Das Kapital II — Kap. 12

Kap. 12

Arbeitstag und Arbeitsperiode

Chapter 7 defined turnover time as production time plus circulation time. This chapter opens the production half: the first of the circumstances that make equal capitals turn over unequally is how many connected days the product itself demands.

Nehmen wir zwei Geschäftszweige, worin gleich großer Arbeitstag, sage zehnstündiger Arbeitsprozeß, z.B. Baumwollspinnerei und Fabrikation von Lokomotiven. In dem einen Zweig wird täglich, wöchentlich ein bestimmtes Quantum fertiges Produkt geliefert, Baumwollengarn; in dem andren muß der Arbeitsprozeß vielleicht während drei Monaten wiederholt werden, um ein fertiges Produkt, eine Lokomotive, herzustellen. In dem einen Fall ist das Produkt diskreter Natur, und täglich oder wöchentlich beginnt dieselbe Arbeit von neuem. In dem andern Fall ist der Arbeitsprozeß kontinuierlich, erstreckt sich über eine längere Anzahl täglicher Arbeitsprozesse, die in ihrer Verbindung, in der Kontinuität ihrer Operation erst nach längrer Frist ein fertiges Produkt liefern. Obgleich die Dauer des täglichen Arbeitsprozesses hier dieselbe ist, findet ein sehr bedeutender Unterschied statt in der Dauer des Produktionsakts, d.h. in der Dauer der wiederholten Arbeitsprozesse, die erheischt sind, um das Produkt fertig zu liefern, es als Ware auf den Markt zu schicken, also es aus produktivem Kapital in Warenkapital zu verwandeln. Der Unterschied zwischen fixem und zirkulierendem Kapital hat hiermit nichts zu tun. Der angegebne Unterschied würde bestehn, selbst wenn in beiden Geschäftszweigen genau dieselben Proportionen von fixem und zirkulierendem Kapital angewandt würden.

same working day, different production span

Take two branches of business with the same length of working day — say ten hours — cotton spinning and locomotive building. In one branch, a fixed amount of finished product comes off the line every day or every week: cotton yarn. In the other, the work process has to be repeated for maybe three months before there is one finished product: a locomotive. In the first case the product is discrete — the same work starts fresh each day or week. In the second, the process is continuous: it stretches over a long run of daily work processes, and only their connection, their unbroken continuity, yields a finished product after a much longer stretch. The length of the daily work process is the same in both cases. But there is a big difference in how long it takes to complete the act of production — how long the repeated work processes must run before the product is finished, sent to market as a commodity, and turned from productive capital into commodity-capital. This has nothing to do with the difference between fixed and circulating capital. The difference just described would exist even if both branches used exactly the same proportions of fixed and circulating capital.

Diese Unterschiede in der Dauer des Produktionsakts finden statt, nicht nur zwischen verschiednen Produktionssphären, sondern auch innerhalb derselben Produktionssphäre, je nach dem Umfang des zu liefernden Produkts. Ein gewöhnliches Wohnhaus wird in kürzrer Zeit gebaut als eine größre Fabrik und erfordert daher eine geringre Zahl kontinuierlicher Arbeitsprozesse. Wenn der Bau einer Lokomotive drei Monate, kostet der eines Panzerschiffes ein oder mehrere Jahre. Die Getreideproduktion nimmt beinahe ein Jahr in Anspruch, die Produktion von Hornvieh mehrere Jahre, die Holzzucht kann von 12 bis 100 Jahre umfassen; ein Landweg vielleicht in einigen Monaten gebaut werden, wo eine Eisenbahn Jahre erfordert; ein gewöhnlicher Teppich vielleicht eine Woche, Gobelins Jahre etc. Die Unterschiede in der Dauer des Produktionsakts sind also unendlich mannigfaltig.

endless variety in production-act length

These differences in how long the act of production takes show up not only between different branches of production but within the same branch, depending on how big the product is. An ordinary house is built faster than a large factory and so needs fewer connected work processes. Building a locomotive takes three months; building an ironclad warship takes one year or more. Growing grain takes almost a year; raising cattle takes several years; growing timber can take anywhere from 12 to 100 years. A country road might be built in a few months where a railway takes years; an ordinary carpet might take a week, a Gobelins tapestry years. The differences in how long the act of production takes are endlessly varied.

Der Unterschied in der Dauer des Produktionsakts muß offenbar einen Unterschied in der Geschwindigkeit des Umschlags bei gleichgroßer Kapitalauslage erzeugen, also in den Zeiträumen, für welche ein gegebnes Kapital vorgeschossen ist. Gesetzt, die Maschinenspinnerei und die Lokomotivenfabrik wendeten gleichgroßes Kapital an, die Teilung zwischen konstantem und variablem Kapital sei dieselbe, auch die zwischen den fixen und flüssigen Bestandteilen des Kapitals, endlich sei der Arbeitstag gleich groß und seine Teilung zwischen notwendiger Arbeit und Mehrarbeit dieselbe. Um ferner alle aus dem Zirkulationsprozeß entspringenden und diesem Fall äußerlichen Umstände zu beseitigen, wollen wir annehmen, daß beide, Garn und Lokomotive, auf Bestellung fabriziert und bei Lieferung des fertigen Produkts bezahlt werden. Nach Ende der Woche, bei Ablieferung des fertigen Garns, erhält der Spinnfabrikant (wir sehn hier vom Mehrwert ab) das ausgelegte zirkulierende Kapital zurück und ebenso den Verschleiß des fixen Kapitals, der im Garnwert steckt. Er kann also mit demselben Kapital denselben Kreislauf von neuem wiederholen. Es hat seinen Umschlag vollbracht. Der Lokomotivfabrikant dagegen muß während der drei Monate Woche für Woche immer neues Kapital in Arbeitslohn und Rohmaterial auslegen, und erst nach drei Monaten, nach Ablieferung der Lokomotive, befindet sich das während dieser Zeit in einem und demselben Produktionsakt, zur Herstellung einer und derselben Ware, nach und nach ausgelegte zirkulierende Kapital wieder in einer Form, worin es seinen Kreislauf von neuem beginnen kann; ebenso wird ihm der Verschleiß der Maschinerie während dieser drei Monate erst jetzt ersetzt. Die Auslage des einen ist die für eine Woche, die des andren ist die Wochenauslage multipliziert mit 12. Alle andren Umstände gleich vorausgesetzt, muß der eine zwölfmal mehr zirkulierendes Kapital zur Verfügung haben als der andre.

the controlled comparison: spinner vs locomotive

A difference in how long the act of production takes must obviously produce a difference in how fast the capital turns over, given an equal outlay of capital — that is, in the length of time for which a given capital stays advanced. Suppose the machine-spinning mill and the locomotive factory employ equally large capitals; the split between constant and variable capital is the same in both, and so is the split between the fixed and the fluid parts of the capital; and finally the working day is the same length, split the same way between necessary labour and surplus labour. And to clear away everything that comes from the circulation process and has nothing to do with this comparison, let's assume both the yarn and the locomotive are made to order and paid for on delivery of the finished product. At the end of the week, on delivery of the finished yarn, the spinning manufacturer (we set aside surplus-value here) gets back the circulating capital he laid out, plus the wear of the fixed capital that is now sitting in the value of the yarn. He can start the same cycle over again with the same capital — his turnover is complete. The locomotive manufacturer, by contrast, has to lay out fresh capital in wages and raw material week after week for the whole three months. Only after three months, when the locomotive is delivered, does the circulating capital he has been laying out bit by bit — for one and the same act of production, making one and the same commodity — come back in a form that lets him start the cycle again. Only then, too, does he get back the wear on his machinery over those three months. One manufacturer's outlay is for one week. The other's is the weekly outlay multiplied by twelve. Everything else being equal, one of them has to have twelve times as much circulating capital on hand as the other.

Daß die wöchentlich vorgeschoßnen Kapitale gleich sind, ist hier jedoch ein gleichgültiger Umstand. Welches immer die Größe des vorgeschoßnen Kapitals, in dem einen Fall ist es nur für eine Woche, in dem andren für zwölf Wochen vorgeschossen, bevor von neuem damit operiert, dieselbe Operation damit wiederholt oder eine andersartige damit begonnen werden kann.

equal weekly outlay is beside the point

That the two weekly outlays happen to be equal doesn't matter here. Whatever the size of the advanced capital, in one case it is advanced for only a week, in the other for twelve weeks, before it can be put to work again — either repeating the same operation or starting a different one.

Der Unterschied in der Geschwindigkeit des Umschlags oder der Zeitlänge, für welche das einzelne Kapital vorgeschossen werden muß, bevor derselbe Kapitalwert wieder zu einem neuen Arbeits- oder Verwertungsprozeß dienen kann, entspringt hier daraus:

where the turnover difference comes from

The difference in how fast the turnover goes — in how long an individual capital must stay advanced before the same capital-value can serve again for a new process of work or valorization — comes from the following:

Nehmen wir an, der Bau der Lokomotive oder irgendeiner Maschine koste 100 Arbeitstage. Mit Bezug auf die in Spinnerei und Maschinenbau beschäftigten Arbeiter bilden die 100 Arbeitstage gleichmäßig eine diskontinuierliche (diskrete) Größe, nach der Unterstellung aus 100 aufeinanderfolgenden, separaten zehnstündigen Arbeitsprozessen bestehend. Aber mit Bezug auf das Produkt - die Maschine - bilden die 100 Arbeitstage eine kontinuierliche Größe, einen Arbeitstag von 1000 Arbeitsstunden, einen einzigen zusammenhängenden Produktionsakt. Einen solchen Arbeitstag, der durch die Aufeinanderfolge mehr oder minder zahlreicher zusammenhängender Arbeitstage gebildet ist, nenne ich eine Arbeitsperiode. Sprechen wir vom Arbeitstag, so meinen wir die Länge der Arbeitszeit, während deren der Arbeiter seine Arbeitskraft täglich verausgaben, täglich arbeiten muß. Sprechen wir dagegen von der Arbeitsperiode, so bedeutet das die Zahl zusammenhängender Arbeitstage, die in einem bestimmten Geschäftszweig erheischt ist, um ein fertiges Produkt zu liefern. Das Produkt jedes Arbeitstags ist hier nur ein Teilprodukt, welches Tag für Tag weiter ausgeführt wird und erst am Schluß der längern oder kürzern Periode der Arbeitszeit seine fertige Gestalt erhält, ein fertiger Gebrauchswert ist.

the working period defined

Suppose building the locomotive, or some other machine, costs 100 working days. For the workers employed in spinning and in machine-building alike, these 100 working days are a discontinuous, discrete quantity: on our assumption, 100 separate, successive ten-hour work processes. But looked at from the side of the product — the machine — those same 100 working days form a continuous quantity: a working day of 1,000 working hours, one single connected act of production. Only with respect to the product does it look this way, not to the worker, whose days stay ten hours long and separate as ever. A working day built this way, out of a run of more or less numerous connected working days, is what I call a working period. When we speak of the working day, we mean the length of working time during which the worker has to spend his labour-power, has to work, each day. When we speak instead of the working period, we mean the number of connected working days that a given branch of business needs to deliver one finished product. Here, the product of each single working day is only a partial product, carried a little further each day, and it only takes its finished shape — becomes a finished use-value — at the end of the longer or shorter working period.

Unterbrechungen, Störungen des gesellschaftlichen Produktionsprozesses, z.B. infolge von Krisen, wirken daher sehr verschieden auf Arbeitsprodukte, die diskreter Natur sind, und auf solche, die zu ihrer Produktion eine längere, zusammenhängende Periode erheischen. Auf die heutige Produktion einer bestimmten Masse von Garn, Kohle usw. folgt in dem einen Fall morgen keine neue Produktion von Garn, Kohle usw. Anders aber mit Schiffen, Gebäuden, Eisenbahnen usw. Nicht nur die Arbeit wird unterbrochen, ein zusammenhängender Produktionsakt wird unterbrochen. Wird das Werk nicht weitergeführt, so sind die bereits in seiner Produktion verzehrten Produktionsmittel und Arbeit nutzlos verausgabt. Selbst wenn es wieder aufgenommen wird, hat in der Zwischenzeit stets Deterioration stattgefunden.

interruptions hit continuous work harder

So interruptions and disturbances in social production — from a crisis, say — hit products that are discrete in nature very differently than they hit products that need a long, connected period to make. If a certain amount of yarn or coal is produced today, in the discrete case tomorrow's production of yarn or coal simply doesn't happen — that's all. Not so with ships, buildings, railways. There it isn't just the labour that stops; a connected act of production is broken off. If the work isn't carried on, the means of production and the labour already used up in it have been spent for nothing. And even if work starts up again, deterioration will always have set in during the interruption.

Während der ganzen Dauer der Arbeitsperiode häuft sich schichtweis der Wertteil, den das fixe Kapital täglich an das Produkt bis zu dessen Reife abgibt. Und hier zeigt sich zugleich der Unterschied von fixem und zirkulierendem Kapital in seiner praktischen Wichtigkeit. Das fixe Kapital ist für längre Zeitdauer dem Produktionsprozeß vorgeschossen, es braucht nicht vor Ablauf dieser vielleicht mehrjährigen Frist erneuert zu werden.

fixed capital's value piles up in layers

Throughout the whole working period, the portion of value that the fixed capital gives off to the product each day piles up, layer on layer, until the product is finished. And here the difference between fixed and circulating capital shows its practical importance. Fixed capital is advanced to the production process for a long stretch of time; it doesn't need to be renewed before that stretch — maybe several years — is up.

Der Umstand, ob die Dampfmaschine ihren Wert stückweis täglich auf Garn, das Produkt eines diskreten Arbeitsprozesses, oder während drei Monaten auf eine Lokomotive, das Produkt eines kontinuierlichen Produktionsakts, abgibt, ändert durchaus nichts an der Auslage des für den Ankauf der Dampfmaschine nötigen Kapitals. In dem einen Fall strömt ihr Wert in kleinen Dosen zurück, z.B. wöchentlich, im andern in größren Massen, z.B. dreimonatlich. Aber in beiden Fällen findet die Erneuerung der Dampfmaschine vielleicht erst nach 20 Jahren statt. Solange jede einzelne Periode, innerhalb deren ihr Wert durch Verkauf des Produkts stückweis zurückfließt, kürzer ist als ihre eigne Existenzperiode, fährt dieselbe Dampfmaschine fort, während mehrerer Arbeitsperioden im Produktionsprozeß zu fungieren.

same repayment rhythm, same renewal date

Whether the steam engine gives off its value to the yarn — the product of a discrete work process — piece by piece each day, or gives it off to a locomotive — the product of one continuous act of production — over three months, makes no difference at all to the outlay needed to buy the steam engine in the first place. In one case its value flows back in small doses, say weekly; in the other, in bigger lumps, say every three months. But either way, the steam engine itself is only renewed after maybe 20 years. As long as each of these paybacks — where its value flows back piece by piece through the sale of the product — is shorter than the engine's own working life, the same steam engine goes on functioning through several working periods.

Anders verhält es sich dagegen mit den zirkulierenden Bestandteilen des vorgeschoßnen Kapitals. Die für diese Woche gekaufte Arbeitskraft ist verausgabt während dieser Woche und hat sich im Produkt vergegenständlicht. Sie muß Ende dieser Woche bezahlt werden. Und diese Kapitalauslage in Arbeitskraft wiederholt sich wöchentlich während der drei Monate, ohne daß die Verausgabung dieses Kapitalteils in der einen Woche den Kapitalisten befähige, den Ankauf der Arbeit in der nächsten Woche zu bestreiten. Es muß wöchentlich neues zuschüssiges Kapital in Zahlung von Arbeitskraft verausgabt werden und, wenn wir von allen Kreditverhältnissen absehn, muß der Kapitalist fähig sein, für die Zeit von drei Monaten Arbeitslohn auszulegen, obgleich er ihn nur in wöchentlichen Dosen zahlt. Ebenso mit dem andern Teil des zirkulierenden Kapitals, den Roh- und Hilfsstoffen. Eine Schicht von Arbeit nach der andern lagert sich auf dem Produkt ab. Nicht nur der Wert der verausgabten Arbeitskraft, sondern auch Mehrwert wird beständig während des Arbeitsprozesses auf das Produkt übertragen, aber auf unfertiges Produkt, das noch nicht die Gestalt der fertigen Ware hat, also noch nicht zirkulationsfähig ist. Dasselbe gilt von dem in Roh- und Hilfsstoffen schichtweis auf das Produkt übertragnen Kapitalwert.

wages and materials, advanced week by week

It's different with the circulating parts of the advanced capital. The labour-power bought for this week is used up during this week and has taken shape in the product. It has to be paid at the end of the week. And this outlay in labour-power repeats every week for the three months — spending this part of the capital in one week doesn't let the capitalist cover next week's purchase of labour. Fresh, additional capital has to be laid out every week to pay for labour-power, and — leaving all credit arrangements aside — the capitalist has to be able to advance three months' worth of wages, even though he pays it out only in weekly doses. The same goes for the other part of the circulating capital, the raw and auxiliary materials. Layer of labour piles on layer of labour on the product. Not only is the value of the labour-power used up added onto the product — surplus-value is added too, continuously, all through the work process. But it's added onto a product that isn't finished yet, that doesn't yet have the shape of a finished commodity — so it can't circulate yet. The same holds for the capital-value transferred from the raw and auxiliary materials onto the product, layer by layer.

Je nach der längern oder kürzern Dauer der Arbeitsperiode, welche die spezifische Natur des Produkts oder des zu erreichenden Nutzeffekts zu ihrer Herstellung beansprucht, ist eine beständige, zuschüssige Ausgabe von zirkulierendem Kapital (Arbeitslohn, Roh- und Hilfsstoffen) erfordert, wovon kein Teil sich in einer zirkulationsfähigen Form befindet und daher zur Erneuerung derselben Operation dienen könnte; jeder Teil vielmehr sukzessive als Bestandteil des werdenden Produkts innerhalb der Produktionssphäre festgelegt, in Form von produktivem Kapital gebunden ist. Die Umschlagszeit ist aber gleich der Summe der Produktionszeit und der Zirkulationszeit des Kapitals. Eine Verlängerung der Produktionszeit vermindert also ebensosehr die Umschlagsgeschwindigkeit wie eine Verlängerung der Zirkulationszeit. In dem vorliegenden Fall ist aber Doppeltes zu bemerken:

turnover time: production time plus circulation time

Depending on whether the working period required — by the product's own particular nature, or by the use-effect to be achieved — is longer or shorter, there's a constant need for extra outlay of circulating capital — wages, raw and auxiliary materials — none of which is sitting in a form that could circulate and so serve to start the same operation over again. Instead, each part gets locked up, one after another, as a piece of the product taking shape within the sphere of production — tied up in the form of productive capital. But turnover time is equal to the sum of the capital's production time and its circulation time. So lengthening the production time cuts the speed of turnover just as much as lengthening the circulation time would. In the case in front of us, though, there are two things to note:

Erstens: der verlängerte Aufenthalt in der Produktionssphäre. Das z.B. in der ersten Woche in Arbeit, Rohmaterial etc. vorgeschoßne Kapital, ebenso wie die vom fixen Kapital an das Produkt abgegebnen Wertteile, bleiben für den ganzen Termin von drei Monaten in die Produktionssphäre gebannt und können, als einem erst werdenden, noch unfertigen Produkt einverleibt, nicht als Ware in die Zirkulation treten.

capital locked in production for three months

First: the longer stay in the sphere of production. The capital advanced, say, in the first week — in labour, raw material, and so on — along with the portions of value the fixed capital has given off to the product, stay locked into the sphere of production for the whole three-month term. Built into a product that is still taking shape, still unfinished, they cannot enter circulation as a commodity.

Zweitens: Da die für den Produktionsakt nötige Arbeitsperiode drei Monate dauert, in der Tat nur einen zusammenhängenden Arbeitsprozeß bildet, so muß beständig wöchentlich eine neue Dose von zirkulierendem Kapital den vorhergehenden zugefügt werden. Die Masse des nacheinander vorgeschoßnen, zusätzlichen Kapitals wächst also mit der Länge der Arbeitsperiode.

fresh capital keeps piling on weekly

Second: since the working period the act of production needs lasts three months — really forming just one connected work process — a new dose of circulating capital has to keep being added to the previous ones, week after week. So the mass of capital advanced in this piling-up way grows with the length of the working period.

Wir haben unterstellt, daß in der Spinnerei und Maschinenfabrikation gleichgroße Kapitale angelegt sind, daß diese Kapitale in gleichgroßen Proportionen in konstantes und variables Kapital, ditto in fixes und zirkulierendes geteilt sind, daß die Arbeitstage gleich lang sind, kurz, daß alle Umstände dieselben sind, außer der Dauer der Arbeitsperiode. In der ersten Woche ist die Auslage für beide gleichgroß, aber das Produkt des Spinners kann verkauft und mit dem Erlös neue Arbeitskraft und neue Rohstoffe etc. gekauft, kurz, die Produktion auf derselben Stufenleiter fortgeführt werden. Der Maschinenfabrikant dagegen kann das in der ersten Woche verausgabte zirkulierende Kapital erst nach drei Monaten, nach Fertigstellung seines Produkts, in Geld rückverwandeln und damit von neuem operieren. Es ist also erstens Differenz im Rückfluß desselben ausgelegten Kapitalquantums. Zweitens aber: Während der drei Monate ist gleichgroßes produktives Kapital in der Spinnerei und dem Maschinenbau angewandt, aber die Größe der Kapitalauslage ist für den Spinner und den Maschinenbauer durchaus verschieden, weil in dem einen Fall dasselbe Kapital sich rasch erneuert und dieselbe Operation daher von neuem wiederholen kann; in dem andern sich relativ nur langsam erneuert und daher bis zum Termin seiner Erneuerung beständig neue Kapitalquanta den alten hinzugefügt werden müssen. Es ist also sowohl die Zeitlänge verschieden, worin sich bestimmte Portionen des Kapitals erneuern, oder die Länge der Vorschußzeit, wie auch die Masse des Kapitals (obgleich das täglich oder wöchentlich angewandte Kapital dasselbe ist), die je nach der Länge des Arbeitsprozesses vorgeschossen werden muß. Der Umstand ist deswegen zu merken, weil die Länge des Vorschusses wachsen kann, wie in den im folgenden Kapitel zu betrachtenden Fällen, ohne daß deswegen die Masse des vorzuschießenden Kapitals im Verhältnis zu dieser Zeitlänge wächst. Das Kapital muß länger vorgeschossen werden, und eine größre Menge Kapital ist in der Form von produktivem Kapital gebunden.

length of advance versus mass advanced

We've assumed that the spinning mill and the machine factory have equally large capitals invested, that these capitals are split in the same proportions between constant and variable capital, and likewise between fixed and circulating, and that the working days are the same length — in short, that everything is the same except the length of the working period. In the first week, the outlay is equally large for both. But the spinner's product can be sold, and the proceeds used to buy new labour-power and new raw materials — production carries on at the same scale. The machine-builder, by contrast, can only turn the circulating capital he spent in the first week back into money after three months, once his product is finished — and only then can he operate with it again. So, first, there's a difference in how fast the same amount of advanced capital comes back. But second: during the three months, an equally large productive capital is at work in the spinning mill and in machine-building — yet the size of the capital outlay is quite different for the spinner and the machine-builder. In one case, the same capital renews itself quickly and so the same operation can be repeated straight away; in the other, it renews itself only slowly, relatively speaking, so fresh amounts of capital keep having to be added to the old ones until the time it's renewed comes round. So it isn't just the length of time it takes for a given portion of capital to renew itself — the length of the advance — that differs; the mass of capital that has to be advanced differs too (even though the capital applied per day or per week is the same), depending on how long the work process runs. This is worth holding onto, because the length of the advance can grow — as it may in cases we'll look at in the next chapter — without the mass of capital that has to be advanced growing in proportion to that length of time. The capital has to be advanced for longer, and a bigger quantity of capital ends up tied up in the form of productive capital.

Kap. 12

Geschichte und Grenzen der Arbeitsperiode

The first half coined the working period and derived its cost in advanced capital. This half asks who can carry that cost, what shortening it actually buys, and where nature refuses the whole apparatus.

Auf den unentwickelteren Stufen der kapitalistischen Produktion werden Unternehmungen, die eine lange Arbeitsperiode, also große Kapitalauslage für längre Zeit bedingen, namentlich wenn nur auf großer Stufenleiter ausführbar, entweder gar nicht kapitalistisch betrieben, wie z.B. Straßen, Kanäle etc. auf Gemeinde- oder Staatskosten (in ältren Zeiten meist durch Zwangsarbeit, soweit die Arbeitskraft in Betracht kommt). Oder solche Produkte, deren Herstellung eine längre Arbeitsperiode bedingt, werden nur zum geringsten Teil durch das Vermögen des Kapitalisten selbst fabriziert. Z.B. beim Hausbau zahlt die Privatperson, für welche das Haus gebaut wird, portionsweis Vorschüsse an den Bauunternehmer. Sie zahlt daher in der Tat das Haus stückweis, im Maß, wie sein Produktionsprozeß vorangeht. In der entwickelten kapitalistischen Ära dagegen, wo einerseits massenhafte Kapitale in den Händen einzelner konzentriert sind, andrerseits neben den Einzelkapitalisten der assoziierte Kapitalist (Aktiengesellschaften) tritt und gleichzeitig das Kreditwesen entwickelt ist, baut ein kapitalistischer Bauunternehmer nur noch ausnahmsweis auf Bestellung für einzelne Privatpersonen. Er macht ein Geschäft daraus, Häuserreihen und Stadtviertel für den Markt zu bauen, wie einzelne Kapitalisten ein Geschäft daraus machen, Eisenbahnen als Kontraktoren zu bauen.

before credit: who builds the long jobs

In the less developed stages of capitalist production, undertakings that need a long working period — a lot of capital laid out for a long stretch — are not run as capitalist businesses at all, especially when they only make sense on a large scale. Roads, canals, and the like get built at the expense of the community or the state instead (in earlier times mostly using forced labour, as far as the actual work went). Or, where a product does need a long working period to make, only a small part of it gets financed out of the capitalist's own funds. Take house-building: the private person the house is being built for pays the builder in instalments, portion by portion, so they are really paying for the house piece by piece, as it gets built. In the developed capitalist era, though, things differ. Huge amounts of capital sit concentrated in individual hands; alongside individual capitalists there is now the associated capitalist — the joint-stock company; and credit is fully developed. A capitalist builder now only builds to order for private individuals as an exception. His business is building rows of houses and whole city districts for the market — the same way some capitalists make a business of building railways as contractors.

Wie die kapitalistische Produktion den Häuserbau in London umgewälzt hat, darüber geben uns die Aussagen eines Bauunternehmers vor dem Bankkomitee von 1857 Auskunft. In seiner Jugend, sagte er, wurden Häuser meistens auf Bestellung gebaut und der Betrag während des Baues ratenweise an den Unternehmer bezahlt bei Vollendung gewisser Stadien des Baues. Auf Spekulation wurde nur wenig gebaut; die Unternehmer ließen sich hierauf hauptsächlich nur ein, um ihre Arbeiter regelmäßig beschäftigt und damit zusammenzuhalten. Seit den letzten 40 Jahren hat sich das alles geändert. Auf Bestellung wird nur noch sehr wenig gebaut. Wer ein neues Haus braucht, sucht sich eins aus von den auf Spekulation gebauten oder noch im Bau begriffnen. Der Unternehmer arbeitet nicht mehr für den Kunden, sondern für den Markt; ganz wie jeder andre Industrielle ist er gezwungen, fertige Ware im Markt zu haben. Während früher ein Unternehmer vielleicht drei oder vier Häuser gleichzeitig auf Spekulation im Bau hatte, muß er jetzt ein ausgedehntes Grundstück kaufen (d.h. in kontinentaler Ausdrucksweise auf meist 99 Jahre mieten), bis zu 100 oder 200 Häuser darauf errichten und sich so auf eine Unternehmung einlassen, die sein Vermögen um das zwanzig bis fünfzigfache übersteigt. Die Fonds werden beschafft durch Aufnahme von Hypotheken, und das Geld dem Unternehmer zur Verfügung gestellt im Maß, wie der Bau der einzelnen Häuser fortschreitet. Kommt dann eine Krisis, die die Einzahlung der Vorschußraten zum Stocken bringt, so scheitert gewöhnlich die ganze Unternehmung; im besten Fall bleiben die Häuser unvollendet bis auf beßre Zeiten, im schlimmsten kommen sie unter den Hammer und werden zum halben Preis losgeschlagen. Ohne Spekulationsbau, und das auf großer Stufenleiter, kann heute kein Unternehmer mehr vorankommen. Der Profit aus dem Bauen selbst ist äußerst gering; sein Hauptgewinn besteht in Steigerung der Grundrente, in geschickter Auswahl und Ausnutzung des Bauterrains. Auf diesem Wege der die Nachfrage nach Häusern antizipierenden Spekulation sind fast ganz Belgravia und Tyburnia und die zahllosen Tausende von Villen um London gebaut worden. (Abgekürzt aus "Report from the Select Committee on Bank Acts", Part I, 1857, Evidence, Fragen 5413 - 5418, 5435 - 5436.)

a builder's testimony: speculation takes over

Testimony from a builder before the 1857 Bank Committee shows what capitalist production did to house-building in London. He said that in his youth, houses were mostly built to order, with the buyer paying the builder in instalments as certain stages of the building were finished. Very little was built speculatively — builders mainly did that just to keep their workers steadily employed and together. Over the last forty years all this changed. Almost nothing is built to order any more. Someone who needs a new house picks one out from among the houses already built speculatively, or still being built. The builder no longer works for a customer but for the market — like any other manufacturer, he has to have finished goods ready in the market. Where a builder might once have had three or four houses under speculative construction at a time, he now has to buy an extensive plot of land (or, as they'd put it on the continent, lease it, usually for ninety-nine years), put up as many as 100 or 200 houses on it, and take on an undertaking twenty to fifty times bigger than his own wealth. He raises the funds by taking out mortgages, and the money is handed to him as the building of the individual houses goes forward. If a crisis then comes along and the instalment payments stop coming in, the whole undertaking usually collapses — at best the houses stay unfinished until better times, at worst they go under the hammer and are sold off at half price. No builder can get anywhere today without building speculatively, and on a large scale at that. The profit from the building itself is tiny; his real gain comes from the rise in ground rent, from choosing and exploiting building land skilfully. It is this kind of speculation, anticipating the demand for houses, that has built almost the whole of Belgravia and Tyburnia, and the countless thousands of villas around London. (Condensed from Report from the Select Committee on Bank Acts, Part I, 1857, Evidence, questions 5413-5418, 5435-5436.)

Die Ausführung von Werken von bedeutend langer Arbeitsperiode und großer Stufenleiter fällt erst vollständig der kapitalistischen Produktion anheim, wenn die Konzentration des Kapitals bereits sehr bedeutend ist, andrerseits die Entwicklung des Kreditsystems dem Kapitalisten das bequeme Auskunftsmittel bietet, fremdes statt sein eignes Kapital vorzuschießen und daher auch zu riskieren. Es versteht sich jedoch von selbst, daß der Umstand, ob das der Produktion vorgeschoßne Kapital seinem Anwender gehört oder nicht gehört, auf Umschlagsgeschwindigkeit und Umschlagszeit keinen Einfluß hat.

credit's first move: risk, not speed

Work with a considerably long working period and on a large scale only falls fully into the hands of capitalist production once the concentration of capital is already very substantial — and once the credit system has developed far enough to offer the capitalist a convenient way to advance somebody else's capital instead of his own, and so risk somebody else's capital instead of his own. But it goes without saying that whether the capital advanced to production belongs to the person using it or not makes no difference at all to how fast it turns over, or to the turnover time.

Die Umstände, welche das Produkt des einzelnen Arbeitstags vergrößern, wie Kooperation, Teilung der Arbeit, Anwendung der Maschinerie, verkürzen zugleich die Arbeitsperiode bei zusammenhängenden Produktionsakten. So verkürzt Maschinerie die Bauzeit von Häusern, Brücken etc.; die Mäh- und Dreschmaschine etc. verkürzen die Arbeitsperiode, erheischt, um das gereifte Korn in fertige Ware zu verwandeln. Verbesserter Schiffsbau verkürzt mit vermehrter Geschwindigkeit die Umschlagszeit des in der Schiffahrt ausgelegten Kapitals. Diese Verbesserungen, welche die Arbeitsperiode und daher die Zeit verkürzen, für welche zirkulierendes Kapital vorgeschossen werden muß, sind jedoch meist verbunden mit vermehrter Auslage von fixem Kapital. Andrerseits kann die Arbeitsperiode in bestimmten Zweigen verkürzt werden durch bloße Ausdehnung der Kooperation; die Fertigstellung einer Eisenbahn wird dadurch verkürzt, daß große Arbeiterarmeen auf die Beine gestellt werden und das Werk daher vielseitig im Raum angegriffen wird. Die Umschlagszeit wird hier verkürzt durch Wachstum des vorgeschoßnen Kapitals. Mehr Produktionsmittel und mehr Arbeitskraft müssen unter dem Kommando des Kapitalisten vereint sein.

shortening the job costs more capital

The same things that let a single day's labour produce more — cooperation, division of labour, the use of machinery — also shorten the working period for connected acts of production. Machinery shortens the time it takes to build houses or bridges; the reaping machine and the threshing machine shorten the working period needed to turn ripened corn into a finished commodity. Better shipbuilding, by adding speed, shortens the turnover time of capital laid out in shipping. But these improvements, which shorten the working period and so shorten the time for which circulating capital has to be advanced, mostly come bundled with a bigger outlay of fixed capital. On the other hand, in certain branches the working period can be shortened simply by extending cooperation: a railway gets finished sooner because large armies of workers are put to work on it, attacking the job from many points in space at once. Here the turnover time is shortened by growth in the capital advanced — more means of production and more labour-power have to be brought together under the capitalist's command.

Wenn die Verkürzung der Arbeitsperiode daher meist mit Vergrößerung des für die kürzre Zeit vorgeschoßnen Kapitals verbunden ist, so daß, im Maß wie die Vorschußzeit sich verkürzt, die Masse, worin das Kapital vorgeschossen wird, sich vergrößert - so ist hier zu erinnern, daß, abgesehn von der vorhandnen Masse des gesellschaftlichen Kapitals, es darauf ankommt, in welchem Grade die Produktions- und Lebensmittel, resp. die Verfügung darüber, zersplittert oder in den Händen individueller Kapitalisten vereinigt sind, also welchen Umfang die Konzentration der Kapitale bereits erreicht hat. Insofern der Kredit die Konzentration von Kapital in einer Hand vermittelt, beschleunigt und steigert, trägt er dazu bei, die Arbeitsperiode, und damit die Umschlagszeit, abzukürzen.

concentration is what lets credit shorten it

So the shortening of the working period usually goes together with an increase in the capital that has to be advanced for that shorter time — the shorter the time it is advanced for, the larger the mass in which it has to be advanced. This is worth remembering: quite apart from how much social capital exists overall, what matters is the degree to which the means of production and of subsistence — or the power to dispose of them — are scattered among many hands or gathered into the hands of individual capitalists; in other words, how far the concentration of capitals has already gone. Wherever credit helps bring about, speeds up, and increases the concentration of capital in one hand, it helps to shorten the working period, and with it the turnover time.

In Produktionszweigen, wo die Arbeitsperiode, sei sie nun kontinuierlich oder unterbrochen, durch bestimmte Naturbedingungen vorgeschrieben ist, kann keine Verkürzung durch die oben angegebnen Mittel stattfinden.

some working periods can't be shortened

In branches of production where the working period — whether continuous or broken up — is fixed by definite natural conditions, none of the means described above can shorten it.

"Der Ausdruck: rascherer Umschlag, kann nicht auf Kornernten angewandt werden, da nur ein Umschlag im Jahr möglich ist. Was den Viehstand angeht, wollen wir einfach fragen: Wie ist der Umschlag zwei- und dreijähriger Schafe und vier- und fünfjähriger Ochsen zu beschleunigen?" (W. Walter Good: "Political, Agricultural, and Commercial Fallacies", London 1866, p. 325.)

the objection: livestock can't turn over faster

'The phrase "quicker turnover" cannot be applied to corn harvests, since only one turnover a year is possible. As for livestock, we need only ask: how is one to speed up the turnover of two- and three-year-old sheep, and four- and five-year-old oxen?' (W. Walter Good, Political, Agricultural, and Commercial Fallacies, London 1866, p. 325.)

Die Notwendigkeit, früher Geld flüssig zu haben (z.B. um fixe Leistungen wie Steuern, Grundrente etc. zu zahlen), löst diese Frage dadurch, daß Vieh z.B. verkauft und geschlachtet wird, bevor es das ökonomische Normalalter erreicht hat, zum großen Schaden der Agrikultur; es bewirkt dies auch schließlich ein Steigen der Fleischpreise.

the workaround: selling stock too young

The need to have money in hand earlier — to pay fixed obligations like taxes or ground rent, for instance — gets around this by having livestock sold and slaughtered before it has reached the age that suits it economically, greatly to the harm of agriculture. In the end this also pushes up the price of meat.

"Die Leute, welche früher hauptsächlich Vieh züchteten, um die Weidegründe der Midland counties <Grafschaften im Inneren des Landes> im Sommer und die Ställe der östlichen Grafschaften im Winter damit zu versorgen ... sind durch die Schwankungen und Senkungen der Kornpreise so heruntergebracht worden, daß sie froh sind, aus den hohen Preisen von Butter und Käse Vorteil ziehn zu können; die erstre bringen sie wöchentlich auf den Markt, um laufende Ausgaben zu decken; gegen den letztren nehmen sie Vorschüsse von einem Faktor, der den Käse abholt, sobald er transportfähig ist, und der natürlich seinen eignen Preis macht. Aus diesem Grund, und da die Landwirtschaft durch die Grundsätze der politischen Ökonomie regiert wird, werden die Kälber, die früher von den milchwirtschaftenden Gegenden zur Aufzucht nach Süden kamen, jetzt massenweise geopfert, oft, wenn sie erst acht bis zehn Tage alt sind, in den Schlachthäusern von Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool und andern benachbarten Großstädten. Wäre dagegen das Malz unbesteuert, so hatten nicht nur die Pächter mehr Profit gemacht, und so ihr Jungvieh behalten können, bis es älter und schwerer wurde, sondern das Malz hätte auch statt Milch zur Aufzucht von Kälbern gedient bei Leuten, die keine Kühe halten; und der jetzige erschreckende Mangel an Jungvieh wäre großenteils vermieden worden. Empfiehlt man diesen kleinen Leuten jetzt, die Kälber aufzuziehn, so sagen sie: Wir wissen sehr wohl, daß die Aufzucht mit Milch sich lohnen würde, aber erstens müßten wir Geld auslegen, und das können wir nicht, und zweitens müßten wir lange warten, bis wir unser Geld wiederbekommen, während wir es in der Milchwirtschaft sogleich zurückerhalten." (Ibid., p. 11, 12.)

small farmers squeezed, calves slaughtered young

'The people who used to breed cattle mainly to stock the pastures of the Midland counties [inland counties] in summer and the stalls of the eastern counties in winter... have been brought so low by the swings and falls in corn prices that they are glad to profit from the high price of butter and cheese. They bring the butter to market every week to cover their running costs; against the cheese they take advances from a factor, who collects it as soon as it can be moved, and who of course sets his own price for it. For this reason, and because farming is run on the principles of political economy, the calves that used to be sent south from the dairy districts to be reared are now sacrificed wholesale, often when they are only eight or ten days old, in the slaughterhouses of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and other big towns nearby. If malt were not taxed, the tenant farmers would not only have made more profit and so been able to keep their young stock until it grew older and heavier — malt could also have been used instead of milk to rear calves, by people who keep no cows — and the present alarming shortage of young stock would largely have been avoided. If these small farmers are now advised to rear their calves, they say: we know very well that rearing them on milk would pay, but first we would have to lay out money, and we cannot; and second we would have to wait a long time to get our money back, whereas in dairying we get it back at once.' (Ibid., pp. 11, 12.)

Wenn die Verlängrung des Umschlags solche Folgen schon bei kleinern englischen Pächtern hat, so ist leicht zu begreifen, welche Störungen sie bei den Kleinbauern des Kontinents hervorrufen muß.

worse still for small continental farmers

If the lengthening of the turnover has such effects even on smaller English tenant farmers, it is easy to see what disruption it must cause among the small farmers of the continent.

Entsprechend der Dauer der Arbeitsperiode, also auch der Zeitperiode bis zur Fertigstellung der zirkulationsfähigen Ware, häuft sich der Wertteil, den das fixe Kapital schichtweis an das Produkt abgibt, und verzögert sich der Rückfluß dieses Wertteils. Aber diese Verzögrung verursacht nicht erneuerte Auslage in fixem Kapital. Die Maschine fährt fort, im Produktionsprozeß zu wirken, ob der Ersatz ihres Verschleißes langsamer oder rascher in Geldform zurückströmt. Anders verhält es sich mit dem zirkulierenden Kapital. Nicht nur muß im Verhältnis zur Dauer der Arbeitsperiode Kapital auf längre Zeit festgelegt, es muß auch beständig neues Kapital in Arbeitslohn, Roh- und Hilfsstoffen vorgeschossen werden. Verzögerter Rückfluß wirkt daher verschieden auf beide. Der Rückfluß mag langsamer oder rascher sein, das fixe Kapital fährt fort zu wirken. Das zirkulierende Kapital dagegen wird funktionsunfähig bei verzögertem Rückfluß, wenn es in der Form von unverkauftem oder unfertigem, noch nicht verkäuflichem Produkt festliegt und kein Zuschußkapital vorhanden ist. um es in natura zu erneuern. -

delay hits circulating capital, not fixed

The longer the working period — and so the longer the stretch of time before the commodity is finished and ready to circulate — the more the portion of value that fixed capital gives off to the product, layer by layer, piles up, and the more the return of that portion of value is delayed. But this delay does not cause any fresh outlay of fixed capital. The machine goes on working in the production process whether the money that replaces its wear flows back slowly or quickly. Circulating capital is different. Not only must capital be tied up for longer, the longer the working period; fresh capital must also constantly be advanced for wages and for raw and auxiliary materials. So a delayed return affects the two kinds of capital differently. Fixed capital goes on working whether the return is slow or fast. Circulating capital, though, stops being able to function once the return is delayed, if it is stuck in the form of an unsold or unfinished product that cannot yet be sold, and there is no extra capital on hand to replace it in kind.

"Während der Bauer verhungert, gedeiht sein Vieh. Es hatte ziemlich geregnet, und das Grasfutter stand üppig. Der indische Bauer wird verhungern neben einem fetten Ochsen. Die Vorschriften des Aberglaubens erscheinen grausam gegenüber dem Einzelnen, aber sie sind erhaltend für die Gesellschaft; die Erhaltung des Arbeitsviehs sichert den Fortgang des Ackerbaus, und damit die Quellen künftigen Lebensunterhalts und Reichtums. Es mag hart und traurig lauten, aber es ist so: In Indien ist ein Mensch leichter zu ersetzen als ein Ochse." ("Return, East India. Madras and Orissa Famine", Nr. 4, p. 44.)

the famine return: cattle over people

'While the peasant starves, his cattle thrive. There had been fairly good rain, and the grass stood thick. The Indian peasant will starve beside a fat ox. The rules of superstition may look cruel toward the individual, but they preserve society: keeping working cattle alive keeps agriculture going, and with it the sources of future subsistence and wealth. It may sound hard and sad, but it is so — in India a man is easier to replace than an ox.' (Return, East India. Madras and Orissa Famine, no. 4, p. 44.)

Man vergleiche hiermit den Satz des "Manava-Dharma-Sastra", Cap. X, § 62:

a parallel, from older law

Compare this with the sentence from the Manava-Dharma-Sastra, Chapter X, §62:

"Hingebung des Lebens ohne Belohnung, um einen Priester oder eine Kuh zu erhalten ... kann die Seligkeit dieser niedrig gebornen Stämme sichern."

the old law's own words

'Giving up one's life without reward, to preserve a priest or a cow... can secure the bliss of these low-born tribes.'

Es ist natürlich unmöglich, ein fünfjähriges Tier vor dem Ende von fünf Jahren zu liefern. Was aber innerhalb gewisser Grenzen möglich, das ist, durch veränderte Behandlungsweise Tiere in kürzrer Zeit für ihre Bestimmung fertigzumachen. Dies wurde namentlich geleistet durch Bakewell. Früher waren englische Schafe, wie die französischen noch 1855, vor dem vierten oder fünften Jahre nicht schlachtfertig. Nach Bakewells System kann schon ein einjähriges Schaf gemästet werden, und in jedem Fall ist es vor Ablauf des zweiten Jahres vollständig ausgewachsen. Durch sorgfältige Zuchtwahl reduzierte Bakewell, Pächter von Dishley Grange, das Knochenskelett der Schafe auf das zu ihrer Existenz notwendige Minimum. Seine Schafe hießen die New Leicesters.

breeding sheep to grow up faster

Naturally it is impossible to deliver a five-year-old animal before five years are up. But within certain limits, it is possible to change the way animals are handled so that they are ready for their purpose sooner. Bakewell in particular achieved this. English sheep used to be — like French sheep still in 1855 — not ready for slaughter before their fourth or fifth year. Under Bakewell's system, even a one-year-old sheep can already be fattened, and in every case it is fully grown by the end of its second year. Through careful selective breeding, Bakewell, the tenant of Dishley Grange, reduced the sheep's bone skeleton to the minimum needed for it to survive. His sheep were called the New Leicesters.

"Der Züchter kann jetzt drei Schafe auf den Markt liefern in derselben Zeit, in der er früher eins fertigstellte, und das in breiterer, runderer, größerer Entwicklung der am meisten Fleisch gebenden Teile. Fast ihr ganzes Gewicht ist pures Fleisch." (Lavergne, "The Rural Economy of England etc.", 1855, p. 20.)

three sheep where one stood before

'The breeder can now bring three sheep to market in the time it used to take him to finish one, and with a broader, rounder, larger development of the parts that give the most meat. Almost the whole of their weight is pure meat.' (Lavergne, The Rural Economy of England etc., 1855, p. 20.)

Die Methoden, welche die Arbeitsperiode abkürzen, sind in verschiednen Industriezweigen nur in sehr verschiednem Grad anwendbar und gleichen nicht die Unterschiede in der Zeitlänge der verschiednen Arbeitsperioden aus. Um bei unsrem Beispiel zu bleiben, so mag durch Anwendung neuer Werkzeugmaschinen die zur Herstellung einer Lokomotive nötige Arbeitsperiode absolut verkürzt werden. Wird aber durch verbesserte Prozesse in der Spinnerei das täglich oder wöchentlich gelieferte fertige Produkt ungleich rascher vermehrt, so hat die Länge der Arbeitsperiode in der Maschinenfabrikation dennoch relativ zugenommen, im Vergleich mit der Spinnerei.

shortening one branch can still fall behind

The methods that shorten the working period apply in very different degrees in different branches of industry, and they do not even out the differences in how long the various working periods are. To stick with our example: using new machine tools may shorten, in absolute terms, the working period needed to build a locomotive. But if improved processes in spinning increase the finished product delivered daily or weekly at a far faster rate, then the working period in machine manufacture has still grown longer relative to spinning — even though it shortened in itself.

Kap. 12

Working Day and Working Period

Let us take two lines of business each with the same working day, say a labour process of ten hours: e.g. cotton spinning and the manufacture of locomotives. In one case a definite quantity of the finished product, cotton yarn, is turned out every day and every week; in the other, the labour process must be repeated for perhaps three months in order to produce a finished product, one locomotive. In the one case the product is discrete in nature, and the same work begins afresh each day or each week. In the other case the labour process is continuous, and stretches over a large number of daily labour processes, which supply a finished product only after a protracted interval, through the connectness and continuity of their operations. Even though the duration of the daily labour process is the same in both cases, there is a very significant difference in the duration of the act of production, i.e. in the duration of the repeated labour processes that are required in order to turn out the product in its finished form, to send it onto the market as a commodity, and thus to transform it from productive capital into commodity capital. The distinction between fixed and circulating capital has nothing to do with this. The distinction made here would obtain even if exactly the same proportions of fixed and circulating capital were applied in the two lines of business.

same working day, different production span

These differences in the duration of the act of production do not just occur between different branches of production, but also within the same branch, according to the size of the product to be supplied. An ordinary dwelling-house is built in a shorter time than a large factory, and hence requires a smaller number of continuous labour processes. If the building of a locomotive takes three months, that of a battleship takes a year, if not several. The production of grain demands almost a year, that of horned cattle several years, while it can take anything from twelve to 100 years to raise timber. A road can be built in a few months, while a railway requires years; an ordinary carpet perhaps one week, while a Gobelin takes years, etc. The differences in length of the act of production are thus of infinite variety.

endless variety in production-act length

The differing duration of the act of production must obviously produce a difference in the speed of turnover where capital outlays of equal size are involved, i.e. in the periods of time for which a given capital is advanced. Let us assume that the spinning mill and the locomotive works apply equal capitals, with the same division between constant and variable, and between the fixed and fluid components of capital; finally that the working day is equally long and there is the same division between necessary and surplus labour. So as to set aside, too, all circumstances arising from the circulation process and external to the present case, we shall assume that both yarn and locomotive are produced to order and paid for on delivery of the finished product. At the end of the week, when the finished yarn is delivered, the spinner receives back his outlay of circulating capital as well as the wear and tear of the fixed capital contained in the value of the yarn (we ignore the surplus-value). He can now repeat the same circuit again with the same capital. He has completed his turnover. The locomotive manufacturer on the other hand, must lay out fresh capital on wages and raw material week after week for three months, and only after three months, when the locomotive is delivered, does the circulating capital laid out bit by bit during this time for one and the same act of production, to produce one and the same commodity, exist again in a form in which it can begin its circuit once more; the wear and tear of the machinery during these three months is also replaced only now. One business has an outlay for one week, the other the same weekly outlay multiplied by twelve. All other circumstances being assumed equal, the one must have twelve times as much circulating capital at its disposal as the other.

the controlled comparison: spinner vs locomotive

The fact that the capitals advanced each week are equal, however, is a matter of indifference here. Whatever may be the size of the capital advanced, in the one case it is advanced only for one week, in the other for twelve, before it can be used for a new operation, before the same operation can be repeated with it, or one of a different kind begun.

equal weekly outlay is beside the point

The difference in the speed of turnover or the length of time for which the individual capital must be advanced before the same capital value can serve again for a new labour or valorization process, arises here from the following circumstances:

where the turnover difference comes from

Let us assume that the building of the locomotive, or any other machine, takes 100 working days. As far as the workers occupied in machine-building are concerned, just as in spinning, the 100 working days form a discontinuous (discrete) quantity; according to our assumption they consist of 100 successive and separate ten-hour labour processes. But in relation to the product - the machine - the 100 working days form a continuous quantity, a working day of 1,000 working hours, a single related act of production. A working day of this kind, which is formed by the succession of more or less numerous inter-related working days, I call a working period. If we speak of the working day, then we mean the length of time for which the worker must daily expend his labour-power, must work. If we speak of the working period, on the other hand, this means the number of inter-related working days that are required, in a particular line of business, to complete a finished product. The product of each working day is here only a partial product, which is taken a step further day by day and receives its finished shape, is a finished use-value, only at the close of a longer or shorter period of working time.

the working period defined

Interruptions and disturbances of the social production process, as a result of crises, for example, thus have a very different effect on those products of labour that are discrete in nature, and those whose production requires a longer connected period. In the former case, one day's production of a particular quantity of yarn, coal, etc. is simply not followed the next day by a fresh production of yarn or coal. It is otherwise with ships, buildings, railways, etc. Here it is not only work that is interrupted, but an inter-connected act of production. If the job is not carried any further, then the means of production and the labour already consumed in its production have been spent to no avail. Even if it is taken up again, deterioration will always have taken place in the meantime.

interruptions hit continuous work harder

The portion of value that the fixed capital surrenders every day to the product, until the latter is ready, builds up in layers throughout the whole duration of the working period. Here we can also see the practical importance of the distinction between fixed and circulating capital. The fixed capital is advanced to the production process for a longer period of time; it does not need to be renewed until an interval of perhaps several years has elapsed. The fact that a steam engine gives up some value bit by bit each day to the yarn, the product of a discrete labour process, while it gives up value over three months to a locomotive, the product of a continuous act of production, in no way alters the outlay of capital needed to acquire the steam engine. In the one case, its value flows back in small doses, e.g. weekly, in the other case in large amounts, e.g. every three months. But in both cases, the steam engine is renewed only after some twenty years, say. As long as the individual period in which its value flows back bit by bit with the sale of the product is always shorter than its own period of existence, the same steam engine continues to function in the production process for several working periods.

fixed capital's value piles up in layers

M–A merges

same repayment rhythm, same renewal date

It is otherwise with the circulating components of the capital advanced. The labour-power bought for this week is used up during the week, and has objectified itself in the product. It must be paid for at the end of the week. And this capital outlay on labour-power is repeated weekly over the three months, although the expenditure of this portion of capital in the one week does not enable the capitalist to cover the acquisition of labour in the next week. New, additional capital must be spent each week in payment for labour-power, and if we set aside all credit relations the capitalist must be able to lay out wages for the whole period of three months, even though he pays them only in weekly doses. It is the same with the other part of circulating capital, the raw materials and ancillaries. One layer of labour after the other is deposited on the product. It is not only the value spent on labour-power that is steadily transferred to the product during the labour process, but also surplus-value; however all this is transferred to an unfinished product that does not yet have the shape of a finished commodity, and is thus not capable of circulation. The same applies to the capital value transferred to the product layer upon layer in raw materials and ancillaries.

wages and materials, advanced week by week

According to the longer or shorter duration of the working period that the specific nature of the product or the useful effect to be attained demands for its production, a steady additional expenditure of circulating capital is required (wages, raw materials and ancillaries), no part of which exists in a form capable of circulation, such that it could serve to repeat the same operation; each part is rather successively tied up within the production sphere as a component of the developing product, tied up in the form of productive capital. The turnover time of capital, however, is the sum of its production time and its circulation time. A lengthening of the production time thus reduces the speed of turnover as much as a lengthening of the circulation time. In the present case however there are two points to be noted:

turnover time: production time plus circulation time

Firstly, the lengthened stay in the production sphere. The capital advanced in the first week on labour, raw materials etc., for instance, as well as the portions of value given up by the fixed capital to the product, remains confined to the production sphere for the entire term of three months, and as it is incorporated only into a product in formation, as yet unfinished, it cannot pass into circulation as a commodity.

capital locked in production for three months

Secondly, since the working period necessary for the act of production lasts three months, and in actual fact simply forms a single inter-related labour process, every week a new dose of circulating capital must be added to the preceding one. The quantity of additional capital successively advanced thus grows with the length of the working period.

fresh capital keeps piling on weekly

We have assumed that equal capitals are invested in the spinning and machine-building businesses, that these capitals are divided equally into constant and variable capital, ditto into fixed and circulating capital, and that the working day is of the same length in each - in short, that all conditions are the same except for the duration of the working period. In the first week, the outlay is the same for both, but the product of the spinner can then be sold and new labour-power, raw materials, etc. bought with the proceeds, in short, production can be continued on the same scale. The machine-builder, on the other hand, can transform the circulating capital spent in the first week back into money, and use it for a fresh operation, only after three months, when his product has been completed. There is thus firstly a difference in the reflux of the same quantity of capital laid out. Secondly, however, the same amount of productive capital is applied both in the spinning mill and the machine factory over a three-month period, but the amount of capital laid out is completely different for the spinner and the machine-builder, since in the one case the same capital is quickly renewed and the same operation can thus be repeated afresh, while in the other case the capital is renewed only relatively slowly, and new amounts of capital must therefore be steadily added to the old until its renewal period arrives. Thus the length of time in which specific portions of the capital are renewed - or the length of the time during which capital is advanced - differs according to the length of the labour process, and so too does the amount of capital that has to be advanced, even though the capital applied daily or weekly is the same. This circumstance needs to be noted, for the time of advance can grow, as in the cases to be considered in the following chapter, without the amount of capital advanced growing in proportion to this length of time. The capital has to be advanced for longer, and a larger amount of capital is tied up in the form of productive capital.

length of advance versus mass advanced

Kap. 12

History and Limits of the Working Period

At the less developed stages of capitalist production, enterprises that require a long working period, and thus a large capital outlay for a longer time, particularly if they can be conducted only on a large scale, are often not pursued capitalistically at all. Roads, canals, etc., for example, were built at the cost of the municipality or state (in earlier periods mostly by forced labour, in so far as labour-power is concerned). Alternatively, products which require a long working period for their fabrication are manufactured only to a very minor extent with the financial means of the capitalist himself. In the construction of houses, for instance, the private individual for whom the house is being built pays advances to the builder in successive portions. He thus pays for the house bit by bit, in proportion to the progress of its production process. In the era of developed capitalism, however, where on the one hand massive capitals are concentrated in the hands of individuals, and on the other hand the associated capitalist (joint-stock companies) steps onto the scene alongside the individual capitalist - where credit, too, is developed - it is only in exceptional cases that a capitalist builder still builds houses to order for individual clients. He makes a business out of building rows of houses and whole districts of towns for the market, just as individual capitalists make a business out of building railways as contractors.

before credit: who builds the long jobs

How capitalist production has revolutionized house building in London can be seen from the evidence given by a builder to the Bank Acts Committee of 1857. In his youth, he said, houses were generally built to order, and the price was paid to the contractor in instalments as stages of the construction were completed. There was little speculative building; contractors would resort to this principally just to keep their workers regularly occupied and hold their labour force together. In the last forty years all that has changed. There is now little building to order. If someone wants a new house, he looks for one that has already been built on speculation, or is already in the process of being built. Today the contractor no longer works directly for a client, but rather for the market; just like any other industrialist, he has to have finished goods for sale. Whereas previously a contractor might have built three or four houses at a time on speculation, he now has to buy an extensive piece of land (in the Continental sense, he leases it, usually for ninety-nine years), erect on it up to 100 or 200 houses, and thus involve himself in an undertaking that exceeds his own means some twenty to fifty times over. Funds are procured by taking out a mortgage, and this money is put at the contractor's disposal bit by bit as the building of the houses progresses. If a crisis breaks out, bringing the payment of these instalments to a halt, then the whole undertaking generally collapses; in the best case, the houses remain uncompleted until better times while in the worst they are auctioned off at half price. It is impossible nowadays for any contractor to get along without speculative building, and on a large scale at that. The profit on the actual cons r ction is extremely slight; the main source of profit comes from raising the ground rent, and from the clever selection and exploitation of the building land. Almost the whole of Belgravia, Tyburnia and the countless thousands of villas around London have been built in this way, by speculative anticipation of the demand for houses. (Abbreviated from Report from the Select Committee on Bank Acts, part I, 1857, Evidence, nos. 5413-5418, 5435-5436.)

a builder's testimony: speculation takes over

Large-scale jobs needing particularly long working periods are fully suitable for capitalist production only when the concentration of capital is already well advanced, and when the development of the credit system offers the capitalist the convenient expedient of advancing and thus risking other people's capital instead of his own. It is self-evident, however, that whether the capital advanced for production belongs to the person who uses it or not has no effect on the speed and time of turnover.

credit's first move: risk, not speed

Circumstances that increase the product of the individual working day, such as cooperation, division of labour, application of machinery, also shorten the working period for inter-connected acts of production. Thus machinery shortens the building time of houses, bridges, etc.; reaping and threshing machines, etc. shorten the working period required to transform ripened corn into a finished commodity. Improved ship-building techniques, resulting in greater speed, shorten the turnover time of the capital invested in shipping. These improvements, which shorten the working period and hence the time for which circulating capital has to be advanced, are generally bound up with an increased outlay of fixed capital. The working period, however, can be shortened in some branches simply by an extension of cooperation; the completion of a railway is hastened by setting afoot great armies of workers and tackling the job from many different points in space. Here the turnover time is shortened by the growth of the capital advanced. More means of production and more labour-power have to be united under the capitalist's command.

shortening the job costs more capital

If the shortening of the working period is thus generally bound up with an increase in the capital advanced for this shorter time, so that the amount of capital advanced increases to the degree that the time of advance is shortened, we should remember that, apart from the total volume of social capital available, it comes down to a question of the extent to which the means of production and subsistence, i.e. disposal over them, are fragmented, or united in the hands of individual capitalists, i.e. the extent reached by the concentration of capital. In so far as credit mediates, accelerates and intensifies the concentration of capital in a single hand, it contributes to shortening the working period, and with this also the turnover time.

concentration is what lets credit shorten it

In branches of production where the working period, whether it is continuous or interrupted, is prescribed by specific natural conditions, no shortening can take place by the means described above:

some working periods can't be shortened

In branches of production where the working period — whether continuous or broken up — is fixed by definite natural conditions, none of the means described above can shorten it.

'In regard to quicker returns, this term cannot be made to apply to corn crops, as one return only can be made per annum. In respect to stock, we will simply ask, how is the return of two- and three-year-old sheep, and four- and five-year-old oxen to be quickened?' (W. Walter Good, Political, Agricultural, and Commercial Fallacies, London, 1866, p. 325).

the objection: livestock can't turn over faster

The need to have ready cash as soon as possible (e.g. to pay fixed obligations such as taxes, ground-rent, etc.) solves this question in so far as cattle, for instance, are sold and slaughtered before they have reached the normal economic age, to the great detriment of agriculture; this also leads, moreover, to a rise in meat prices.

the workaround: selling stock too young

'Men who have mainly reared cattle for supplying the pastures of the Midland counties in summer, and the yards of the eastern counties in winter . . . have become so crippled through the uncertainty and lowness in the prices of corn that they are glad to take advantage of the high prices of butter and cheese; the former they take to market weekly to help to pay current expenses, and draw on the other from some factor, who takes the cheese when fit to move, and, of course, nearly at his own price. For this reason, remembering that farming is governed by the principles of Political Economy, the calves which used to come south from the dairying counties for rearing, are now largely sacrificed, at times at a week and ten days old, in the shambles of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large neighbouring towns. If, how- . ever, malt had been free from duty, not only would farmers have made more profit and therefore been able to keep their stock till it got older and heavier, but it would have been substituted for milk and rearing by men who did not keep cows, and thus the present alarming scarcity of young cattle which has befallen the nation would have been largely averted. What these little men now say, in reply to recommendations to rear, is, "We know very well it would pay to rear on milk, but it would first require us to put our hands in our purse, which we cannot do, and then we should have to wait a long time for a return, instead of getting it at once by dairying'" (ibid., pp. 11, 12).

small farmers squeezed, calves slaughtered young

If the lengthening of turnover can have consequences like this even among the smaller English farmers, it is easy to understand what disturbances it must provoke among the small peasants of the Continent.

worse still for small continental farmers

If the lengthening of the turnover has such effects even on smaller English tenant farmers, it is easy to see what disruption it must cause among the small farmers of the continent.

According to the duration of the working period, and thus also the period till a commodity ready for circulation is completed, the portion of value that the fixed capital surrenders layer by layer to the product mounts up, and the reflux of this portion of value is delayed. This delay, however, does not necessitate a renewed outlay of fixed capital. The machine continues to operate in the production process whether replacement for its wear and tear flows back quicker or more slowly in the money form. It is different with circulating capital. Here not only must capital be tied up for a longer time, in proportion to the duration of the labour process, but new capital must continually be advanced for wages, raw and ancillary materials. The delayed reflux thus has a different effect in the two cases. Whether the reflux is slower or quicker, the fixed capital continues to operate. The circulating capital, on the contrary, becomes unable to function when the reflux is delayed, if it is tied up in the form of unsold, or unfinished and not yet saleable products, and there is no additional capital to renew it in kind.

delay hits circulating capital, not fixed

'While the peasant farmer starves, his cattle thrive. Repeated showers had fallen in the country, and the forage was abundant. The Hindoo peasant will perish by hunger beside a fat bullock. The prescriptions of superstition, which appear cruel to the individual, are conservative for the community; and the preservation of the labouring cattle secures the power of cultivation, and the sources of future life and wealth. It may sound harsh and sad to say so, but in India it is more easy to replace a man than an ox' (Return, East India. Madras and Orissa Famine, no. 4, p. 44).

the famine return: cattle over people

We can compare this with a passage from the Manava Dharma Sastra:

a parallel, from older law

Compare this with the sentence from the Manava-Dharma-Sastra, Chapter X, §62:

'Desertion of life, without reward, for the sake of preserving a priest or a cow . . . may cause the beatitude of those base-born tribes' (Chapter X, 62).

the old law's own words

'Giving up one's life without reward, to preserve a priest or a cow... can secure the bliss of these low-born tribes.'

It is impossible, of course, to deliver a five-year-old animal before the end of five years. But what is possible within certain limits is to prepare animals for their fate more quickly by new modes of treatment. This was precisely what Bakewell managed to do. Previously, British sheep, just like French sheep as late as 1855, were not ready for slaughter before the fourth or fifth year. In Bakewell's system, one-year-old sheep can already be fattened, and in any case they are fully grown before the second year has elapsed. By careful selective breeding, Bakewell, farmer of Dishley Grange [North Leicestershire], reduced the bone structure of his sheep to the minimum necessary for their existence. These sheep are called the New Leicesters:

breeding sheep to grow up faster

'The breeder can now send three to market in the same space of time that it formerly took him to prepare one; and if they are not taller, they are broader, rounder, and have a greater development in those parts which give most flesh. Of bone, they have absolutely no greater amount than is necessary to support them, and almost all their weight is pure meat' (Lavergne, The Rural Economy of England, etc., 1855, p. 20).

three sheep where one stood before

The methods that shorten the working period differ greatly in the extent to which they can be applied in different branches of industry, and they do not cancel out the differences in length of the different working periods. To stick to our example, the application of new machine-tools may, in absolute terms, shorten the working period necessary for the production of a locomotive. But if improved processes in spinning increase the finished product turned out daily or weekly here to an even greater extent, then the length of the working period in machine-building will still have increased relatively, compared with that in spinning.

shortening one branch can still fall behind