of production. The increase or decrease of the value of these things are matters which affect his relation to the capitalist no more than the fact that he may be working up either copper or iron. Occasionally, how- ever, the capitalist likes to profess a different conception of the matter, as we shall indicate later on. He does so whenever the means of production become dearer and thereby reduce his. rate of profit.
In the second place, so far as these means of production in the capitalist process of labor are at the same time means of exploiting labor, the laborer is no more concerned in the rela-^ tive dearness or cheapness of these means of exploitation than a horse is concerned in the dearness or cheapness of the bit and bridle by which it is steered.
In the third place, we have seen previously that the social nature of labor, the combination of the labor of a certain individual laborer with that of other laborers for a common purpose, stands opposed to that laborer and his comrades as a foreign power, as the property of a stranger which he would not care particularly to save if he were not compelled to econo- mize with it. It is entirely different in the factories owned by the laborers themselves, for instance, in Rochdale.
Economics in Employment of Constant Capital. 103 It requires hardly any special mention, then, that the gen- eral interconnection of social labor, so far as it expresses the productivity of labor in one line of industry by a cheapening and improvement of the means of production in another line, and thereby a raising of the rate of profit, affects the laborers as a matter foreign to them and concerning only the capital- ists, since they are the ones Avho buy and own these means of production. The fact that the capitalist buys the product of the laborers of another line of industry with the product of the laborers in his own line, and that he disposes of the prod- uct of the laborers of another capitalist by virtue of having appropriated the unpaid products of his own laborers, is mer- cifully concealed for him by the process of circulation and its attending circumstances.
This state of things is further complicated by the fact that these economies in the employment of constant capital assume the guise of being due to the peculiar nature of the capitalist mode of production, and to the special function of the capi- talist in particular. The thirst for profits and the demands of competition tend toward the greatest possible cheapening of the production of commodities, just as production on a large scale first develops in its capitalistic form.
Capitalist production promotes on the one hand the develop- ment of the productive powers of social labor, and on the other it enforces economies in the employment of constant capital.
However, capitalist production does not stop at the aliena- tion and expropriation of the laborer, the bearer of living labor, from his interest in the economical, that is to say, ra- tional and thrifty, use of the material requirements of his labor. In conformity with its contradictory and antagonistic nature, capitalist production proceeds to add to the economies in the use of constant capital, and thus to the means of in- creasing the rate of profit, a prodigality in the use of the life and health of the laborer himself.
Since the laborer passes the greater portion of his life in the process of production, the conditions of this productive process constitute the greater part of the fundamental condi- tions of his vital activity, his requirements of life. Econo- 104 Capitalist Production.
mies in these requirements constitute a method of raising the rate of profit, just as we observed on previous occasions that overwork, the transformation of the laborers into laboring cattle, constitutes a means of self-expanding capital, of speed- ing up the production of surplus- value. Such economies are: The overcrowding of narrow and unsanitary rooms with la- borers, or, in the language of the capitalist, a saving in build- ings; a crowding of dangerous machinery into one and the same room without means of protection against this danger; a neglect of precautions in productive processes which are dan- gerous to health or life, such as mining, etc.; not to mention the absence of all provisions to render the process of produc- tion human, agreeable, or even bearable, for the laborer. From the capitalist point of view, such measures would be quite useless and senseless. No matter how economical capi- talist production may be in other respects, it is utterly prodi- gal with human life. And its saving in one direction is offset by a waste in another, owing to the distribution of its products through trade and the competitive method. Capitalism loses on one side for society what it gains on another for the in- dividual capitalist.
Just as capital endeavors to reduce the direct application of living labor to necessary labor, and to abbreviate the labor required for the production of any commodity b}^ the exploita- tion of the social productiveness of labor and thus to use as little living labor as possible, so it has also the tendency to apply this minimized labor under the most economical condi- tions, that is to say, to reduce the value of the employed con- stant capital to its minimum. While the value of commodi- ties is determined by the necessary labor-time contained in them, not by all of the labor-time incorporated in them, it is the capital which gives reality to this determination and at the same time reduces continually the labor-time socially neces- sary for the production of a certain commodity. The price of that commodity is thereby lowered to its minimum, since every portion of the labor required for its production is re- duced to its minimum.
It is necessary to make a distinction in the economies real- Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. 105 ized in the employment of constant capital. If the mass, and consequently the amount of the value, of the employed capital increases, it means primarily a concentration of more capi- tal in one hand. Now, it is precisely this greater mass in one hand, going hand in hand, as a rule, with an absolute in- crease but relative decrease of the number of employed la- borers, which permits economies in constant capital. From the point of view of the individual capitalist the volume of the necessary investment of capital, especially of its fixed por- tion, increases. But compared to the mass of the worked-up materials and of the exploited labor the value of the invested capital relatively decreases.
This will now be briefly illustrated by a few examples. We begin at the end, with economies in the conditions of produc- tion which are at the same time the living conditions of the laborer.
II. Economics in the conditions of labor at the expense of the laborers.
Coal Mines. Neglect of the most indispensable Expenditures.
"Owing to the competition between the proprietors of coal mines, expenses are kept down to the minimum required for overcoming the most palpable physical difficulties; and owing to the competition among the miners, whose numbers generally exceed the demand, they are glad to expose themselves to con- siderable danger and to the most injurious influences for a wage which is little above that of the day laborers in the neigh- boring country districts, more especially since mining permits them to utilize their children profitably. This double compe- tition is fully sufficient...to effect the operation of a large portion of the mines with the most imperfect drainage and ventilation; very often with badly built shafts, bad pip- ing, incapable machinists, with badly planned and badly con- structed galleries and tracks and this causes a destruction of life, limb, and health, the statistics of which would present an appalling picture." (First Report on Children's Employ- ment in Mines and CoUieries, etc., April 21, 1829, page 129.)
io6 Capitalist Production.
About 1860, the average of fatal accidents in the English collieries amounted to 15 men per week. According to the re- port on Coal Mines Accidents (Febraary 0, 1802), the total deaths from accidents during the ten years from 1852-01 amounted to 8,400. But the report itself admits that this number is far too low, because in the first years, when the in- spectors had just been installed and their districts were far too large, a great many accidents and deaths were not reported. The very fact that Uie number of accidents has decreased since the installation of the inspectors, in spite of their insufficient numbers and limited powers, shows the natural tendencies of capitalist production. Still the number of the killed is very large. These sacrifices of human beings are mostly due to the groveling greed of the mine owners. Very often they had only one shaft dug, so that there was not only no effective ventila- tion but also no escape if this shaft became clogged.
Looking upon capitalist production in its details, aside from the process of circulation and the excrescences of competition, we find that it is very economical with materialized labor in- corporated in commodities. But it is more than any other mode of production prodigal with human lives, with living labor, wasting not only blood and flesh, but also nerves and brains. Indeed, it is only by dint of the most extravagant waste of individual development that human development is safeguarded and advanced in that ej^och of history which im- ^^ mediately precedes the conscious reorganisation of society, 'm Since all the economies here mentioned arise from the social nature of labor, it is just this social character of labor which causes this waste of the lives and health of the laborers. The following question suggested by factory inspector B. Baker is characteristic in this respect: " The whole question is one for serious consideration, in what way this sacrifice of infant life occasioned by congregational labor can be averted ^ " (Report Fact., October 1803, page 157.)
Factories. Under this head belongs the disregard for all precautions for the security, comfort, and health of the la- borers, also in the factories. A large portion of the bulletins of casualties enumerating the wounded and slain of the Indus- J Economics in Employment of Constant Capital. 107 trial army belong here (see the annual factory reports). Furthermore lack of space, ventilation, etc.
As late as October, 1855, Leonard Horner complained about the resistance of numerous manufacturers against the legal requirements concerning protective appliances on horizontal shafts, although the dangerous character of these shafts was continually proved by accidents, many of them fatal, and al- though the appliance for protection against this danger was neither expensive nor interfered with the work. (Rep. Fact., October, 1855, page 6.) In their resistance against this and other legal requirements, the manufacturers are ably seconded by the unpaid justices of the peace, who are themselves man- ufacturers or their friends, and who render their verdicts ac- cordingly. What sort of verdicts those gentlemen rendered was revealed by Superior Judge Campbell, who said with ref- erence to one of them, against which an appeal Avas made to him: " This is not an interpretation of an act of parliament, it is simply its abolition." (L. c, page 11.) Horner says in the same report that in many factories machinery is started up without warning the laborers. Since there is always some- thing to look after, even when the machinery is at a stand- still, there are always many hands and fingers busy on it, and accidents happen continually from the omission of a mere signal. (L. c, page 14.) The manufacturers of that period had formed a union opposing the factory legislation, the so- called " National Association for the Amendment of the Fac- tory Laws " in ]\[anchester, which collected, in March, 1855, more than 50,000 p.st. by an assessment of 2 shillings per horse-power. This sum was to pay for lawsuits of the mem- bers of the association against court proceedings instigated by factory inspectors, all cases of this kind being fought by the union. The issue was to prove that killing is no murder when done for profit. The factory inspector for Scotland, Sir John Kincaid, relates of a certain firm in Glasgow that it used the old iron of its factory to make protective appliances for all its machinery, the cost being 9 p.st. 1 shilling. If this firm had joined the manufacturers' union, it would have had to pay an assessment of 11 p.st. on its 110 horse powers. This io8 Capitalist Production, would have been more than the cost of all of its protective ap- pliances. But the National Association had been organized in 1854 for the express purpose of opposing the law which prescribed such protection. The manufacturers had paid no attention whatever to this law during all the time from 1844 to 1854. At the instruction of Palmerston the factory inspectors then informed the manufacturers that the law would hence- forth be enforced. The manufacturers immediate^ founded their union. Many of its most prominent members were jus- tices of the peace who were supposed to carry out this law. When the new IVIinister of the Interior, Sir George Grey, offered a compromise, in April, 1855, to the effect that the government would be content with practically nominal appli- ances for protection, the Association declined even this, with indignation. In various lawsuits, the famous engineer Thomas Fairbairn permitted the manufacturers to throw the weight of his name into the scale in favor of economies and in defense of the violated liberty of capital. The chief of fac- tory inspectors, Leonard Horner, was persecuted and ma- ligned by the manufacturers in every conceivable manner.
But the manufacturers did not rest until they had obtained a writ of the Queen's Bench, which interpreted the Law of 1844 to the effect that no protective appliances were prescribed for horizontal shafts installed more than seven feet above the ground. And finally they succeeded in 1856 in securing an act of parliament entirely satisfactory to them, by the help of the hypocrite Wilson Patten, one of those pious souls whose os- tentatious religion is always ready to do dirty work for the knights of the money-bag. This act practically deprived the laborers of all special protection and referred them to the common courts for the recovery of damages in cases of acci- dent by machinery (which amounted practically to a mockery, on account of the excessive cost of lawsuits). On the other hand, this act made it almost impossible for the manufacturers to lose a lawsuit, by providing in a very nicely worded clause for expert testimony. As a result, the accidents increased rapidly. In the six months from May to October, 1858, In- spector Baker reported an increase of accidents exceeding that Economies in Employment of Constant Capital. 109 of the preceding six months by 21%. He was of the opinion that 36.7% of these accidents might have been avoided. It is true, that the number of accidents in 1858 and 1859 was considerably below that of 1845 and 1846. It was 29% less, although the number of laborers had increased by 20% in the industries subject to inspection. But what was the reason for this? So far as the moot question was settled in 1865, it was due mainly to the introduction of new machinery which was provided with protective appliances from the start and to which the manufacturer did not object because they re- quired no extra expense. A few laborers had also succeeded in securing heavy damages for their lost arms and having this sentence upheld even by the highest courts. (Rep. Fact., April 30, 1861, page 31, and April, 1862, page 17.)
This may suffice to illustrate the economies in appliances by which life and limb of laborers (also children) are to be pro- tected against dangers arising in the handling and operating of machinery.
Work in Closed Rooms. It is well known to what extent economies of space, and thus of buildings, crowd the laborers into narrow rooms. This is intensified by economies in ap- pliances for ventilation. These two economies, coupled with an increase of the labor time, produce a large increase in the diseases of the respiratory organs, and consequently an in- crease of mortality. The following illustrations have been taken from the Reports on Public Health, 6th report, 1863. This report was compiled by Dr. John Simon, well-known from our volume I.
Just as the combination of co-operative labor permits the operation of machinery on a large scale, the concentration of means of production, and economies in their employment, so it is the co-operation of large numbers of laborers in closed rooms and under conditions determined by the ease of manu- facture, not by the health of the laborer, which is on the one hand the source of increased profits for the capitalist and on the other the cause of the waste of the lives and health of the laborers, unless it is counteracted by a reduction of the hours of labor and by special precautions.
no Capitalist Production.
Dr. Simon formulates the following rule and backs it up with abundant statistics: " To the extent that the population of a certain district is made dependent upon co-operative labor in close rooms, to the same extent, other conditions remaining the same, increases the rate of mortality in that district through pulmonary diseases." (Page 23.) The cause of this is bad ventilation. " And there is probably in all England not a single exception from the rule that in every district, which has an important industry carried on in closed rooms, the in- creased mortality of its laborers suffices to color the mortality statistics of the entire district wdtli a decided excess of pul- monary diseases." (Page 24.)
The mortality statistics of industries carried on in closed rooms, as examined by the Board of Health in 1860 and 1861, show the following facts: The same number of men between the ages of 15 and 55, having a rate of 100 deaths from con- sumption and other pulmonary diseases in English agricul- tural districts, has a rate of 163 deaths from consumption in Coventry, 167 in Blackburn and Skipton, 168 in Congleton and Bradford, lYl in Leicester, 182 in Leek, 184 in Maccles- field, 190 in Bolton, 192 in Nottingham, 193 in Rochdale, 198 in Derby, 203 in Salford and Ashton-under Lyne, 218 in Leeds, 220 in Preston, and 263 in Manchester. (Page 24.) The following table gives a still more convincing illustration.
DEATHS MONARY DISEASES BE- TWEEN THE AGES OF I^ DISTRICT.
MAIN INDUSTRY.
PER MEM 1 WOMEN.
Berkhampstead Straw plaiting done women by Leighton Buzzard Straw plaiting done women by Newport Pagnell Manufacture of laces women by Towcester Manufacture of laces women by Yeovil Manufacture of gloves, mainly by women Leek Silk-industry, mainly women by Congleton Silk-industry, mainly women by Macclesfield Silk-industry, mainly women by Healthy country district Agriculture Econoiuics in Employment of Constant Capital, iii It shows the deaths from puhiionary diseases separately for both sexes, between the ages of 15 to 25, computed on every 100,000. The districts selected are those in which only the women are employed in the industry carried on in closed rooms, while the men are employed in all possible lines of work.
In the districts with silk-industries, in which the participa- tion of men in factory work is greater, their death-rate is also higher. The death rate from consumption, etc., in both sexes reveals, according to the report, the atrocious sanitary conditions under which a large portion of our silk-industry is carried on." And this is the same silk-industry whose manu- facturers, boasting of the exceptionally favorable and sanitary conditions in their establishments, demanded an exception- ally long labor-time for children under 13 years of age, and were granted permission in several instances. (Volume I, chapter X, 6.)
'' iSTone of the hitherto investigated industries will have presented a worse picture than that given by Dr. Smith of tailoring. The work rooms, he says, differ considerably in the matter of sanitation; but nearly all of them are over- crowded, badly ventilated, and to a high degree injurious to health,...Such rooms are necessarily hot, as it is; but if the gas is lighted, for instance during a fog in the daytime, or in winter in the evening, the heat rises to 80 or even 90 degrees Fahrenheit (27 to 33 degrees C.) and causes a drip- ping perspiration and a precipitation of vapor on the glass panes, so that water is continually trickling down or dropping down from the skylight, and the laborers are compelled to keep some windows open, although they inevitably catch cold thereby. — He gives the following description of 16 of the most important shops of the West end of London: The largest cubic space alloted in these badly ventilated rooms to one la- borer is 270 cubic feet; the smallest is 105 feet, the average being 156 feet per man. In a certain shop, which has a gal- lery running all around its sides and which receives light only from above, from 92 to 100 people are employed and a large number of gas jets lighted; the toilets are next door, and the Capitalist Production.
i room does not give above 150 cubic feet to each man. In an- other shop, which can be called only a dog kennel in a yard lighted from above and which can be ventilated only by one small window in the roof, from 5 to 6 people work in a room of 112 cubic feet per man." And "in these atrocious work rooms, described by Dr. Smith, the tailors work generally from 12 to 13 hours per day, and at certain periods work is con- tinued for 14 to 16 hours." (Pages 25, 26, 28.)
NUMBER OF PEOPLE EM- PLOYED.
LINES OF INDUSTRY AND LOCALITY.
RATE OF MORTALITY THE AGES OF Agriculture, England and Wales Tailoring, London Typesetters and PrinterL, London (Page 30.) It must be noted, and has in fact been noted by John Simon, the chief of the Medical Department, who is- sued the report, that the mortality of the tailors, typesetters, and printers of London, for the ages of 25 to 35 years, has been reported too low, because the London employers in both lines have a large number of young people (probably up to 30 years of age) from the country engaged as apprentices and "improvers," that is to say, men who are being trained. These increase the number of employed on which the death- rates of London are computed. But they do not contribute at the same rate to the number of deaths in London, because their stay there is only temporary. If they get sick during this period, they return to their homes in the country to get well, and if they die there, they are registered in their own district. This fact affects the earlier ages still more and ren- ders the death-rate figures of London for these ages completely valueless as standards of industrial violations of sanitary laws.
The case of the typesetters is similar to that of the tailors. In addition to lack of ventilation, poisoned air, etc., their con- dition is aggravated by night-work. Their regular working time lasts from 12 to 13 hours, sometimes from 15 to 16.
Economies in Employment of Constant Capitat. 113