^A/ÍL  MAUX.

31
to  spend  on  his  living  ;  he  will  therefore  be  able  to  sell  his
labour-force  for  a  remuneration  reduced  by  one  half.
All  these  deductions  appear  to  be  irrefutable,  and  we  thus
arrive  at  this  singular  conclusion,  that  the  more  the  employment ­
  of  machines  and  of  improved  methods  increases  the
productivity  of  labour,  the  lower  wages  fall  and  the  greater
the  profits  of  the  capitalist  become.
Capital  of  itself  does  not  create  value,  says  Marx.  The
work  of  manufacture  only  reproduces  the  value  consumed.  If
in  order  to  make  i  cwt.  of  cotton  yam  5  qrs.  are  wanted,
because  i  qr.  goes  in  waste,  in  the  cost  price  the  i  cwt.  will
be  set  down  at  the  same  price  as  the  5  qrs.  If  five  shillings
represents  the  wear  of  the  machine  and  ten  the  fuel,  these
sums  must  also  be  added,  and  the  selling  price  must  be  such
as  to  cover  them  completely.  “  The  machine  does  not  produce
value  ;  it  merely  transmits  its  own  value  to  the  articles  which
it  serves  to  fabricate.”  The  profit  must  then  proceed  exclusively ­
  from  labour,  the  sole  source  of  all  value.
If  after  a  bad  harvest  the  price  of  cotton  or  corn  increases,
although  the  labour  employed  in  their  cultivation  remains  the
same,  the  reason  is  that  the  cost  of  this  same  amount  of  labour,
being  divided  by  a  smaller  number  of  bushels,  gives  for  each
bushel  a  larger  expenditure  of  labour.  If,  for  example,  by
means  of  a  thousand  days  of  labour  I  obtain  a  hundred  bushels
of  corn,  each  bushel  will  have  a  value  equivalent  to  ten  days  of
labour  ;  if  I  get  in  only  half  that  amount,  each  bushel  will  have
a  value  equivalent  to  twenty  days  of  labour.
In  short,  all  “  surplus  value  ”  {mehrwerth),  under  whatever
form  it  is  crystallized,  whether  as  interest,  rent,  or  profits,  is
only  the  “materialization”  of  a  certain  duration  of  unpaid
labour.  “The  mystery  of  productive  labour  resolves  itself
into  this  fact,  that  a  certain  quantity  of  labour  is  employed
without  being  paid  for.”  “  By  itself  capital  is  inert  :  it  is  dead
labour  which  can  revive  only  by  sucking,  vampire-like,  the
blood  of  living  labour,  and  which  lives  and  thrives  with  all  the
tnore  vigour  the  more  blood  it  absorbs.”
According  to  Marx,  the  capitalist  régime  is  of  recent  origin.
It  dates  from  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  large  proprietors.