in all things was open and free. The workingman, possessed of labor power only, was not bound to work for any certain master, but could take that labor power into the open market and sell it to whoever would pay the highest price—he was a free man.
While between master and slave, between baron and serf, between guildmaster and journeyman certain personal obligations existed; under the Capitalist system all obligations ceased upon the payment of the day's wage. Both were free to go their separate ways if the terms of the employment did not suit them. They were free men.
The slave worked all the time for his master and received food, clothing and shelter in return. The serf worked a part of his time for the Baron—the balance of his time for himself—receiving protection from other barons in return, but providing his own food, clothing and shelter. The free workingman sold his labor-power for a price, therefore he was said to work for himself, and he took this price, or wage, and went into the open market where he bought food, clothing and shelter. In each event—whether as slave, serf or freeman—all the worker really got was food, clothing and shelter.
In truth, the freeman was not a free man. The lands and tools of production were still privately owned. The workman possessed no property on which he might employ himself—he had merely labor power and he must sell that power in order to live. It was not a matter of choice, but of grim compulsion. He must submit his will to the will of another. He was a slave—a wage slave. The greater portion of the wealth he created remained in the hands of someone else; the portion he received barely supplied his creature wants and allowed him to reproduce his kind.
Furthermore, the slave and serf could always work, for it was vastly to the interests of the master and baron that they should produce in abundance, but the wage slave may be denied the right to labor—he can be excluded from the field or shop. His labor power is now a commodity
