30 
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
which he has paid, he acquires everything it produces during 
the entire day. He therefore exchanges the produce of six 
hours against the labour of twelve hours, and puts in his 
pocket, as net profit, the produce of the six hours beyond the 
“necessary labour.” From this surplus, pocketed by the 
employer, capital comes into being. 
The capitalist has different methods of increasing his 
profits. The first consists in multiplying the number of his 
workmen. In fact, as many workmen as he employs, so many 
times does he pocket the product of the six supplementary 
hours of labour. If he employs only one workman, by deduct 
ing for himself the product of half a day’s labour, he would 
obtain only the bare means of living, like the workman himself. 
If he employs two, he would have for his own consumption the 
equivalent of what two workmen consume. The second method 
is to lengthen the working day. The longer the labourer 
works beyond the necessary time which represents his wages, 
the greater the profit he brings to his master. Marx here 
shows by detailed examples borrowed from the history of 
manufacture and industrial legislation in England, that capital 
and machinery necessarily tend to prolong the working day, and 
that in order to arrest them in this course, the State has been 
obliged to interfere with successive enactments limiting the 
hours of labour. The third method consists in diminishing 
the duration of the “ necessary labour.” If the workman could 
produce in three hours what he needs for his subsistence, the 
cost of his labour-power would be diminished by one half. 
The capitalist would then obtain the full value of the labour of 
twelve hours, in return for a sum of money equivalent to the 
labour of three hours, that is to say, for half the wages. This 
also seems to accord with Ricardo’s law : if the workman’s cost 
of maintenance be lowered, wages would fall proportionately. 
But how is the reduction in the cost of maintenance to be 
attained ? By rendering the labour which creates the articles 
of the labourers’ consumption more productive. As hours of 
labour obtain the same price, no matter what they produce, if 
twice as many articles can be made in the hour, each article 
will cost one half less, and the labourer will have one half less