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