Although the worker sells only his individual labour-power in separate contracts, once production begins the workers’ co-operation is organized by capital, so that their socially developed productive power appears as a 'free gift' and inherent power of capital rather than of labour.

By Karl Marx, from Le Capital : Critique de l'économie politique

Key Arguments

  • Before the labour process, 'The worker is the owner of his labour-power until he has finished bargaining for its sale with the capitalist, and he can sell no more than what he has – i.e. his individual, isolated labour-power.'
  • Marx stresses that buying many labour-powers does not change this relation: 'This relation between capital and labour is in no way altered by the fact that the capitalist, instead of buying the labour-power of one man, buys that of 100, and enters into separate contracts with 100 unconnected men instead of with one.'
  • The capitalist can keep them isolated: 'He can set the 100 men to work, without letting them co-operate. He pays them the value of 100 independent labour-powers, but he does not pay for the combined labour-power of the 100.'
  • At the contract stage 'Being independent of each other, the workers are isolated. They enter into relations with the capitalist, but not with each other.'
  • Only with the labour process does co-operation begin: 'Their co-operation only begins with the labour process, but by then they have ceased to belong to themselves. On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital.'
  • As co-operators they are simply capital’s mode of existence: 'As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital.'
  • Therefore 'the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital.'
  • This socially productive power 'develops as a free gift to capital whenever the workers are placed under certain conditions, and it is capital which places them under these conditions.'
  • Because it costs capital nothing, and only arises once labour belongs to capital, 'it appears as a power which capital possesses by its nature – a productive power inherent in capital.'

Source Quotes

The leadership of industry is an attribute of capital, just as in feudal times the functions of general and judge were attributes of landed property. The worker is the owner of his labour-power until he has finished bargaining for its sale with the capitalist, and he can sell no more than what he has – i.e. his individual, isolated labour-power. This relation between capital and labour is in no way altered by the fact that the capitalist, instead of buying the labour-power of one man, buys that of 100, and enters into separate contracts with 100 unconnected men instead of with one.
He can set the 100 men to work, without letting them co-operate. He pays them the value of 100 independent labour-powers, but he does not pay for the combined labour-power of the 100. Being independent of each other, the workers are isolated.
They enter into relations with the capitalist, but not with each other. Their co-operation only begins with the labour process, but by then they have ceased to belong to themselves. On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital. As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital.
On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital. As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital. Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital.
As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital. Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital. The socially productive power of labour develops as a free gift to capital whenever the workers are placed under certain conditions, and it is capital which places them under these conditions.
Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital. The socially productive power of labour develops as a free gift to capital whenever the workers are placed under certain conditions, and it is capital which places them under these conditions. Because this power costs capital nothing, while on the other hand it is not developed by the worker until his labour itself belongs to capital, it appears as a power which capital possesses by its nature – a productive power inherent in capital.
The socially productive power of labour develops as a free gift to capital whenever the workers are placed under certain conditions, and it is capital which places them under these conditions. Because this power costs capital nothing, while on the other hand it is not developed by the worker until his labour itself belongs to capital, it appears as a power which capital possesses by its nature – a productive power inherent in capital. The colossal effects of simple co-operation are to be seen in the gigantic structures erected by the ancient Asiatics, Egyptians, Etruscans, etc. ‘It has happened in times past that these Oriental States, after supplying the expenses of their civil and military establishments, have found themselves in possession of a surplus which they could apply to works of magnificence or utility and in the construction of these their command over the hands and arms of almost the entire non-agricultural population has produced stupendous monuments which still indicate their power.

Key Concepts

  • The worker is the owner of his labour-power until he has finished bargaining for its sale with the capitalist, and he can sell no more than what he has – i.e. his individual, isolated labour-power.
  • He pays them the value of 100 independent labour-powers, but he does not pay for the combined labour-power of the 100.
  • Their co-operation only begins with the labour process, but by then they have ceased to belong to themselves. On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital.
  • As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital.
  • Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital.
  • The socially productive power of labour develops as a free gift to capital whenever the workers are placed under certain conditions, and it is capital which places them under these conditions.
  • it appears as a power which capital possesses by its nature – a productive power inherent in capital.

Context

Following his analysis of capitalist direction and supervision, Marx examines the contractual relation between capital and labour and explains how the co-operative productive power generated in production is appropriated and mystified as capital’s own power.