Page:Das Kapital (Moore, 1906).pdf/589

 in which the working-day, or the value produced by it, is divided between capitalist and labourer. If they are to be treated as direct expressions of the degree of self-expansion of capital, the following erroneous law would hold good: Surplus-labour or surplus-value can never reach 100%. Since the surplus-labour is only an aliquot part of the working-day, or since surplus-value is only an aliquot part of the value ereated, the surplus-labour must necessarily be always less than the working-day, or the surplus-value always less than the total value created. In order, however, to attain the ratio of 100:100 they must be equal. In order that the surplus-labour may absorb the whole day (i.e., an average day of any week or year), the necessary labour must sink to zero. But if the necessary labour vanish, so too does the surplus-labour, since it is only a function of the former. The ratio $Surplus-labour⁄Working-day$ or $Surplus-value⁄Value created$ can therefore never reach the limit of $100⁄100$, still less rise to $100+x⁄100$. But not so the rate of surplus-value, the real degree of exploitation of labour. Take, e.g., the estimate of L. de Lavergne, according to which the English agricultural labourer gets only ¼, the capitalist (farmer) on the other hand ¾ of the product or of its value, apart from the question of how the booty is subsequently divided between the