A'^/?Z  MARX.

37
l'he  truth  is  that  the  value  of  labour  is  like  that  of  everything
else,  in  proportion  to  its  utility.  In  a  glass  manufactory  the
stokér  receives  three  shillings  a  day,  the  glass-blower  five,  six,
or  eight  shillings,  the  skilled  engraver  ten  to  twelve  shillings  •
diamond-cutters  at  Amsterdam  gain  twenty  to  twenty-four
shillings.  The  cost  of  maintenance  of  these  different  classes
of  workmen  is  pretty  nearly  the  same  ;  but  the  value  of  their
labour,  and  consequently  of  their  produce,  differs  greatly,  and
it  is  the  higher  in  proportion  as  their  abilities  are  more  scarce
and  in  greater  request.  Suppose  I  want  to  get  up  from  the
bottom  of  a  well  a  chest  containing  two  cwts.  of  silver.  Alone,
I  cannot  do  it  Somebody  comes,  but  will  not  help  me
except  on  condition  of  sharing  the  contents  of  the  chest  If
I  cannot  get  aid  elsewhere  I  will  consent  to  the  bargain,  for
I  still  find  in  it  a  great  advantage.  In  this  case,  the  produce
of  a  day's  labour  would  have  been  for  each  of  the  partners
one  cwt  of  silver.  The  value  of  labour  for  the  employer  is
then  equal  to  the  profit  he  makes  out  of  it,  and  if  he  is  compelled ­
  by  the  scarcity  of  hands,  that  is  also  what  he  can  give
as  wages  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  workman  is  forced
by  the  competition  of  his  class  to  give  his  labour  at  any  price,
he  can  content  himself  with  what  suffices  for  his  maintenance!
The  remuneration  of  wages,  then,  will  fluctuate  between  a
maximum  equivalent  to  the  value  of  what  it  creates,  less
interest  and  rent,  and  a  minimum  corresponding  to  the  necessary ­
  cost  of  maintenance.  The  law  of  supply  and  demand
will  determine  the  oscillations  between  these  two  extremes
From  what  has  gone  before,  it  results  that,  the  more  productive
labour  becomes,  the  more  its  remuneration  may  be  raised,  if
the  supply  of  hands  does  not  lower  wages.  When  this  surplus
value,  resulting  from  an  increase  of  production,  does  not  remain
in  the  hands  of  the  wage-earner,  it  is  not,  as  Marx  says,  the
capitalist  who  “pockets  it."  Competition  soon  reduces  his
profits  by  lowering  prices  as  much  as  possible,  and  in  the  last
analysis  it  is  the  consumers  who  benefit  by  industrial  improvenients.
  ^
One  of  the  odd  things  about  Das  Kapital  is  that  it  never
iscusses  the  influence  exercised  by  competition,  that  ever