Key Arguments

• He corrects the claim that the capitalist has 'paid' labor fully by distinguishing wages for individuals from the value created by their association: "To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day’s wage as he has employed laborers each day⁠—which is not at all the same thing."
• He states explicitly what remains unpaid: "For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts."
• He illustrates this with the Luxor obelisk: "Two hundred grenadiers stood the obelisk of Luxor upon its base in a few hours; do you suppose that one man could have accomplished the same task in two hundred days? Nevertheless, on the books of the capitalist, the amount of wages paid would have been the same."
• He generalizes the analogy: "Well, a desert to prepare for cultivation, a house to build, a factory to run⁠—all these are obelisks to erect, mountains to move," indicating that all significant production involves this unpaid collective power.
• He emphasizes how many diverse skills and labors converge in even "The smallest fortune, the most insignificant establishment, the setting in motion of the lowest industry," concluding that "one man could not possibly execute the whole of them," thereby underscoring the inherently social nature of modern production.
• He notes, with some astonishment, that economists have not recognized this structural fact: "It is astonishing that the economists never have called attention to this fact," implicitly criticizing their account of wages and profit.
• By juxtaposing the capitalist’s receipts (which include the surplus from collective force) and his payments (only individual wages), he invites the reader to "Strike a balance, then, between the capitalist’s receipts and his payments," implying that profit is merely the unremunerated portion of collective labor.

Source Quotes

“The capitalist,” they say, “has paid the laborers their daily wages.” To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day’s wage as he has employed laborers each day⁠—which is not at all the same thing. For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts.

To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day’s wage as he has employed laborers each day⁠—which is not at all the same thing. For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts. Two hundred grenadiers stood the obelisk of Luxor upon its base in a few hours; do you suppose that one man could have accomplished the same task in two hundred days?

For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts. Two hundred grenadiers stood the obelisk of Luxor upon its base in a few hours; do you suppose that one man could have accomplished the same task in two hundred days? Nevertheless, on the books of the capitalist, the amount of wages paid would have been the same. Well, a desert to prepare for cultivation, a house to build, a factory to run⁠—all these are obelisks to erect, mountains to move.

Well, a desert to prepare for cultivation, a house to build, a factory to run⁠—all these are obelisks to erect, mountains to move. The smallest fortune, the most insignificant establishment, the setting in motion of the lowest industry, demand the concurrence of so many different kinds of labor and skill, that one man could not possibly execute the whole of them. It is astonishing that the economists never have called attention to this fact.

The smallest fortune, the most insignificant establishment, the setting in motion of the lowest industry, demand the concurrence of so many different kinds of labor and skill, that one man could not possibly execute the whole of them. It is astonishing that the economists never have called attention to this fact. Strike a balance, then, between the capitalist’s receipts and his payments.

Key Concepts

• To be accurate, it must be said that the capitalist has paid as many times one day’s wage as he has employed laborers each day⁠—which is not at all the same thing.
• For he has paid nothing for that immense power which results from the union and harmony of laborers, and the convergence and simultaneousness of their efforts.
• Two hundred grenadiers stood the obelisk of Luxor upon its base in a few hours; do you suppose that one man could have accomplished the same task in two hundred days? Nevertheless, on the books of the capitalist, the amount of wages paid would have been the same.
• The smallest fortune, the most insignificant establishment, the setting in motion of the lowest industry, demand the concurrence of so many different kinds of labor and skill, that one man could not possibly execute the whole of them.
• It is astonishing that the economists never have called attention to this fact.

Context

Later portion of the colony example in § 5, where Proudhon draws out its theoretical significance by introducing his notion of 'collective force' as the hidden basis of capitalist profit beyond paid wages.