Page:Karl Marx - Wage Labor and Capital - tr. J. L. Joynes (1900).pdf/22

 whenever he thinks fits; either as soon as he ceases to make a profit out of him or fails to get as high a profit as he requires. But the laborer, whose only source of earning is the sale of his labor-power cannot leave the whole class of its purchasers, that is the capitalist class, without renouncing his own existence, He does not belong to this or that particular employer, but he does belong to the capitalist class; and more than that; it is his business fo find an employer; that is, among this capitalist class it is his business to discover his own particular purchaser.

Before going more closely into the relations between capital and wage-labor, it will be well to give a brief survey of those general relations which are taken into consideration in determining the amount of wages.

As we have seen, wages are the price of a certain commodity labor-power. Wages are thus determined by the same law which regulates the price of any other commodity.

There upon the question arises, how is the price of a commodity determined?

By means of competition between buyers and sellers and the relations between supply and demand—offer and desire. And this competition by which the price of an article is fixed is three-fold.

The same commodity is offered in the market by various sellers. Whoever offers the greatest