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production of the cloth—he proceeds to produce it by means of the raw material and the instruments which belong to him. Among these last is, of course, reckoned our worthy weaver, who has as little share in the product, or in the
price of the product, as the loom itself.
Wages, therefore, are not the worker’s share of the commodities which he has produced. Wages are the share of commodities previously produced, with which the employer purchases a certain amount of productive labour.
Labour is, therefore, a commodity which its owner the wage worker sells to capital. Why does he sell it? In order to live.
But labour is the peculiar expression of the energy of the labourer’s life. And this energy he sells to another party, in order to secure for himself the means of living. For him, therefore, his energy is nothing but a means of ensuring his own existence. He works to live. He does not count the work itself as a part of his life, rather is it a sacrifice of his life. It is a commodity which he has made over to another party. Neither is its product the aim of his activity. What he produces for himself is not the silk he weaves, nor the place that he builds, nor the gold that ne digs from out the mine. What he produces for himself is his wage; and silk, gold, and palaces are transformed for him into a certain quantity of means of existence—a cotton shirt, some copper coins, and a lodging in a cellar. And what of the labourer, who for twelve hours weaves, spins, bores, turns, builds, shovels, breaks stones, carries loads, and so on? Does his twelve hours’ weaving, spinning, boring, turning, building, shovelling, and stone-breaking represent the active expression of his life? On the contrary. Life begins for him exactly where this activity of his ceases—at his meals, on the public-house bench, in his bed. His twelve hours’ work has no meaning for him as weaving, spinning, boring, etc., but only as earnings whereby he may obtain his meals, his seat in the public-house, his bed. If the silkworm’s object in spinning were to prolong its existence as a caterpillar, it would be a perfect example of a wageworker.
Labour was not always a commodity. Labour was not always wage-work, that is, a marketable commodity. The slave does not sell his labour to the slaveowner. The slave along with his labour is sold once for all to his owner. He is a commodity which can pass from the hand of one owner to that of another. He himself is a commodity, but his labour is not his commodity. The serf sells only a portion of his labour. He does not receive his wages from the owner of the soil; rather the owner of the soil receives a tribute from him. The serf belongs to the soil, and to the lord of the soil he brings its fruits. The free labourer, on the other hand, sells himself, and that by fractions. From day to day he sells by auction eight, ten, twelve, fifteen hours of his life to the highest bidder—to the owner of the raw material, the instruments of work, and the means of life; that is, to the employer. The labourer himself belongs neither to an owner nor to the soil: but eight, ten, twelve, fifteen hours of his daily life belong to the man who buys them. The labourer leaves the employer to whom he has hired himself whenever he pleases; and the employer discharges him whenever he thinks fit; either as soon as he ceases to make a profit out of him, or fails to get so high a profit as he requires. But the labourer, whose only source of earning is the sale of his labour, cannot leave the whole class of his purchasers, that is, the capitalist class, without renouncing his own existence. He does not belong to this or that particular employer, but he does belong to the employing class; and more than that, it is his business to find an employer; that is, among this employing class it is his business to discover his own particular purchaser.
Before going more closely into the relations between capital and wage-work, it will be well to give a brief survey of those general relations which are taken into consideration in determining the amount of wages.
As we have seen, wages are the price of a certain commodity—labour. Wages are thus determined by the same law which regulates the price of any other commodity.
Thereupon the question arises, how is the price of a commodity determined?
By what means is the price of a commodity determined?
By means of competition between buyers and sellers, and the relation between supply and demand—offer and desire. And this competition by which the price of an article is fixed, is three-fold.
The same commodity is offered in the market by various sellers. Whoever offers the greatest advantage to purchasers is certain to drive the other sellers off the field, and secure for himself the greatest sale. The sellers, therefore, fight for the sale and the market among themselves. Everyone of them wants to sell, and does his best to sell much, and if possible to become the only seller. There
