Key Arguments

• Centralization intensifies the effects of accumulation
• It speeds up technical revolutions that increase constant capital (machines) relative to variable capital (labor)
• This diminishes the relative demand for labor more rapidly than simple accumulation would

Source Quotes

Centralization, however, accomplished this in the twinkling of an eye, by means of joint-stock companies. And while in this way centralization intensifies and accelerates the effects of accumulation, it simultaneously extends and speeds up those revolutions in the technical composition of capital which raise its constant portion at the expense of its variable portion, thus diminishing the relative demand for labour. The masses of capital welded together overnight by centralization reproduce and multiply as the others do, only more rapidly, and they thereby become new and powerful levers of social accumulation.

Key Concepts

• centralization intensifies and accelerates the effects of accumulation
• speeds up those revolutions in the technical composition of capital
• raise its constant portion at the expense of its variable portion
• diminishing the relative demand for labour

Context

Marx explaining how the merger of capitals negatively impacts the working class by reducing the need for living labor