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THE  SOCIALISM  OF  TO-DAY.

it,  does,  in  general,  immediately  acquire  an  extra  value  ;  but  in
my  view,  what  it  is  especially  necessary  to  consider  is  the  value
in  use,  the  utility,  for  ultimately  everything  comes  to  that.
Consumption  is  the  final  aim  of  the  production  and  circulation
of  wealth.  Exchange  brings  everything  to  the  place  where  it
answers  the  most  intense  needs—“  the  right  ware  in  the  right
place  ”—and  thus  it  creates  utilities  which  are  real  values.
To  return  to  the  system  of  Marx,  capital,  according  to  him,
comes  into  being  in  this  way.  The  future  capitalist  presents
himself  on  the  market  of  commodities  provided  with  money.
First  of  all  he  buys  machines,  tools,  raw  materials,  and  then,
in  order  to  work  up  the  materials,  he  purchases  the  workman’s
“  labour-force,”  arbeitskraft.,  the  sole  source  of  all  value.  He
sets  the  labourer  to  work  to  change,  by  means  of  the  tools  and
machines,  the  raw  materials  into  manufactured  articles,  and
sells  them  for  more  than  they  cost  him  to  make.  In  this  way
he  obtains  a  greater  value,  “  surplus  value  ”  {mehrwerth).  The
money,  temporarily  transformed  into  wages  and  merchandise,
reappears  under  its  original  form,  but  more  or  less  increased  in
amount  ;  it  has  brought  forth  young—capital  is  born.
This  would  seem  to  conflict  with  the  principle  laid  down
above,  that  exchange  does  not  create  new  value.  The  manufacturer ­
  has  only  made  exchanges,  and  yet  he  finds  himself  in
possession  of  a  greater  value.  The  explanation  of  the  mystery
is  as  follows.  The  capitalist  pays  for  labour  its  exchange-value
and  thus  obtains  its  value  in  use.  Labour-force  has  the  unique
characteristic  of  producing  more  than  it  costs  to  be  produced.
He  who  buys  it  and  sets  it  to  work  for  his  gain,  enjoys  then  the
source  of  all  wealth.  The  capitalist  pays  for  labour  its  value.
What  is  the  value  of  labour  ?  Like  all  other  merchandise,  it  is
worth  what  it  costs  in  time  and  trouble  to  be  produced,  that  is
to  say,  its  cost  of  production.  The  cost  of  production  of  labour
is  the  food  and  different  commodities  necessary  to  support  the
labourer  and  the  children  destined  to  succeed  him.  The  value
of  all  these  commodities  is  measured  in  its  turn  by  the  time  that
it  takes  to  produce  them.  In  short,  then,  according  to  Marx,
the  value  of  labour  is  equivalent  to  the  sum  of  hours  required
to  create  what  the  maintenance  of  the  labourer  demands.  This