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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour constant. Length of the working-day variable. - Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production
III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour constant. Length of the working-day variable. - Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production [1867]Edition used:Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume I: The Process of Capitalist Production, by Karl Marx. Trans. from the 3rd German edition, by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, ed. Federick Engels. Revised and amplified according to the 4th German ed. by Ernest Untermann (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co., 1909).
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- Editor's Note to the First American Edition By Ernest Untermann
- Author's Prefaces to the First and Second Editions, By Karl Marx
- I.—TO The First Edition.
- II.—TO The Second Edition.
- Editor's Prefaces, to the First English Translation and Fourth German Edition By Frederick Engels
- Editor's Preface to the First English Translation.
- Editor's Preface to the Fourth German Edition.
- Volume I. The Process of Capitalist Production.
- Book I. Capitalist Production.
- Part I. Commodities and Money.
- Part I, Chapter I Commodities.
- Section 1.—THE Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-value and Value (the Substance of Value and the Magnitude of Value).
- Section 2.—THE Twofold Character of the Labour Embodied In Commodities.
- Section 3.—THE Form of Value Or Exchange Value.
- A. Elementary Or Accidental Form of Value.
- 1. the Two Poles of the Expression of Value: Relative Form and Equivalent Form.
- 2. the Relative Form of Value.
- (a.) the Nature and Import of This Form.
- (b.) Quantitative Determination of Relative Value.
- 3. the Equivalent Form of Value.
- 4. the Elementary Form of Value Considered As a Whole.
- B. Total Or Expanded Form of Value.
- 1. the Expanded Relative Form of Value.
- 2. the Particular Equivalent Form.
- 3. Defects of the Total Or Expanded Form of Value.
- C. the General Form of Value.
- 1. the Altered Character of the Form of Value.
- 2. the Interdependent Development of the Relative Form of Value, and of the Equivalent Form.
- 3. Transition From the General Form of Value to the Money Form.
- D. the Money Form.
- Section 4.—THE Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof.
- Part I, Chapter Ii Exchange.
- Part I, Chapter Iii Money, Or the Circulation of Commodities.
- Section 1. The Measure of Values.
- Section 2.—THE Medium of Circulation.
- A. the Metamorphosis of Commodities.
- B. the Currency 82 of Money.
- C. Coin and Symbols of Value.
- Section 3.—MONEY.
- A. Hoarding.
- B. Means of Payment.
- C. Universal Money.
- Part II. the Transformation of Money Into Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter Iv the General Formula For Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter V Contradictions In the General Formula of Capital.
- Part Ii, Chapter Vi the Buying and Selling of Labour-power.
- Part III. the Production of Absolute Surplus-value.
- Part Iii, Chapter Vii the Labour-process and the Process of Producing Surplus-value.
- Section 1.—THE Labour-process Or the Production of Use-values.
- Section 2.—THE Production of Surplus-value.
- Part Iii, Chapter Viii Constant Capital and Variable Capital
- Part Iii, Chapter Ix the Rate of Surplus-value.
- Section 1.—THE Degree of Exploitation of Labour-power.
- Section 2.—THE Representation of the Components of the Value of the Product By Corresponding Proportional Parts of the Product Itself.
- Section 3.—SENIOR'S "last Hour."
- Section 4.—SURPLUS Produce
- Part Iii, Chapter X the Working Day
- Section 1—the Limits of the Working Day
- Section 2.—THE Greed For Surplus Labor, Manufacturer and Boyard
- Section 3.—BRANCHES Of English Industry Without Legal Limits to Exploitation
- Section 4.—DAY And Night Work. the Relay System
- Section 5.—THE Struggle For a Normal Working Day. Compulsory Laws For the Extension of the Working Day From the Middle of the 14th to the End of the 17th Century
- Section 6.—THE Struggle For the Normal Working Day. Compulsory Limitation By Law of the Working Time. the English Factory Acts, 1833 to 1864.
- Section 7.—THE Struggle For the Normal Working-day. Re-action of the English Acts On Other Countries.
- Part Iii, Chapter Xi Rate and Mass of Surplus-value.
- Part IV. Production of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xii the Concept of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xiii Co-operation.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xiv Division of Labour and Manufacture.
- Section 1.—TWOFOLD Origin of Manufacture.
- Section 2.—THE Detail Labourer and His Implements.
- Section 3.—THE Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture: Heterogeneous Manufacture, Serial Manufacture.
- Section 4.—DIVISION Of Labour In Manufacture, and Division of Labour In Society.
- Section 5.—THE Capitalistic Character of Manufacture.
- Part Iv, Chapter Xv Machinery and Modern Industry.
- Section 1.—THE Development of Machinery.
- Section 2.—THE Value Transferred By Machinery to the Product
- Section 3.—THE Approximate Effects of Machinery On the Workman.
- A. Appropriation of Supplementary Labour-power By Capital. the Employment of Women and Children.
- B. Prolongation of the Working-day.
- C. Intensification of Labour
- Section IV.—THE Factory
- Section 5.—THE Strife Between Workman and Machine
- Section 6.—THE Theory of Compensation As Regards the Workpeople Displaced By Machinery.
- Section 7.—REPULSION And Attraction of Workpeople By the Factory System. Crisis In the Cotton Trade.
- Section 8.—REVOLUTION Effected In Manufacture, Handicrafts. and Domestic Industry By Modern Industry.
- A. Overthrow of Co-operation Based On Handicraft and On the Division of Labour.
- B. Re-action of the Factory System On Manufacture and Domestic Industries.
- C. Modern Manufacture.
- D. Modern Domestic Industry.
- E. Passage of Modern Manufacture, and Domestic Industry Into Modern Mechanical Industry. the Hastening of This Revolution By the Application of the Factory Acts to Those Industries.
- Section 9.—THE Factory Acts. Sanitary and Education Clauses of the Same. Their General Extension In England.
- Section 10.—MODERN Industry and Agriculture.
- Part V. the Production of Absolute and of Relative Surplus-value.
- Part V, Chapter Xvi Absolute and Relative Surplus-value.
- Part V, Chapter Xvii Changes of Magnitude In the Price of Labour-power and In Surplus-value.
- 1. Length of the Working Day and Intensity of Labour Constant. Productiveness of Labour Variable.
- II. Working-day Constant. Productiveness of Labour Constant. Intensity of Labour Variable.
- III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour Constant. Length of the Working-day Variable.
- IV.— Simultaneous Variations In the Duration, Productiveness, and Intensity of Labour.
- (1). Diminishing Productiveness of Labour With a Simultaneous Lengthening of the Working-day.
- (2) Increasing Intensity and Productiveness of Labour With Simultaneous Shortening of the Working-day.
- Part V, Chapter Xviii Various FormulÆ For the Rate of Surplus-value.
- Part VI. Wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xix the Transformation of the Value (and Respectively the Price) of Labour-power Into Wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xx Time-wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xxi Piece-wages.
- Part Vi, Chapter Xxii National Differences of Wages.
- Part VII. the Accumulation of Capital.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxiii Simple Reproduction.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxiv Conversion of Surplus-value Into Capital.
- Section I.—CAPITALIST Production On a Progressively Increasing Scale. Transition of the Laws of Property That Characterise Production of Commodities Into Laws of Capitalist Appropriation.
- Section 2.—ERRONEOUS Conception By Political Economy of Reproduction On a Progressively Increasing Scale.
- Section 3.—SEPARATION Of Surplus-value Into Capital and Revenue. the Abstinence Theory.
- Section 4.—CIRCUMSTANCES That, Independently of the Division of Surplus-value Into Capital and Revenue, Determine the Amount of Accumulation. Degree of Exploitation of Labour-power. Productivity of Labour. Growing Difference In Amount Between Capital Empl
- Section 5.—THE So-called Labour Fund.
- Part Vii, Chapter Xxv the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation.
- Section 1.—THE Increased Demand For Labour-power That Accompanies Accumulation, the Composition of Capital Remaining the Same.
- Section 2.—RELATIVE Diminution of the Variable Part of Capital Simultaneously With the Progress of Accumulation and of the Concentration That Accompanies It.
- Section 3.—PROGRESSIVE Production of a Relative Surplus-population Or Industrial Reserve Army.
- Section 4.—DIFFERENT Forms of the Relative Surplus-population. the General Law of Capitalistic Accumulation.
- Section 5.—ILLUSTRATIONS Of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation.
- ( A. ) England From 1846-1866.
- (b). the Badly Paid Strata of the British Industrial Class.
- C. the Nomad Population.
- (d). Effect of Crises On the Best Paid Part of the Working Class.
- (e.) the British Agricultural Proletariat.
- (1.) Bedfordshire.
- (2.) Berkshire.
- (3.) Buckinghamshire.
- (4.) Cambridgeshire.
- (5.) Essex.
- (6.) Herefordshire.
- (7.) Huntingdon.
- (8.) Lincolnshire.
- (9.) Kent.
- (10.) Northamptonshire.
- (11.) Wiltshire.
- (12.) Worcestershire.
- (f.) Ireland.
- Part VIII. the So-called Primitive Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxvi the Secret of Primitive Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxvii Expropriation of the Agricultural Population From the Land.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxviii Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated, From the End of the 15th Century. Forcing Down of Wages By Acts of Parliament.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxix Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxx Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution On Industry. Creation of the Home Market For Industrial Capital.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxi Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxii Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation.
- Part Viii, Chapter Xxxiii the Modern Theory of Colonisation. 70
- Works and Authors Quoted In "capital"
III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour constant. Length of the working-day variable.
The working-day may vary in two ways. It may be made either longer or shorter. From our present data, and within the limits of the assumptions made on p. 569 we obtain the following laws:
(1.) The working-day creates a greater or less amount of value in proportion to its length—thus, a variable and not a constant quantity of value.
(2.) Every change in the relation between the magnitudes of surplus value and of the value of labour-power arises from a change in the absolute magnitude of the surplus-labour, and consequently of the surplus-value.
(3.) The absolute value of labour-power can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus-value upon the wear and tear of labour-power. Every change in this absolute value is therefore the effect, but never the cause, of a change in the magnitude of surplus-value.
We begin with the case in which the working-day is shortened.
(1.) A shortening of the working-day under the conditions given above, leaves the value of labour-power, and with it, the necessary labour-time, unaltered. It reduces the surplus-labour and surplus-value. Along with the absolute magnitude of the latter, its relative magnitude also falls, i.e., its magnitude relatively to the value of labour-power whose magnitude remains unaltered. Only by lowering the price of labour-power below its value could the capitalist save himself harmless.
All the usual arguments against the shortening of the working-day, assume that it takes place under the conditions we have here supposed to exist; but in reality the very contrary is the case: a change in the productiveness and intensity of labour either precedes, or immediately follows, a shortening of the working-day.
(2). Lengthening of the working-day. Let the necessary labour-time be 6 hours, or the value of labour-power 3 shillings; also let the surplus-labour be 6 hours or the surplus-value 3 shillings. The whole working-day then amounts to 12 hours and is embodied in a value of 6 shillings. If, now, the working-day be lengthened by 2 hours and the price of labour-power remain unaltered, the surplus-value increases both absolutely and relatively. Although there is no absolute change in the value of labour-power, it suffers a relative fall. Under the conditions assumed in I. there could not be a change of relative magnitude in the value of labour-power without a change in its absolute magnitude. Here, on the contrary, the change of relative magnitude in the value of labour-power is the result of the change of absolute magnitude in surplus-value.
Since the value in which a day's labour is embodied, increases with the length of that day, it is evident that the surplus-value and the price of labour-power may simultaneously increase, either by equal or unequal quantities. This simultaneous increase is therefore possible in two cases, one, the actual lengthening of the working-day, the other, an increase in the intensity of labour unaccompanied by such lengthening.
When the working-day is prolonged, the price of labour-power may fall below its value, although that price be nominally unchanged or even rise. The value of a day's labour-power, is, as will be remembered, estimated from its normal average duration, or from the normal duration of life among the labourers, and from corresponding normal transformations of organised bodily matter into motion, in conformity with the nature of man. Up to a certain point, the increased wear and tear of labour-power, inseparable from a lengthened working-day, may be compensated by higher wages. But beyond this point the wear and tear increases in geometrical progression, and every condition suitable for the normal reproduction and functioning of labour-power is suppressed. The price of labour-power and the degree of its exploitation cease to be commensurable quantities.
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