Page:Karl Marx - Wage Labor and Capital - tr. J. L. Joynes (1900).pdf/12

 in the chapter on “The Buying and Selling of Labor-Power” (Cir. Capital, Vol. I, P. I, Chap. VI, Engl. Translation.)

What happens then, when tho laborer has sold his labor-power to the capitalist i.e. has transferred to him the control over it for a daily or piece-wage, agreed upon in advance? The capitalist takes the laborer into his shop or factory where there are already all things requisite for production, as raw material, accessory materials (coal, dye-stuffs, etc.) tools, machines. Here the laborer begins his toil. Suppose his daily wage to be, as before, two dollars, no matter, whether they are paid to him in form of a daily or piece wage. We again suppose that the laborer by his labor during a period of 12 hours has added to the raw material consumed—an additional value of 4 dollars, which additional value is realized by the capitalist when he sells the ready product. Out of these 4 dollars he pays the laborer two dollars, but the other 2 he keeps for himself. Now if the laborer produces during 12 hours a value of 4 dollars, it follows that he produces a value of 2 dollars during 6 hours. Consequently he has returned to the capitalist the equivalent of his wage of 2 dollars, after having worked for him but six hours. After six hours of labor they have squared accounts, neither owes the other a single cent.

“Beg your pardon”, interjects the capitalist now. I have hired the laborer for an entire day, for 12 hours. Six hours are but half a day. Continue your labor until the other six hours are over, only then we shall be square! As a matter of fact, the laborer has to live up to the “voluntarily” entered agreement, by which he had bound himself to work fulla full [sic] 12 hours in exchange for a labor-product, which costs but six hours of labor.

The same holds good in the case of piece-wages. Suppose our laborer produces 12 pieces of a certain commodity during 12 hours. The cost of the raw material, the wear and tear of the machinery amounts to say 1.33⅓ cents, the piece sells at 1.66⅔ cents. In such a case, the capitalist, given