Key Arguments

• Marx observes that 'Every process of production, however, requires certain simple manipulations, which every man is capable of doing,' establishing that there are universally accessible, low‑skill operations in any production process.
• He explains that 'These actions too are now separated from their constant interplay with those aspects of activity which are richer in content, and ossified into the exclusive functions of particular individuals,' showing how manufacture isolates these simple tasks and assigns them permanently to specific workers.
• From this, he infers that 'Hence in every craft it seizes, manufacture creates a class of so-called unskilled labourers, a class strictly excluded by the nature of handicraft industry,' arguing that this distinct unskilled class is a specifically manufacturing creation, absent from traditional handicraft.
• He notes that 'If it develops a one-sided speciality to perfection, at the expense of the whole of a man’s working capacity, it also begins to make a speciality of the absence of all development,' indicating that manufacture not only perfects narrow skills but also institutionalizes lack of development as a 'speciality.'
• Marx points out that 'Alongside the gradations of the hierarchy, there appears the simple separation of the workers into skilled and unskilled,' identifying a new binary division supplementing the detailed hierarchy.
• He connects this to training costs and the value of labour-power: 'For the latter, the cost of apprenticeship vanishes; for the former, it diminishes, compared with that required of the craftsman, owing to the simplification of the functions. In both cases the value of labour-power falls,' arguing that reduced training expenses directly cheapen labour-power in general.
• He specifies an exception: 'An exception to this law occurs whenever the decomposition of the labour process gives rise to new and comprehensive functions, which either did not appear at all in handicrafts or not to the same extent,' acknowledging that some newly created functions may require higher training and thus do not devalue labour-power.
• Finally, he states the capital relation: 'The relative devaluation of labour-power caused by the disappearance or reduction of the expenses of apprenticeship directly implies a higher degree of valorization of capital,' linking the cheapening of labour-power to an increase in the rate of surplus-value.

Source Quotes

The individual workers are appropriated and annexed for life by a limited function; while the various operations of the hierarchy of labour-powers are parcelled out among the workers according to both their natural and their acquired cap acities. Every process of production, however, requires certain simple manipulations, which every man is capable of doing. These actions too are now separated from their constant interplay with those aspects of activity which are richer in content, and ossified into the exclusive functions of particular individuals.

Every process of production, however, requires certain simple manipulations, which every man is capable of doing. These actions too are now separated from their constant interplay with those aspects of activity which are richer in content, and ossified into the exclusive functions of particular individuals. Hence in every craft it seizes, manufacture creates a class of so-called unskilled labourers, a class strictly excluded by the nature of handicraft industry.

These actions too are now separated from their constant interplay with those aspects of activity which are richer in content, and ossified into the exclusive functions of particular individuals. Hence in every craft it seizes, manufacture creates a class of so-called unskilled labourers, a class strictly excluded by the nature of handicraft industry. If it develops a one-sided speciality to perfection, at the expense of the whole of a man’s working capacity, it also begins to make a speciality of the absence of all development.

Hence in every craft it seizes, manufacture creates a class of so-called unskilled labourers, a class strictly excluded by the nature of handicraft industry. If it develops a one-sided speciality to perfection, at the expense of the whole of a man’s working capacity, it also begins to make a speciality of the absence of all development. Alongside the gradations of the hierarchy, there appears the simple separation of the workers into skilled and unskilled.

Alongside the gradations of the hierarchy, there appears the simple separation of the workers into skilled and unskilled. For the latter, the cost of apprenticeship vanishes; for the former, it diminishes, compared with that required of the craftsman, owing to the simplification of the functions. In both cases the value of labour-power falls. An exception to this law occurs whenever the decomposition of the labour process gives rise to new and comprehensive functions, which either did not appear at all in handicrafts or not to the same extent.

In both cases the value of labour-power falls. An exception to this law occurs whenever the decomposition of the labour process gives rise to new and comprehensive functions, which either did not appear at all in handicrafts or not to the same extent. The relative devaluation of labour-power caused by the disappearance or reduction of the expenses of apprenticeship directly implies a higher degree of valorization of capital;

An exception to this law occurs whenever the decomposition of the labour process gives rise to new and comprehensive functions, which either did not appear at all in handicrafts or not to the same extent. The relative devaluation of labour-power caused by the disappearance or reduction of the expenses of apprenticeship directly implies a higher degree of valorization of capital;

Key Concepts

• Every process of production, however, requires certain simple manipulations, which every man is capable of doing.
• These actions too are now separated from their constant interplay with those aspects of activity which are richer in content, and ossified into the exclusive functions of particular individuals.
• Hence in every craft it seizes, manufacture creates a class of so-called unskilled labourers, a class strictly excluded by the nature of handicraft industry.
• If it develops a one-sided speciality to perfection, at the expense of the whole of a man’s working capacity, it also begins to make a speciality of the absence of all development.
• For the latter, the cost of apprenticeship vanishes; for the former, it diminishes, compared with that required of the craftsman, owing to the simplification of the functions. In both cases the value of labour-power falls.
• An exception to this law occurs whenever the decomposition of the labour process gives rise to new and comprehensive functions, which either did not appear at all in handicrafts or not to the same extent.
• The relative devaluation of labour-power caused by the disappearance or reduction of the expenses of apprenticeship directly implies a higher degree of valorization of capital;

Context

Continuing his analysis of the division of labour in manufacture, Marx explains how the isolation of the simplest tasks generates an unskilled class, reduces training costs, lowers the value of labour-power, and thus increases the valorization of capital, while allowing for exceptions where new complex functions emerge.