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Every reader will find titles he has been looking for, handsomely printed, in unabridged editions, and at an unusually low price. ■ > ■ >>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>> > - > - > - » >>»-» CAPITAL A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BY KARL MARX THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION B K SAMUEL MOORE AND EDWARD AVELING EDITED BY FREDERICK ENGELS REVISED AND AMPLIFIED ACCORDING TO THE FOURTH GERMAN EDITION BY ERNEST UNTERMANN BENNETT A. CERF • DONALD S. KLOPFER THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY CHARLES H. KERR k COMPANY THE MODERN LIBRARY IS PUB1.ISHED BT RANDOM HOUSE, INC. BENNETT A, CERT • DONALD S. KLOPFER • ROBERT K. HAAl ^Manufactured in the United States of America Printed by Parkway Printing Company Bound by H. Wolff CONTENTS. rAGK Editor's Note to the Fisst Ameeicah Edition, •••. 7 Author's Prefaces — I, To the First Edition, XI II. To tlie Second Edition, 16 Editor's Preface — To the First English Translation, 27 Editor's Preface — To the Fourth German Edition, .........83 PART I. COMMODITIES AND MONEY. ^ Chapter I. — Commodities 41 Section 1. — ^The two Factors of a Commodity; Use Value and Value (the Substance of Value and the Magnitude of Value), H Section 2. — The Twofold Character of the Labour embodied in Commodities, 48 Section 3. — ^The Form of Value, or Exchange Value, 64 A. Elementary or Accidental Form o. Value 56 1. The two Poles of the Expression of Value: Relative Form and Equivalent Form 56 The Relative Form of Value, 67 (a.) The Nature and Import of this Form 67 (6.) Quantitative Determination of Relative Value 61 8. The Equivalent Form of Value, 64 4. The Elementary Form of Value considered ,as a Whole, ... 69 B. Total or Expanded Form of Value, . • 72 1. The Expanded Relative Form of Value, 72 2. The Particular Equivalent Form, 73 3. Defects of the Total or Expanded Form of Value 74 C. The General Form of Value 76 1. The altered Character of the Form of Value 76 3. The interdependent Development of the Relative Form of Valve, and of the Equivalent Form 78 3. Transition from the General Form to the Money Form 79 D. The Money Form, 80 Section 4. — The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof 81 Chapter II.— Exchanee 96 Chapter III. — Money, or the Circulation of Commodities 106 Section 1.— The Measure of Value 106 Section S.— The Medium of Circulation 116 a. The Metamorphosis of Commodities 116 i, Th6 Currency of Money 12S e. Coin, and Symbols of Value, , . 140 SeeUOQ 3.— Money ! 14ft a. HoardiuET 146; i. Means of Payment, .............. 151 e. Universal Money, 15& PART II. THE TRANSFORMATION OF MONET INTO CAFITAI.. Chapter IV. — ^The General Formula for Capital IfiS Chapter V. — Contradictions in the General Formula of Capital lYS Chapter VI.— The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power, , 185, 8 4,rr^ Contents. '^ PART III. r " TBI fRODDCTION OP ABSOLUTE SCRPLCS-VALtllt, FACa >► — Chapter^ VII. — ^The Labour Process and the Process of producing Surplus- Afrt .. .Value, 197 ^»ii2i,^Vo^ !• — The Labour Process or the Production of Use- Value, 197 Section 3. — The Production of Surplus-Value, 207 Chapter VIII. — Constant Capital and Variable Capital 821 Chapter IX.— The Rate of Surplus-Value 235 Section 1. — The Degree of Exploitation of Labour-Power, 235 Section 2. — The Representation of the Components of the Value of the Pro- duct by corresponding proportional Parts of the Product itself, . , . 244 Section 3. — ^Senior's " Last Hour," 2iS Section i. — Surplus-Produce, 264 Chapter X. — The Working-Day 255 Section 1. — ^The Limits of the Working-Day 255 Section 2. — The Greed for Surplus-Labour. Manufacturer and Boyard, . . 259 Section 3. — Branches of English Industry without Legal Limits to Exploitation, 268 Section 4. — Day and Night Work. The Relay System, 282 Section 6. — 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 290 Section 6. — The Struggle for a Normal Working-Day. Compulsory Limitation by Law of the Working-Time. The English Factory Acts, 1833 to 1864, 304 Section 7. — The Struggle for a Normal Working-Day. Re-action of the Eng- lish Factory Acts on Other Countries 326 CaAPIEB XI. — Rate and Mass of Surplus- Value, 331 PART IV. production op relative sdrplus-valui. Chatter XII. — The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value, 342 £hapter XIII. — Co-Operation, 363 Chapter XIV. — Division of Labour and Manufacture, 368 Section 1. — Twofold Origin of Manufacture 368 Section 2. — The Detail Labourer and his Implements 373 Section 3. — The two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture: Heterogeneous Manufacture, Serial Manufacture, 375 Section 4. — Division of Labour in Manufacture, and Division of Labour in Society, . 385 Section 5. — The Capitalistic Character of Manufacture, 395 Chapter XV. — Machinery and Modern Industry, , 405 Section 1. — The Development of Machinery, 405 Section 2. — The Value transferred by Machinery to the Product, .... 422 Section S.^The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman, .... 430 a. Appropriation of Supplementary Labour-Power by Capital. The Employment of Women and Children, 431 t. Prolongation of the Working-Day, 440 c. Intensification of Labour 447 Section 4.— The Factory, 457 Section 6. — The Strife between Workman and Machinery 466 Section 6. — ^The Theory of Compensation as regards '.h? Workpeople displaced by Machinery „. . 478 Section 7. — Repulsion and Attraction of Workpeople by the Vactory Systea,. Crises of the Cotton Trade, iMt Contents. 5 PAGZ Section 8. — Revolution effected in Manufacture, Handicrafts, and Domestic Industry by Modern Industry, 608 a. Overthrow of Co-Operation based on Handicraft and on Divi- sion of Labour, 602 b. Re-action of the Factory System on Manufacture and Domes- tic Industries, 604 c. Modern Manufacture, 60G d. Modern Domestic Industry, 509 e. Passage of Modem Manufacture and Domestic Industry into Modem Mechanical Industry. The Hastening of this Revo- lution by the Application of the Factory Acts to those In- dustries, 614 Section 9. — The Factory Acts. Sanitary and Educational Clauses of the same. Their general Extension in England 526 Section 10. — Modern Industry and Agriculture, 553 PART V. THE PRODrCTION Ot ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE SURPLUS-VALDS. Chapter XVI. — Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value, 667 Chapter XVII. — Changes of Magnitude in the Price of Labour-Power and in Surplus-Value, 668 L Length of the Working Day and Intensity of Labour constant. Pro- ductiveness of Labour variable 669 II. Working Day constant. Productiveness of Labour constant. Intensity of Labor variable, 674 III. Productiveness and Intensity of Labour constant. . Length of the Work- ing Day variable 676 IV. Simultaneous Variations in the Duration, Productiveness and In- tensity of Labour, 57S £l.) Diminishing Productiveness of Labour with a simultaneous Length- ening of the Working Day, 578 (2.) Increasing Intensity and Productiveness of Labour with simul- taneous Shortening of the Working Day 680 Chapter XVIII. — Various Formlse for the Rate of Surplus-Value, .... 682 PART VL WAGES. Chapter XIX. — The Transformation of the Value (and respectively the Price) of Labour-Power into Wages, 686 Chapter XX. — Time-wages 594 Chapter XXI. — Piece-Wages eOi Chapter XXII. — National Differences of Wages, • . . 611 PART VII. THE ACCUMULATION OB CAPITAL. Chapter XXIII. — Simple Reproduction 819 Chapter XXIV. — Conversion of Surplus- Value into Capital 634 Section 1. — Capitalist Production on a progressively increasing Scale. Transi- tion of the Laws of Property that characterise Production of Com- modities into Laws of Capitalist Appropriation 684 Section 2. — Erroneous Conception, by Political Economy, of Reproduction on a progressively increasing Scale 841 ^ Contents. Section 3. — Separation of Surplus-Value into Capital and Revenue. The Ab- stinence Theory, C48 ■Section 4. — Circumstances that, independently of the proportional Division of Surplus- Value into Capital and Revenue, determine the Amount of Ac- cumulation. Degree of Exploitation of Labour-Power. Productivity of Labour. Growing Difference in Amount between Capital employed and Capital consumed. Magnitude of Capital advanced 656 Section 6. — The so-called Labour Fund 667 Chapter XXV. — The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation, 671 Section 1. — ^The increased Demand for Labour-Power that accompanies Accumu- lation, the Composition of Capital remaining the same, 671 'Section 2. — Relative Diminution of the Variable Part of Capital simultaneously with the Progress of Accumulation and of the Concentration that ac- companies it, 681 -Section 3. — Progressive Production of a Relative Surplus-Population, or Indus- trial Reserve Army, 689 .Section 4. — Different Forms of the Relative Surplus-Population. The General Law of Capitalistic Accumulation, 703 Section 6. — Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation, . . 711 a. England from 1846 to 1866 711 b. The badly paid Strata of the British Industrial Class, . . . 718 c. The Nomad Population 728 d. Effect of Crises on the best paid Part of the Worldng Class, . 733 e. The British Agricultural Proletariat, 739 /. Ireland 767 PART VIII. TBE SO-CALLED PRIMITIVE ACCITMCLATIOS. Chatter XXVI. — ^The Secret of Primitive Accumulation, 784 Chapter XXVII. — Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land, 788 Chapter XXVIII. — Bloody Legislation against the Expropriated from the End I of the 15th Century. Forcing down of Wages by Acts of Parliament, . 805 Chapter XXIX. — Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer, 814 Chapter XXX. — Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry. Crea- tion of the Home Market for Industrial Capital, 817 Chapter XXXI. — Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist, 822 Chapter XXXII. — Historical Tendency of Capitalistic Accumulation, . . . 834 ■Shapter XXXIII. — The Modern Theory of Colonization, 838 Works and Authors quoted in " Capital," 850 ilnoex. ••••••••••• Li, ift .>!• I*. A L» * • 866 EDITOR'S ]S"OTE TO THE FIEST AMEBIOAKi EDITION. The original plan of Harx, as outlined in his preface to the first German edition of Capital, in 1867, was to divide his work into three volumes. Volume I was to contain Book I, The Process of 'Capitalist Production. Volume II was scheduled to comprise both Book II, The Process of Capi- talist Circulation, and Book III, The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. The work was to close with volumo III, containing Book IV, A History of Theories of Surplus- Value, When Marx proceeded to elaborate his work for publica- tion, he had the essential portions of all three volumes, with a few exceptions, worked out in their main analyses and con- elusions, but in a very loose and unfinished form. Owing to ill health, he completed only volume I. He died on March 14, 1883, just when a third German edition of this volume was being prepared for the printer. Frederick Engels, the intimate friend and co-operator of Marx, stepped into the place of his dead comrade and pro- ceeded to complete the work. In the course of the elabora- tion of volume II it was found that it would be wholly taken up with Book II, The Process of Capitalist Circulation. Its first German edition did not appear until May, 1885, ahnosj 18 years after the first volume. The publication of the third volume was delayed -still longer. When the second German edition of volume II ap- peared, in July, 1893, Engels was still working on volume 7 8 American Editor's Note. III. It was not until October, 1894, that the first German edition of volume III was published, in two separate parts, containing the subject matter of what had been originally planned as Book III of volume II, and treating of The Capi- talist Process of Production as a whole. The reasons for the delay in the publication of volumes II and III, and the difficulties encountered in solving the problem of elaborating the copious notes of Marx into a fiji- ished and connected presentation of his theories, have been fully explained by Engels in his various prefaces to these two volumes. His great modesty led him to belittle his own share in this fundamental work. As a matter of fact, a large portion of the contents of Capital is as much a creation of Engels as though he had written it independently of Marx. Engels intended to issue the contents of the manuscripts for Book IV, originally planned as volume III, in the form of a fourth volume of Capital. But on the 6tli of August, 1895, less than one year after the publication of volume III, he followed his co-worker into the grave, still leaving this work incompleted. However, some years previous to his demise^ and in antici- pation of such an eventuality, he had appointed Karl Kautsky, the editor of Die Neue Zeit, the scientific organ of the German Socialist Party, as his successor and familiarized him per- sonally with the subject matter intended for volume IV of this work. The material proved to be so voluminous, that Kautsky, instead of making a fourth, volume of Capital out of it, abandoned the original plan and issued his elaboration as a separate work in three volumes tmder the title Theories of Burplus-valiLe. The first Englisli translation of the first volume of Capital -was edited by Engels and published in 1886. Marx had in tiie meantime made some changes in the text of the second American Editor's Note. 9 German edition and of the Frencli translation, both of which appeared in 1873, and he had intended to superintend per- sonally the edition of an English version. But the state of his health interfered with this plan. Engels utilised his notes and the text of the French edition of 1873 in the prep- aration of a third German edition, and this served as a basis i£or the first edition of the English translation. Owing to the fact that the title page of this English trans- lation (published by Swan Sonnenschein & 'Co.) did not dis- tinctly specify that this was but volume I, it has often been mistaken for the complete work, in spite of the fact that the prefaces of Marx and Engels clearly pointed to the actual condition of the matter. In 1890, four years after the publication of the first Eng- lish edition, Engels edited the proofs for a fourth German edition of volimie I and enlarged it still more after a re- peated comparison with the Erench edition and with manu- script notes of Harx. But the Swan Sonnenschein edition did not adopt this new version in its subsequent English, iss-ues. This first American edition will be the first complete Eng- lish edition of the entire Marxian theories of Capitalist Pro- duction. It will contain all three volumes of Capital in fuU. The present volume, I, deals with The Process of Capitalist Production in the strict meaning of the term " production." Volume II will treat of The Process of Capitalist Circulation in the strict meaning of .the term " circulation." Volume III will contain the final analysis of The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, that is of Production and Circulation in their mutual interrelations. The Theories of Surplus-Value, E^autsky's elaboration of the posthumous notes of Marx and Engels, will in due time be published in an English translation as a separate work. lO American Editor's Note. This first American edition of volume I is based on the revised fourth Grerman edition. The text of the English version of the Swan Sonnenschein edition has been compared page for page with this improved German edition, and about ten pages of new text hitherto not rendered in English are thus presented to American readers. All the footnotes have likewise been revised and brought up to date. For all further information concerning the technical par- ticulars of this work I refer the reader to the prefaces of Marx and Engels. EkWKST UNTEBMAIfN. Orlando, Tla., July 18, 1906. [AUTHOR'S PREFAOEa I. TO THE PIEST EDITION. THE ■work, the first volume of -whicL. I now submit to tlie public, forms the continuation of my "Zur Kritik deu Politischen Oekonomie" (A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy) published in 1859, The long pause be- tween the first part and the continuation is due to an illnesa of many years' duration that again and again interrupted my work. The substance of that earlier work is summarised in the first three chapters of this volume. This is done not merely for the sake of connection and completeness. The presentation of the subject-matter is improved. As far as circumstances in any way permit, many points only hinted at in the earlier book are here worked out more fully, whilst, conversely, points worked out fully there are only touched upon in this volume. The sections on the history of the theories of value and -f money are now, of course, left out altogether. The reader of the earlier work will find, however, in the notes to the first chapter additional sources of reference relative to the history of those theories. Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences. To understand the first chapter, especially the section that con- tains the analysis of commodities, will, the efore, present Hhe greatest difficulty. That which concern, more especially the analysis of the substance of value and the magnitude of value, XJ 12 Author's Prefaces. I have, aa much as it was possible, popularised.* The value- form, whose fully developed shape is the money-form, is very elementary and simple. Nevertheless, the human mind has for more than 2000 years sought in vain to get to the bottom of it, whilst on the other hand, to the successful analysis of much more composite and complex forms, there has been at least an approximation. Why ? Because the body, aa an or- ganic whole, is more easy of study than are the cells of that body. In the analysis of economic forms, moreover, neither microscopes nor chemical reagents are of use. The force of abstraction must replace both. But in bourgeois society the commodity-form of the product of labor — or the value-form of the commodity — is the economic cell-form. To the super- ficial observer, the analysis of these forms seems to turn upon minutiae. It does in fact deal with minutiae, but they are oi the same order as those dealt with in microscopic anatomy. With the exception of the section on value-form, therefore, this volume cannot stand accused on the score of difficulty. I pre-suppose, of course, a reader who is willing to learn some- thing new and therefore to think for himself. The physicist either observes physical phenomena where they occur in their most typical form and most free from disturbing influence, or, wherever possible, he makes experi- ments under conditions that assure the occurrence of the phe- 1 This is the more necessary, as even the section of Fetdinand Lassalle'* work against Schulze-Delitzsch, in which he professeta to give "the intel- lectual quintessence" of my explanations on these subjects, contains im- portant mistakes. If Ferdinand Lassalle has borrowed almost literally from my writings, and without any acknowledgment, all the general theoretic il propositions in his economic works, e.g., those on the his- torical character of capital, on the connection between the conditions of production an '- the mode of production, &c., &c., even to the terminology created by me, this may perhaps be due to purposes of propaganda. I am here, of course, not speaking of his detailed working out and applica- tion of these propositions, with which I have nothing to do. 'Author's Prefaces. 13 nomenon in its normality. In this work I have to examine the capitalist mode of production, and the conditions of pro- duction and exchange corresponding to that mode. Up to the present time, their classic ground is England. That is the reason why England is used as the chief illustration in the development of my theoretical ideas. If, however, the Ger- man reader shrugs his shoulders at the condition of the Eng- lish industrial and agricultural laborers, or in optimist fash- ion comforts himself with the thought that in Germany things are not nearly so bad, I must plainly tell him, "De te fabtda narratur! " Intrinsically, it is not a question of the higher or lowei' degree of development of the social antagonisms that result from the natural laws of capitalist production. It is a ques- tion of these laws themselves, of these tendencies working with iron necessity towards inevitable results. The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less de- veloped, the image of its own future. But apart from this. Where capitalist production is fully naturalised among the Germans (for instance, in the factories proper) the condition of things is much worse than in England, because the counterpoise of the Eactory Acts is wanting. In all other spheres, we, like all the rest of Continental Western Europe, suffer not only from the development of capitalist production, but also from the incompleteness of that develop- ment. Alongside of modern evils, a whole series of inherited evils oppress us, arising from the passive survival of anti- quated modes of production, with their inevitable train of social and political ajiachronisms. We suffer not only from the living, but from the dead. Le mart saisit le vif! The social statistics of Germany and the rest of Continental Western Europe are, in comparison with those of England, wretchedly compiled. But they raise the veil just enougli 14 Author's Prefaces. to let us catch a glimpse of the Medusa head behind it. We should be appalled at the state of things at home, if, as in England, our goveniments and parliaments appointed period- ically commissions of enquiry into economic conditions; if these commissions were armed with the same plenary powers to get at the truth; if it was possible to find for this purpose men as competent, as free from partisanship and respect of persons as are the English factory-inspectors, her medical re- porters on public health, her commissioners of enquiry into the exploitation of women and children, into housing and food. Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over eyes and eara as a make-believe that there are no monsters, I