1) It produces its products as commodities. The fact that it produces commodities does not distinguish it from other modes of production. Its peculiar mark is that the prevailing and determining character of its products is that of being commodities. This implies, in the first place, that the laborer himself acts in the role of a seller of commodi- ties, as a free wage worker, so that wage labor is the typical character of labor. In view of the foregoing analyses it is not necessary to demonstrate again, that the relation between wage labor and capital determines the entire character of the mode of production. The principal agents of this mode of production itself, the capitalist and the wage worker, are to that extent merely personifications of capital and wage la- bor. They are definite social characters, assigned io indi- viduals by the process of social production. They are prod- ucts of these definite social conditions of production.
The character, first of the product as a commodity, sec- ondly of the commodity as a product of capital, implies all conditions of circulation, that is, a definite social process through which the products must pass and in which thev as- 3M 1026 Capitalist Production.
3nme definite social forms. It also implies definite relations of the agents in production, by which the formation of value in the jjroduct and its reconversion, either into means of sub- sistence or into means of production, is determined. But aside from this, the two above-named characters of the prod- uct as commodities, and of commodities as products of cap- ital, dominate the entire determination of value and the reg- ulation of the whole production by value. In this specific form of value, labor appears on the one hand only as social labor; on the other hand, the distribution of tliis social labor and the mutual supplementing and circulation of matter in the products, the subordination under the social activity and the entrance into it, are left to the accidental and mutually nullifying initiative of the individual capitalists. Since these meet one another only as owners of commodities, and every one seeks to sell his commodity as dearly as possible (being apparently guided in the regulation of his production by his own arbitrary will), the internal law enforces itself merely by means of their competition, by their mutual pres- sure upon each other, by means of which the various devia- tions are balanced. Only as an internal law, and from the point of view of the individual agents as a blind law, does the law of value exert its influence here and maintain the social equilibrium of production in the turmoil of its accidental fluctuations.
Furthermore, the existence of commodities, and still more of commodities as products of capital, implies the extemali- zation of the conditions of social production and the personi- fication of the material foundations of production, which characterize the entire capitalist mode of production.
2) The other specific mark of the capitalist mode of pro- duction-is the production of surplus-value as the direct aim and determining incentive of production. Capital produces essentially capital, and does so only to the extent that it pro- duces surplu3-value. We have seen in our discussion of rel- ative surplus-value, and in the discussion of the transforma- tion of surplus-value into profit, that a mode of production peculiar to the capitalist period is founded upon this. This Conditions of Production 1027 is a special form in the development of the productive powers of labor, in such a way that these powers appear as self- dependent powers of capital lording it over labor and stand- ing in direct opposition to the laborer's own development. Production which has for its incentive value and' surplus- value implies, as we have shown in the course of our analyses, the perpetually effective tendency to reduce the labor neces- sary for the production of a commodity, in other words, to re- duce its value, below the prevailing social average. The effort to reduce the cost price to its minimum becomes the strongest lever for the raising of the social productivity of labor, which, however, appears under these conditions as a continual increase of the productive power of capital.
The authority assumed by the capitalist by his personifica- tion of capital in the direct process of production, the social function performed by him in his capacity as a manager and ruler of production, is essentially different from the authority exercised upon the basis of production by means of slaves, serfs, etc.
Upon the basis of capitalist production, the social character of their production impresses itself upon the mass of direct producers as a strictly regulating authority and as a social mechanism of the labor process graduated into a complete hierarchy. This authority is vested in its bearers only as a personification of the requirements of labor standing above the laborer. It is not vested in them in their capacity as po- litical or theoretical rulers, in the way that it used to be under former modes of production. Among the bearers of this au- thority, on the other hand, the capitalists themselves, complete anarchy reigns, since they face each other only as owners of commodities, while the social interrelations of pro- duction manifest themselves to these capitalists only as an overwhelming natural law, which curbs their individual li- cense.
It is only because labor is presumed as wage labor, and the means of production in the form of capital, only on account of this specific social form of these two essential agencies in production, that a part of the value (product) presents itself I028 Capitalist Production.
as surplus-value and this surplus-value as profit (rent), as a gain of the capitalists, as additional available wealth belong- ing to the capitalist. But only because they present them- selves as his profit, do the additional means of production, which are intended for the expansion of reproduction, and M'hich form a part of this profit, present themselves as new additional capital, and only for this reason does the expansion of the process of reproduction present itself as a process of cap- italist accumulation.
Although the form of labor, as wage labor, determines the shape of the entire process and the specific mode of produc- tion itself, it is not wage labor which determines value. In the determination of value the question turns around social labor time in general, about that quantity of labor, which society in general has at its disposal, and the relative absorp- tion of which by the various products determines, as it were, their respective social weights. The definite form, in which the social labor time enforces itself in the determination of the value of commodities, is indeed connected with the wage form of labor and with the coiTesponding form of the means of production as capital, inasmuch as the production of com- modities becomes the general form of production only upon this basis.
Now let us consider the so-called conditions of distribution themselves. Wages are conditioned upon wage labor, profit upon capital. These definite forms of distribution have for their prerequisites definite social characters on the part of the conditions of production, and definite social relations of the agents in production. The definite condition of distribution, therefore, is merely the expression of the historically de- termined condition of production.
And now let us take profit. This definite form of surplus- value is a prerequisite for the new creation of means of pro- auction by means of capitalist production. It is a relation which dominates reproduction, although it seems to the indi- vidvial capitalist as though he could consume his entire profit as his revenue. But he meets barriers which hamper him even in the form of insurance and reserve funds, laws of com- Conditions of Production 1029 petition, efc. These demonstrate to liini by practice that profit is not a mere category in the distribution of the product for individual consumption. Furthermore, the entire process of capitalist production is regulated by the prices of products. But the regulating prices of production are in their turn regu- lated by the equalization of the rate of profit and by the dis- tribution of capital among the various social spheres of produc- tion in correspondence with this equalization. Profit, then, appears here as the main factor, not of the distribution of products, but of their production itself, as a part in the dis- tribution of capitals and of labor among the various spheres of production. The division of profit into profit of enterprise and interest appears as the distribution of the same revenue. But it arises primarily from the development of capital in its capacity as a self-expanding value, creating surplus-value, it arises from this definite social form of the prevailing process of production. It develops credit and credit institutions out of itself, and with them the shape of production. In interest, etc., the alleged forms of distribution enter as determining elements of production into the price.
Ground-rent might seem to be a mere form of distribution, because private land as such does not perform any, or at least no normal, function in the process of production itself. But the' fact that, first, rent is limited to the excess above the average profit, and, secondly, that the landlord is depressed by the ruler and manager of the process of production and of the entire social life's process to the position of a mere holder of land for rent, a usurer in land and collector of rent, is a specific historical result of the capitalist mode of production. The fact that the earth received the form of private property is a historical requirement for this mode of production. The fact that private ownership of land assumes forms, which per- mit the capitalist mode of production in agriculture, is a product of the specific character of this mode of production. The income of the landlord may be called rent, even under other forms of society. But it differs essentially from the rent as it appears under the capitalist mode of production.
The so-called conditions of distribution, then, correspond to 1030 Capitalist Production.
and arise from historically defined and specifically sQcial forms of the process of production and of conditions, into which hu- man beings enter in the process by which they reproduce their lives. The historical character of these conditions of dis- tribution is the same as that of the conditions of production, one side of which they express. Capitalist distribution dif- fers from those forms of distribution, which arise from other modes of production, and every mode of distribution disap- pears with the peculiar mode of production, from which it arose and to which it belongs.
The conception, which regards only the conditions of dis- tribution historically, but not the conditions of pi eduction, is, on the one hand, merely an idea begotten by the incipient, but still handicapped, critique of bourgeois economy. On the other hand it rests upon a misconception, an identifica- tion of the process of social production with the simple labor process, such as might be performed by any abnormally situ- ated human being without any social assistance. To the ex- tent that the labor process is a simple process between man and nature, its simple elements remain the same in all social forms of development. But every definite historical form of this process develops more and more its material foundations and social forms. Whenever a certain maturity is reached, one definite social form is discarded and displaced by a higher one. The time for the coming of such a crisis is announced by the depth and breadth of the contradictions and antago- nisms, which separate the conditions of distribution, and with them the definite historical form of the corresponding condi- tions of production, from the productive forces, the produc- tivity, and development of their agencies. A conflict then arises between the material development of production and its social form.^^^ IS' See the work on Competition and Co-operation (1832?).
The Classes. 103 1 CHAPTER LIT.
THE CLASSES.
The owners of mere labor-power, the owners of capital, and the landlords, whose respective sources of income are wages, profit and gronnd-rent, in other words, wage laborers, capi- talists and landlords, form the three great classes of modern society resting upon the capitalist mode of production.
In England, modern society is indisputably developed most highly and classically in its economic structure. Never- theless the stratification of classes does not appear in its pure form, even there. Middle and transition stages obliterate even here all definite boundaries, although much less in the rural districts than in the cities. However, this is imma- terial for our analysis. We have seen that the continual tendency and law of development of capitalist production is to separate the means of production more and more from la- bor, and to concentrate the scattered means of production more and more in large groups, thereby transforming labor into wage labor and the means of production into capital. In keeping with this tendency w^e have, on the other hand, the independent separation of private land from capital and labor,^^* or the transformation of all property in land into a form of landed property corresponding to the capitalist mode of production.
The first question to be answered is this: What consti- tutes a class? And this follows naturally from another ques- tion, namely: What' constitutes wage laborers,.capitalists and landlords into three great social classes?
^" F. List remarks correctly: "Prevalence of self-management in the case of large estates proves only a lack of civilization, of means of communication, of home industries and rich cities. For this reason it is found everywhere in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Mecklenburg. Formerly it prevailed also in England. But with the rise of commerce and industry came their division into medium-sized farms and their occupancy by tenants." (The Agrarian Constitution, the Petty Farm, and 1032 Capitalist Production.
At first glance it might seem that the identity of their reve- nues and their sources of revenue does that. They are three great social groups, whose component elements, the individ- uals forming them, live on wages, profit and ground-rent, or by the utilization of their labor-power, their capital, and their private land.
However, from this point of view physicians and officials would also form two classes, for they belong to the two distinct social groups, and the revenues of their members flow from the same common source. The same would also be true of the infinite dissipation of interests and positions created by the social division of labor among laborers, capitalists and landlords. For instance, the landlords are divided into owners of vineyards, farms, forests, mines, fisheries. [Here the manuscript ends.]
END OF VOLUME III.
INDEX.
A Agricultural labor, as a special occu pation, a modern product, 74;.'. Abolition of Capitalism within the cap- Agricultural Production, the price of italist mode of production, 519.
Absolute and relative growth of sur- plus-value with a falling rate of profit, Absolute Ground Rent, arises when agri- cultural capital sets in motion more surplus-labor than an industrial capital Absolute Rent, a surplus of value above the price of production, when agri production of its worst soil is always the regulating market price of pro- duction, 770.
Agricultural Products, may be sold as a whole below their value while indus- trial products are sold above their Agriculture, its capitalist form considered as a basis of the Marxian analysis of ground rent, 720.
cultural products are sold at a monoo- Agriculture, its capitalist form implies Absolute Rent, the cause of the increased price of agricultural products, 886. Absolute Rent, plays an important part in extractive industries, 897. Absolute Rent, conditioned either upon the expropriation of the rural la- borers from the land, 721. Agriculture, its rational management pre- vented by capitalist production, 144. American Firms, ruined by English over- speculation, 655.
the realized surplus above the price Annual Product, its value equal to wages of production or upon a monopoly plus surplus-value, 971.
price exceeding the value of the prod- Appreciation of capital in value may be uct, 936. accompanied by a fall of the rate of Absolute Overproduction of capital, 299. profit, 134.
Abstinence, in the form of actual saving. Auxiliary Capital used for circulation falls upon the shoulders of those, by the industrial capitalist creates no who get the least reward under cap- value or surplus-value, 343.
italism, 596. Average Rate of Interest, instruction Accident, its role in the determination how to find it, 426.
of a general rate of interest, 427. Average Profit defined, 18G.
Actual Capital, its relation to money- Average rate of profit appears as a mucapital, 559. tual compensation of capitalists, 246.
Additional Capital, its investrnent in ag- Average Rate of Profit, causes which riculture influenced by stringency or turn the law of its fall into a tendency, Additional Capital, a case where its Average Profit depends on profits of in- doubling trebles production, 817. dividual and on profits of social capi- Additional Capital, upon land, may bring tal, 187.
forth additional surplus profit, but at Average Rate of Profit determined by a decreasing rate, 803. two factors, 192.
Additional Capital, upon land, may bring Average Rate of Profit formed by the forth larger quantities of product than average of rates for each 100 of in- original investments, 805. vested capitals during a specified time.
Additional Capital, required for the 190.
withdrawal of the original capital from Average Rate of Profit, how it comes one soil and its transfer to another, about, 205.
may be invested with a falling, rising. Average Rate of Profit, its general foror constant rate of rent per acre, mation, 183.
818. Average Rate of Profit leads to difference Additional Capital, whose productivity between mass and rate of surplus- is lower than that of the original cap- value and of profit, 198. ital invested in the worst soil, lowers Average Rate of Profit, theory of its the difference between the better and law explained, 248. the worst soil, 852. Average Rate of Profit, warring tenden- Adulteration, a means of raising the cies which try to raise and to lower rate of profit, 100. it, 273.
Advances on Bills, a regular practice of B Advantages resulting from release or Balance of Trade, in time of crisis tie-up of variable capital affect only against every commercially developed capital already engaged, 138. nation, 578.
Index.
Balance of Trade, its demand for money accommodation a demand for money and capital, 534. Balance of Trade, its difference from the balance of payment crowded into a shorter time by crises, 608. Balance of Trade, its relation to rates of exchange, t>94. Bank Act of 1844, in England, sought to transform all precious metals in the country into currency, 003. Bank Acts in England, almost caused ruin of Bank of England, 481. Bank an institution to centralize money- capital, 473. Bank, makes a profit on credit, not on actual capital owned by it, 037. Banks, originally not credit but deposit institutions, 707. Banks, tax state for power granted to Bank Deposits, the possibility of their being far greater than the actual quan- tity of currency depends upon the pur- chases and sales and the resulting number of return wanderings of the Banker, his mania to consider all pay- ments made by him as loans, 506. Banker, his profits proportionate to the amount of his banking capital, 476. Bankers, contradict each other, 610. Bankers don't analyze statistics of ex- ports and imports, 627. Bankers, do not care to let go of money at any interest during a stringency, Bankers, don't expect to pay due bills in money, but in clearing house cer- tificates, 629. Bankers, make profits out of the ruin of their victims, 634. Bankers, regard the money of the pub- lic as their property, 628. Bankers, speculate with deposits of their customers, 586. Banking Capital, its composition, 545. Bank Legislation in England, had for its purpose the raising of the rate of interest for the Bank of England, Bank Notes, accumulated during crises, Bank Note, the coin of wholesale trade, Bank Notes, their credit is good, 652. Bank of England, effect of its separation in two departments on the converti- bility of its notes, 654. Bank of England, has power to fix mar- ket rate of interest during stringency, Bank of England, its internal circulation between its two departments, 514. Bank of England, its organization ex- plained, 651. Bank of England, its security illusory, Bank of England, makes profits out of a stringency, 640. Bank Reserve, held intact even if the entire business of the country went to Bank Reserve, shows its spuriousness during crises, 633.
Bills of Exchange, are not good se- curity, 635.
Bills of Exchange as a means of pay- Bills of Exchange represent the value of commodities just as a bank noie represents gold, 5U5.
Bills of Exchange, their enormous ex- tension, 470.
Bread dear in Rome compared to mod- ern times, 123.
Buildings, fall into the hands of land- lord after the expiration of the lease, together with the land, 728.
Building Speculation, figures on ground rent, not on house rent, 899.
Bullion Trade first carried on with gold and silver, 375.
Cancelling Debts, a means of restoring the international balance, 676.
Capital and Labor-Power must be easily transferable from one sphere of pro- duction to another, 231.
Capital and Profit, the relations be- tween their magnitude, composition and rate analysed, 165.
Capital, cannot yield interest without productive function, 444.
Capital, cheap when money is dear, 659.
Capital in a fallow state, 295.
Capital, changes in one of its elements, when passing a certain limit, compel corresponding changes in all other ele- ments, 78.
Cajiital, in the economic meaning, is not the fruit of the saving of one's own, but of other people's means, 597.
Capital, in the relation between capital and profit, appears as a relation to it- self, G2.
Capital invested in foreign countries may help to keep up the rate of profit Capital is the real barrier of capitalist production, 293.
Capital, its depreciation a check to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, Capital, its elements in Cost Price, 43.
Capital, its growing accumulation implies its growing concentration, 310.
Capital, its movements in response to changes in the rate of interest, 693.
Capital of Circulation distinguished from Circulating Capital, 315.
Capital, of the whole society, dividedT" into two classes, 974.
Capital seeks spheres with high rates of Capitals of average, lower and higher composition and their rates of profit when wages fall, 238.
Capitals of lower, average and higher composition defined, 193.
Capitals, of the same organic composi- tion, may have a different value-com- position, 890.
Capitalism advances human development by wasting individual development, Capitalist becomes superfluous when su.
Index.
penntendence is left to wage labor- Circulating Money, its quantity increases ers, 456. durinfj times of prosperity, 520.
Capitalist, drawing profits of enterprise, Circulation, its time reduced principally appears as a laborer, 447. by improved means of communication.
Capitalist, his books show wages paid 86.
but not variable capital invested, 90. Circulation of currency, cannot be ex- Capitalist, his imagination analyzed, 245. panded without increasing the issue Capitalist, his misconception of the ori- of bank notes, 537.
gin oi profits, 16a. Circulation realizes the surplus-value pro- Capitalist is interested in surplus-value duced in sphere of production, 53. not in the use-value of the commodity Classes, not determined by the identity containing it, 54. of their revenues, 1032. Capitalist makes allowance for fluctua- Classes, what are their characteristic distions of profit, 243. tinctions, 1031. Capitalist, regarded as the laborer by Classic Economy, dissolved the false is- Saint Simon and his followers, 711. olation and ossification of the so- Capitalist, remembers influence of labor cial elements in vulgar economy, 967. on capital only when rate of profit is Class Rule defended as a law of nature, Capitalist sees things upside down in Clearing House, realizes the greatest capitalist production, 42. economy in currency, 611.
Capitalist view of the origin of profits Coal, saved by increase of pressure in Capitalist wastes laborer's life to save Coins, the same pieces perform services machinery, 104. for many different people, 525.
Capitalists individually and as a class in- Colonist, counts labor higher than capiterested in the exploitation of labor- tal, 807.
power, 232. Commerce develops products into corn- Capitalists compete against each other modities, 386.
individually but unite as a class against Commerce meets obstacles in the pre- the working class, 233. capitalist forms of production, 393. Capitalist Production decreases relative Commerce originally the premise for the value of invested capital compared to transforination of crafts, rural domes- mass of worked-up materials and ex- tic industry, and feudal agriculture ploited labor, 105. into capitalist enterprises, 395. Capitalists think only of their own sal- Commerce rules industry in precapitalist vation in a crisis, 488. stages of society, 389.
Capitalist Production, its twofold in- Commercial Capital abbreviates the procfluence on merchants' capital, 366. ess of transformation for the manu- Capitalist Production, its two peculiar facturer, 323.
traits, 1025. Commercial Capital, a changed form of Capitalist Production, - rationalizes agri- Capital of Circulation, 316.
culture by rendering it capable of Commercial Capital creates neither value operation on a social scale and reduc- nor surplus-value by buying and sell- ing private ownership to an absurdity, ing, 331.
724. Commercial Capital, its independent oper- Capitalist Production relegates mer- ations analyzed, 320.
chants' capital to the position of an Commercial Capital, its movements differ agent of industrial capital, 385. from producers' commodity-capital, 319.
Capitalist Production, reverses the posi- Commercial Capital represents the comtions of the rational and the irrational, modity-capital of the producers in the 905. hands of merchants, 318.
Capitalist Production the basis of mod- Commercial Capital simplifies the buying