The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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KARL MARK. 29 is what the capitalist has to pay according to the principles of exchange. In reality, Marx merely explains here, in other terms, Ricardo’s law of wages. According to the English economist, wages on the average always tend to approach that which is indis pensable for the existence of the labourers and for keeping up their number. If wages fall below this level, the less fortunate working men die of privations, and then the demand for hands causes wages to rise to the normal rate. If wages exceed this level, the number of labourers increases, and the increased , supply of hands causes wages to fall The average cost of the maintenance of the labourer varies in different countries, and according to the degree of civilization, but, whatever it is, it constitutes the natural price of labour, its cost of production. Let us now disclose the mystery of iniquity whence flows, according to the German Socialist, the terrible contrast of IX)verty and opulence, pauperism gaining ground as capital is amassed. To produce the commodities necessary for the existence of the labourer and his family during a day, a whole day’s work is not needed. Marx supposes that five or six hours would suffice. If, then, the labourer worked for himself, he could obtain all he needed in a half-day, and the rest of his time he might devote to leisure or to procuring superfluities ; but the slave of antiquity, the .serf of the Middle Ages, when gaining his freedom in the existing social order, did not at the same time acquire property. He is therefore obliged to place himself in the service of those who possess the land and the instruments of production. These naturally require him to work for them the whole day of twelve hours or more. In six hours the labourer produces the equivalent of his subsistence ; this is what Marx terms “ the necessary labour ; ” during the remaining six hours he produces the “surplus value,” the mehrwerth, to the profit of his employers. The capitalist pays the labourer for his labour-power at its value, that is to say, by giving him the amount of money which, representing six hours’ labour, permits him to buy the necessaries of life ; but as he thus obtains the free disposal of this productive force for

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