overlook here the modification which this law undergoes under capitalism, thanks to profit, as that would render the argument too complicated without adding any new light to the problem in question. The time of socially necessary labour in each branch of industry is determined, first, by the state of mechanical arts and sciences in society, by the prevailing intensity of labour, &c.—in short by the average productivity of the individual labourer, then by the mass of the products, which the needs of society demand from the particular branch of industry, and finally by the entire mass of labour which is at the disposal of society. Free competition insures it that the price of products, that is, the amount of gold which they can be exchanged for, should always tend towards their value as determined by the amount of socially necessary labour. In this way it comes about that production itself in each particular branch of industry, although not regulated from any centre, never deviates too far, and for long, from the right level. Without the law of value, and with the anarchy which prevails under the capitalist production of commodities, the latter would soon collapse in a hopeless confusion.
An example will make this clear. We will put it in as simple a form as we can. We will take as the result of the social production only two commodities of some sort, say trousers and braces.
Let us assume that in a society the socially necessary labour time amounts, within a certain period (its exact length is here immaterial), to 10,000 days' labour for trousers, and 1,000 days' labour for braces. That means that in order to satisfy the requirements of society in trousers and braces, so many days of labour at a given state of productivity are necessary. If the product of a days' work be worth 10s., then the value of the trousers will amount to £5,000, and of the braces to £500.
If a worker deviates in his work from the social average, if he produces in a day, say, only one-half of what his comrades produce, then the price of his day's product will only amount to one-half of what is produced in a day by the others. That is known to everybody. The same, however, takes place, if the proportion of the different kinds of work has deviated from the normal. For example, if the production of braces attracts more labour than is socially necessary, it means that labour is withdrawn from somewhere else, since the amount of labour at the disposal, of society is limited. Let us assume, for the sake of simplicity, that it is withdrawn from trousers making. Instead of the socially necessary time of 10,000 days here and 1,000 there, we find in reality, say 8,000 days in one and 3,000 in the other, people are nearly crushed under the weight of braces, but have not enough trousers to put on. What will be the result? The price of the braces will fall, that of the trousers will rise. The 3,000 days actually spent on the production of braces will only represent the value of 1,000 socially
