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.[442] From our present data, and within the limits of the assumptions made on p. 487 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 surplusvalue.
(3.) The absolute value of labour power can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus labour 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
nental working hour would be a law shortening quantitatively the length of the working day in Continental factories.
[1] "There are compensating circumstances ... which the working of the Ten Hours' Act has brought to light" ("Rep. of Insp. of Fact, for 31st Oct. 1848", p. 7).[443] 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.
Endnotes
[442] The passage from the words "From our present data..." to "is shortened" comes from the French edition.— 526
[1] Capital—Marx's major work to which he devoted four decades (from the early 1840s till the end of his life). Marx started studying political economy at the end of 1843 in Paris. His aim was to write a treatise containing a critical analysis of political economy. As a result of his research in this field appeared such works as the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology, The Poverty of Philosophy, Wage Labour and Capital, Manifesto of the Communist Party and others. After an interval caused by the 1848-49 revolution, Marx continued his economic studies in London, where he lived as a refugee from August 1849. Here he studied the works of different economists, the history of economic development and the economics of his time in various countries, especially in England which was then a classic example of a capitalist country. He investigated theories of money, credit and the causes of economic crises, the history of landownership and the theory of ground rent, the socio-economic condition of the working class and questions of population, the history of technology and other problems. -By 1857 he had completed his enormous preparatory work and then proceeded to the final stage — the systématisation and generalisation of the collected material. From January 1857 to June 1858, Marx wrote a manuscript containing 50 signatures, which was, in fact, the first rough draft of Capital. In the present edition it was published in vols 28 and 29. At first Marx intended to publish his work in separate instalments, and the first instalment, as he wrote, "should form a relative whole" (see present edition, Vol. 40, p. 287), which embraces only the first section of Book I — the section consisting of 3 chapters: 1) The Commodity; 2) Money or Simple Circulation and 3) Capital. However, the final variant of the first instalment — A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy — does not contain the third chapter. Marx wrote the chapter on commodity especially. He wrote the chapter on money for "the first instalment" on the basis of the manuscript of 1857-58. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Part One was published in 1859 (present edition, Vol. 29). It was to be followed by "the second instalment", i. e. by the chapter on capital. However, soon afterwards, Marx had to postpone this work for a year and a half as he was occupied in writing the pamphlet Herr Vogt (present edition, Vol. 17) and in other urgent matters. Only in August 1861, did he begin work on "the second instalment". By the middle of 1863, he had written a new rough draft which was considerably longer than the manuscript of 1857-58 — 23 notebooks, having a total volume of about 200 signatures. The complete manuscript of 1861-63, which is considered to be the second rough draft of Capital, is reproduced in vols 30-34 of the present edition. Later on Marx decided to divide the theoretical part of the work on capital into 3 parts. The historico-critical section was to be the fourth and concluding part, and was to be based on the part of the 1861-63 manuscript entitled "Theories of Surplus Value". In his letter to Kugelmann dated October 13, 1866, Marx writes, "The whole work is thus divided into the following parts: Book I. The Process of Production of Capital. Book II. The Process of Circulation of Capital. Book III. Structure of the Process as a Whole. Book IV. On the History of the Theory" (see present edition, Vol. 42, p. 328). Marx also gave up his plan to publish the work in separate instalments and decided first to complete the whole work and then to publish it. Marx continued his work, concentrating mainly on those parts that were not sufficiently elaborated in the 1861-63 manuscript. He studied an enormous quantity of economic and technical literature, including books on agriculture, on credit and money and turnover. He also studied statistical material, various parliamentary documents, official reports on child labour in industry, on housing conditions of the British working class, etc. Marx then wrote a new manuscript (from August 1863 to the end of 1865), which constituted a more detailed variant of the three theoretical volumes of Capital. Only after the whole work was completed (January 1866), did Marx begin preparing it for the press, having decided, on Engels' advice, not to prepare the whole work but only Volume I of Capital. The final touches were made by Marx with great thoroughness and, in fact, became yet another recasting of Volume I of Capital as a whole. To ensure the integrity, completeness and clarity of the exposition, Marx thought it necessary to reproduce in a comparatively short form the major problems dealt with in A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (published in 1859) at the beginning of Volume I of Capital—they now constitute the whole of the first part "Commodities and Money" (in the first edition which was not yet subdivided into parts the first chapter bore this title). After the publication of Volume I of Capital (September 1867), Marx continued work on it in preparation for publication in German and translation into foreign lan-guages. For the second edition (1872) he made more subdivisions and also a lot of changes in the text (see this volume, pp. 12-13), gave important instructions for the Russian edition, published in Petersburg in 1872 and the first foreign translation of Capital, once more changed the book's structure and thoroughly edited the French edition (1872-75). Marx intended to take into consideration most of the changes made in the French edition when preparing the third German edition of Volume I. At the same time, after the publication of Volume I of Capital Marx continued his work on the subsequent volumes, intending to finish the whole edition as soon as possible. However, he was unable to do so. A lot of time was taken up by his activities in the General Council of the First International, and his work was increasingly hampered by poor health. After Marx's death, Engels finished preparing the third (1883) German edition of Volume I of Capital for press, which was taken as the basis for the translation into English made by Samuel Moore and Eduard Aveling and edited by Engels (1887).— 1,311
[4 4 3] don, 1849. Marx's reference to the report of December 1 apparently relates to the date of its compilation by L. Horner cited here by Marx. The same date occurs in the published report.— 526