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 a Normal Working Day.—Reaction of the English Factory Acts on Other Countries. As the sub-headings sufficiently indicate, this chapter deals solely with the historical growth of and tendencies developed by capitalist exploitation, and thus furnishes an indictment of fact fearlessly laying bare the revolting, barbarous and anti-social character of the capitalist system of production.
In order to refresh the student's memory along the lines of the Materialist Conception of History, and for the purpose of familiarizing him with a brilliant piece of applied Historical Materialism, he should turn to Part IV, and assiduously peruse Chapter XV, dealing with Machinery and Modern Industry. In this chapter the following interesting problems are taken up: The Development of Machinery, The Value transferred by Machinery to the Product, The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman (Appropriation of Supplementary Labor-Power by Capital, The Employment of Women and Children, Prolongation of the Working Day, Intensification of Labor), The Factory, The Strife between Workman and Machinery, The Theory of Compensation as regards Workpeople displaced by Machinery, Repulsion and Attraction of Workpeople by the Factory System, Revolution effected in Manufacture, Handicrafts, and Domestic Industry by Modern Industry, The Factory Acts, etc., and Modern Industry and Agriculture.
Being fully acquainted with the origin, development and tendencies of Capitalism, also quite familiar with the historical role assumed by it in the process of social evolution, the student is now sufficiently equipped to study the economic structure and laws of the capitalist system of production. And to this phase of investigation the remaining and largest part of "Capital" is devoted. Having digested such works as "Value, Price and
