Page:Karl Marx - Wage Labor and Capital - tr. J. L. Joynes (1900).pdf/48

 market price; but that would not have the effect of driving his opponents out of the field and increasing his own sale. But the need of increasing his sale has increased in the same proportion as his production. The more effective and more expensive means of production which he has called into existence enable him, to be sure, to sell his wares cheaper, but they also compel him to sell more wares and to secure a much larger market for them. Our capitalist will therefore proceed to sell his half a yard of cotton cheaper than his competitors.

The capitalist will not, however, sell his complete yard as cheaply as his competitors sell the half, although its entire production does not cost him more than the production of half costs the others. For in this case he would gain nothing, but would only get back the cost of its production. The contingent increase in his receipts would result from his having set in motion a larger capital, but not from having made his capital more profitable than that of the others. Besides, he gains the ends he is aiming at if he prices his goods only a slight percentage lower than his competitors. He drives them off the field, and wrests from them, at any rate, a portion of their sale, if only he undersells them. And, finally, we must remember that the price currentcurrent price [sic] always stands either above or below the cost of production, according as the sale of a commodity is transacted at a favorable or unfavorable period of business. According as the market price of a yard of cloth is above or below its former cost of production,