Das Kapital III — Kap. 8

Kap. 8

Variables Kapital als Index der Arbeit und die organische Zusammensetzung

The rate of profit has been written as a formula, worked through its factors, and followed into the mills and the price swings of a cotton famine. A new Part now opens on a different question: not how one capital's rate moves over time, but why capitals in different lines of business, at one and the same degree of exploitation, earn different rates at the same moment.

Im vorigen Abschnitt wurde unter anderm nachgewiesen, wie bei gleichbleibender Rate des Mehrwerts die Profitrate variieren, steigen oder fallen kann. In diesem Kapitel wird nun vorausgesetzt, daß der Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit und daher die Rate des Mehrwerts und die Länge des Arbeitstags in allen Produktionssphären, worin sich die gesellschaftliche Arbeit in einem gegebnen Lande spaltet, von gleicher Größe, gleich hoch ist. Von vielen Verschiedenheiten in der Exploitation der Arbeit in verschiednen Produktionssphären hat schon A. Smith ausführlich nachgewiesen, daß sie sich durch allerlei wirkliche oder vom Vorurteil akzeptierte Kompensationsgründe ausgleichen und daher, als nur scheinbare und verschwindende Verschiedenheiten, für die Untersuchung der allgemeinen Verhältnisse nicht in Rechnung kommen. Andre Unterschiede, z.B. in der Höhe des Arbeitslohns, beruhen großenteils auf dem schon im Eingang zu Buch I, S. 19 <Siehe Band 23, S. 59> erwähnten Unterschied zwischen einfacher und komplizierter Arbeit und berühren, obgleich sie das Los der Arbeiter in verschiednen Produktionssphären sehr verungleichen, keineswegs den Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit in diesen verschiednen Sphären. Wird z.B. die Arbeit eines Goldschmieds teurer bezahlt als die eines Taglöhners, so stellt die Mehrarbeit des Goldschmieds in demselben Verhältnis auch größern Mehrwert her als die des Taglöhners. Und wenn die Ausgleichung der Arbeitslöhne und Arbeitstage und daher der Rate des Mehrwerts zwischen verschiednen Produktionssphären, ja selbst zwischen verschiednen Kapitalanlagen in derselben Produktionssphäre durch vielerlei lokale Hindernisse aufgehalten wird, so vollzieht sie sich doch mehr und mehr mit dem Fortschritt der kapitalistischen Produktion und der Unterordnung aller ökonomischen Verhältnisse unter diese Produktionsweise. So wichtig das Studium solcher Friktionen für jede Spezialarbeit über den Arbeitslohn, so sind sie doch für die allgemeine Untersuchung der kapitalistischen Produktion als zufällig und unwesentlich zu vernachlässigen. In solcher allgemeinen Untersuchung wird überhaupt immer vorausgesetzt, daß die wirklichen Verhältnisse ihrem Begriff entsprechen, oder was dasselbe, werden die wirklichen Verhältnisse nur dargestellt, soweit sie ihren eignen allgemeinen Typus ausdrücken.

the chapter's assumption: exploitation held equal

The previous Part showed that the rate of profit can rise or fall even while the rate of surplus-value stays the same. This chapter now assumes that the degree to which labour is exploited — and so the rate of surplus-value and the length of the working day — is the same in every sphere of production into which a country's social labour is divided.

Adam Smith already showed at length that many differences in how labour is exploited across different spheres even out, through all sorts of grounds for compensation — some real, some merely accepted out of prejudice. Because such differences are only apparent and tend to vanish, they don't count in an investigation into the general relations.

Other differences, for instance in the level of wages, mostly rest on the distinction between simple and complex labour already mentioned near the start of Volume 1. That distinction makes workers' lot very unequal across different spheres, but it does not touch the degree to which labour is exploited in those spheres at all: if a goldsmith's labour is paid more than a day-labourer's, then the goldsmith's surplus labour produces, in that very same proportion, more surplus-value too.

Where local obstacles of many kinds hold back the equalizing of wages and working days — and so of the rate of surplus-value — between different spheres of production, or even between different capital investments within the same sphere, this equalizing still happens more and more as capitalist production advances and subordinates every economic relation to itself. Studying such frictions matters for any specialized work on wages, but for a general investigation of capitalist production they are accidental and inessential, to be left aside. In such a general investigation it is always assumed that actual relations correspond to their concept — or, what comes to the same thing, actual relations are depicted only so far as they express their own general type.

Der Unterschied der Raten des Mehrwerts in verschiednen Ländern und daher der nationalen Exploitationsgrade der Arbeit ist für die vorliegende Untersuchung durchaus gleichgültig. Wir wollen ja eben in diesem Abschnitt darstellen, in welcher Weise eine allgemeine Profitrate innerhalb eines Landes hergestellt wird. Es ist jedoch klar, daß man bei Vergleichung der verschiednen nationalen Profitraten nur das früher Entwickelte mit dem hier zu Entwickelnden zusammenzustellen hat. Erst betrachte man die Verschiedenheit in den nationalen Raten des Mehrwerts und dann vergleiche man, auf Grundlage dieser gegebnen Raten des Mehrwerts, die Verschiedenheit der nationalen Profitraten. Soweit ihre Verschiedenheit nicht aus der Verschiedenheit der nationalen Raten des Mehrwerts resultiert, muß sie Umständen geschuldet sein, worin, wie in der Untersuchung in diesem Kapitel, der Mehrwert als überall gleich, als konstant vorausgesetzt wird.

national rates of surplus-value set aside

The difference between rates of surplus-value in different countries — and so between the different national levels of exploitation of labour — is of no concern to the present investigation. What this part sets out to show is how a general rate of profit gets established within a single country. When comparing different countries' rates of profit, it is clear enough that one only needs to combine what was worked out earlier with what is worked out here: first take the difference in national rates of surplus-value, then compare, on the basis of those given rates, the difference in national rates of profit. Whatever part of that difference does not come from a difference in national rates of surplus-value must be owed to the kind of circumstances that this chapter investigates, where surplus-value is assumed to be everywhere the same, constant.

Es wurde im vorigen Kapitel gezeigt, daß, die Rate des Mehrwerts als konstant vorausgesetzt, die Profitrate, die ein bestimmtes Kapital abwirft, steigen oder fallen kann infolge von Umständen, die den Wert eines oder des andern Teils des konstanten Kapitals erhöhen oder erniedrigen und dadurch überhaupt das Verhältnis zwischen den konstanten und variablen Bestandteilen des Kapitals affizieren. Es wurde ferner bemerkt, daß Umstände, welche die Umschlagszeit eines Kapitals verlängern oder verkürzen, in ähnlicher Weise die Profitrate affizieren können. Da die Masse des Profits identisch ist mit der Masse des Mehrwerts, mit dem Mehrwert selbst, so zeigte sich auch, daß die Masse des Profits - im Unterschied von der Profitrate - nicht von den eben erwähnten Wertschwankungen betroffen wird. Sie modifizierten nur die Rate, worin sich ein gegebner Mehrwert und daher auch ein Profit von gegebner Größe ausdrückt, d.h. seine verhältnismäßige Größe, seine Größe verglichen mit der Größe des vorgeschoßnen Kapitals. Insofern infolge jener Wertschwankungen Bindung oder Freisetzung von Kapital stattfand, konnte auf diesem indirekten Weg nicht nur die Profitrate, sondern der Profit selbst affiziert werden. Indes galt dies dann immer nur von bereits engagiertem Kapital, nicht von neuer Kapitalanlage; und außerdem hing die Vergrößerung oder Verringerung des Profits selbst immer davon ab, inwiefern infolge jener Wertschwankungen mit demselben Kapital mehr oder weniger Arbeit in Bewegung gesetzt werden konnte, also mit demselben Kapital - bei gleichbleibender Rate des Mehrwerts - eine größre oder geringre Masse von Mehrwert produziert werden konnte. Weit entfernt, dem allgemeinen Gesetz zu widersprechen oder eine Ausnahme davon zu bilden, war diese scheinbare Ausnahme in der Tat nur ein besondrer Fall der Anwendung des allgemeinen Gesetzes.

mass of profit versus its rate

The previous chapter showed that, with the rate of surplus-value held constant, the rate of profit a given capital yields can rise or fall because of circumstances that raise or lower the value of one part or another of the constant capital, and so affect the ratio between the constant and variable parts of the capital. It was also noted that circumstances lengthening or shortening a capital's turnover time can affect the rate of profit in a similar way.

Since the mass of profit is identical with the mass of surplus-value — is the surplus-value itself — it was also shown that the mass of profit, unlike the rate of profit, is not touched by those value fluctuations. They only altered the rate at which a given surplus-value, and so a profit of a given size, gets expressed — that is, its proportional size, its size measured against the size of the capital advanced.

So far as those value fluctuations tied up or released capital, profit itself, not only its rate, could be affected by this indirect route. But even then this held only of capital already invested, never of a new investment; and beyond that, any increase or decrease in the profit itself still depended entirely on how far those value fluctuations let more or less labour be set in motion with the same capital — that is, on whether the same capital, with the rate of surplus-value unchanged, could produce a larger or smaller mass of surplus-value. Far from contradicting the general law, or forming an exception to it, this apparent exception was in fact only a particular case of the general law being applied.

Wenn sich im vorigen Abschnitt zeigte, daß bei konstantem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit, mit Wertwechsel der Bestandteile des konstanten Kapitals und ebenso mit Wechsel in der Umschlagszeit des Kapitals, die Profitrate sich änderte, so folgt daraus von selbst, daß die Profitraten verschiedner gleichzeitig nebeneinander existierenden Produktionssphären verschieden sein werden, wenn bei sonst gleichbleibenden Umständen die Umschlagszeit der angewandten Kapitale eine verschiedne, oder wenn das Wertverhältnis zwischen den organischen Bestandteilen dieser Kapitale in den verschiednen Produktionszweigen verschieden ist. Was wir früher betrachteten als Änderungen, die zeitlich nacheinander mit demselben Kapital vorgingen, betrachten wir jetzt als gleichzeitig vorhandne Unterschiede zwischen nebeneinander bestehenden Kapitalanlagen in verschiednen Produktionssphären.

different capitals compared side by side

The previous Part showed that, with the degree of exploitation held constant, a change in the value of the constant capital's components, and likewise a change in the capital's turnover time, altered the rate of profit. From this it follows naturally that the rates of profit in different spheres of production existing side by side at the same time will differ — whenever, other things being equal, the turnover time of the capitals employed differs, or the value ratio between the organic parts of those capitals differs from one branch of production to another.

What we previously considered as changes happening one after another in time within the same capital, we now consider as differences that exist all at once, side by side, between capital investments standing next to one another in different spheres of production.

Wir werden hierbei zu untersuchen haben: 1. die Verschiedenheit in der organischen Zusammensetzung der Kapitale, 2. die Verschiedenheit ihrer Umschlagszeit.

two questions to examine next

Here we will need to examine: first, the difference in the organic composition of capitals; second, the difference in their turnover time.

Die Voraussetzung bei dieser ganzen Untersuchung ist selbstverständlich die, daß, wenn wir von Zusammensetzung oder Umschlag des Kapitals in einem bestimmten Produktionszweig sprechen, immer das durchschnittliche Normalverhältnis des in diesem Produktionszweig angelegten Kapitals gemeint, überhaupt von dem Durchschnitt des in der bestimmten Sphäre angelegten Gesamtkapitals, nicht von den zufälligen Unterschieden der in dieser Sphäre angelegten Einzelkapitale die Rede ist.

the sphere's average, not one firm

The assumption running through this whole investigation is, of course, that whenever we speak of the composition or turnover of capital in a given branch of production, we always mean the average, normal ratio of the capital invested in that branch — the average of the total capital invested in that particular sphere as a whole, never the accidental differences among the individual capitals invested within it.

Da ferner unterstellt ist, daß Rate des Mehrwerts und Arbeitstag konstant, und da diese Unterstellung ebenfalls Konstanz des Arbeitslohns einschließt, so drückt ein gewisses Quantum variables Kapital ein gewisses Quantum in Bewegung gesetzter Arbeitskraft und daher ein bestimmtes Quantum sich vergegenständlichender Arbeit aus. Wenn also 100 Pfd.St. den Wochenlohn von 100 Arbeitern ausdrückt, also in der Tat 100 Arbeiterkraft anzeigt, so n × 100 Pfd.St. die von n × 100 Arbeitern und 100 Pfd.St. / n die von 100 / n Arbeitern. Das variable Kapital dient hier also (wie bei gegebnem Arbeitslohn stets der Fall) als Index der Masse der von einem bestimmten Gesamtkapital in Bewegung gesetzten Arbeit; Verschiedenheiten in der Größe des angewandten variablen Kapitals dienen daher als Indizes der Verschiedenheit in der Masse der angewandten Arbeitskraft. Wenn 100 Pfd.St. 100 Arbeiter wöchentlich darstellen und daher bei 60 Stunden wöchentlicher Arbeit 6.000 Arbeitsstunden repräsentieren, so 200 Pfd.St. 12.000 und 50 Pfd.St. nur 3.000 Arbeitsstunden.

what variable capital indexes

Since it is also assumed that the rate of surplus-value and the working day are constant — and this assumption includes a constant wage as well — a given amount of variable capital expresses a given amount of labour-power set in motion, and so a determinate amount of labour that will become objectified. If £100 expresses the weekly wage of 100 workers, that is, actually indicates 100 units of labour-power, then n times £100 indicates the weekly wage of n times 100 workers, and £100 divided by n the weekly wage of 100 divided by n workers.

Variable capital thus serves here, as is always the case once the wage is given, as an index of the mass of labour set in motion by a given total capital; differences in the size of the variable capital employed therefore serve as indices of differences in the mass of labour-power employed. If £100 represents 100 workers for a week, and so, at 60 hours of work a week, represents 6,000 hours of labour, then £200 represents 12,000 hours, and £50 only 3,000 hours.

Unter Zusammensetzung des Kapitals verstehn wir, wie schon in Buch I gesagt, das Verhältnis seines aktiven und seines passiven Bestandteils, des variabeln und des konstanten Kapitals. Es kommen hierbei zwei Verhältnisse in Betracht, die nicht von gleicher Wichtigkeit sind, obgleich sie unter gewissen Umständen gleiche Wirkung hervorbringen können.

two ratios, not equally important

By the composition of capital we understand, as already explained in Volume 1, the ratio between its active and its passive component — the variable and the constant capital. Two ratios come into play here, and they are not of equal importance, although under certain circumstances they can produce the same effect.

Das erste Verhältnis beruht auf technischer Grundlage und ist auf einer bestimmten Entwicklungsstufe der Produktivkraft als gegeben zu betrachten. Eine bestimmte Masse Arbeitskraft, dargestellt durch eine bestimmte Anzahl Arbeiter, ist erheischt, um eine bestimmte Masse Produkt, z.B. in einem Tag zu produzieren und daher - was darin eingeschlossen - eine bestimmte Masse Produktionsmittel, Maschinerie, Rohstoffe etc. in Bewegung zu setzen, produktiv zu konsumieren. Es kommt eine bestimmte Anzahl Arbeiter auf ein bestimmtes Quantum Produktionsmittel und daher ein bestimmtes Quantum lebendiger Arbeit auf ein bestimmtes Quantum von in den Produktionsmitteln bereits vergegenständlichter Arbeit. Dies Verhältnis ist sehr verschieden in verschiednen Produktionssphären, oft zwischen den verschiednen Zweigen einer und derselben Industrie, obgleich es zufällig wieder in sehr weit auseinanderliegenden Industriezweigen ganz oder annähernd dasselbe sein kann.

workers to means of production

The first ratio rests on a technical basis, and at a given stage in the development of the productive power it is to be taken as given. A certain mass of labour-power, represented by a certain number of workers, is needed to produce a certain mass of product, say in one day — and, bound up with that, to set in motion, to consume productively, a certain mass of means of production: machinery, raw materials, and so on. A definite number of workers corresponds to a definite quantity of means of production, and so a definite quantity of living labour corresponds to a definite quantity of labour already objectified in those means of production.

This ratio varies a great deal between different spheres of production, often even between different branches of one and the same industry, although by chance it can turn out to be wholly or nearly the same in industries lying very far apart from one another.

Dies Verhältnis bildet die technische Zusammensetzung des Kapitals und ist die eigentliche Grundlage seiner organischen Zusammensetzung.

technical composition defined

This ratio forms the technical composition of capital, and it is the actual basis of the capital's organic composition.

Es ist aber auch möglich, daß jenes Verhältnis in verschiednen Industriezweigen dasselbe sei, soweit das variable Kapital bloßer Index von Arbeitskraft und das konstante Kapital bloßer Index der von der Arbeitskraft in Bewegung gesetzten Masse von Produktionsmitteln ist. Z.B. gewisse Arbeiten in Kupfer und Eisen mögen gleiches Verhältnis zwischen Arbeitskraft und Masse von Produktionsmitteln voraussetzen. Da aber Kupfer teurer als Eisen, wird das Wertverhältnis zwischen variablem und konstantem Kapital in beiden Fällen verschieden sein und damit auch die Wertzusammensetzung der beiden Gesamtkapitale. Der Unterschied zwischen der technischen Zusammensetzung und der Wertzusammensetzung zeigt sich in jedem Industriezweig darin, daß bei konstanter technischer Zusammensetzung das Wertverhältnis der beiden Kapitalteile wechseln und bei veränderter technischer Zusammensetzung das Wertverhältnis dasselbe bleiben kann; letztres natürlich nur, wenn der Wechsel in dem Verhältnis der angewandten Massen von Produktionsmitteln und Arbeitskraft durch entgegengesetzten Wechsel in ihren Werten ausgeglichen wird.

technical and value composition can diverge

But it is also possible for that ratio to be the same in different branches of industry, so far as the variable capital is a mere index of labour-power and the constant capital a mere index of the mass of means of production that labour-power sets in motion. Certain kinds of work in copper and in iron, for instance, may presuppose the same ratio between labour-power and mass of means of production. But since copper is more expensive than iron, the value ratio between variable and constant capital will differ in the two cases, and so will the value composition of the two total capitals.

The difference between the technical composition and the value composition shows up, in every branch of industry, in this: that with the technical composition constant, the value ratio between the two parts of the capital can change, and with the technical composition altered, the value ratio can stay the same — the latter, of course, only if the change in the ratio of the masses of means of production and labour-power employed is offset by an opposite change in their values.

Die Wertzusammensetzung des Kapitals, insofern sie durch seine technische Zusammensetzung bestimmt wird und diese widerspiegelt, nennen wir die organische Zusammensetzung des Kapitals.²⁰

organic composition defined

The value composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by the capital's technical composition and reflects that technical composition, we call the organic composition of capital.

Bei dem variablen Kapital setzen wir also voraus, daß es Index einer bestimmten Menge Arbeitskraft, bestimmter Anzahl Arbeiter oder bestimmter Massen in Bewegung gesetzter lebendiger Arbeit ist. Man hat im vorigen Abschnitt gesehn, daß Wechsel in der Wertgröße des variablen Kapitals möglicherweise nichts darstellt als größern oder geringern Preis derselben Arbeitsmasse; aber hier, wo Mehrwertsrate und Arbeitstag als konstant, der Arbeitslohn für bestimmte Arbeitszeit als gegeben betrachtet wird, fällt dies fort. Dagegen kann ein Unterschied in der Größe des konstanten Kapitals zwar auch Index sein eines Wechsels in der Masse der von einem bestimmten Quantum Arbeitskraft in Bewegung gesetzten Produktionsmittel; aber er kann auch herrühren von dem Unterschied im Wert, den die in Bewegung gesetzten Produktionsmittel in einer Produktionssphäre als unterschieden von der andren haben. Beide Gesichtspunkte kommen daher hier in Erwägung.

constant capital: either mass or value

With the variable capital, then, we assume that it is an index of a definite quantity of labour-power, of a definite number of workers, or of a definite mass of living labour set in motion. It was seen in the previous Part that a change in the value-magnitude of the variable capital might represent nothing more than a higher or lower price for the very same mass of labour; but here, where the rate of surplus-value and the working day are treated as constant, and the wage for a certain labour-time is treated as given, that possibility drops away.

A difference in the size of the constant capital, by contrast, can indeed also be an index of a change in the mass of means of production set in motion by a certain quantity of labour-power; but it can also arise from a difference in the value that the means of production set in motion have in one sphere of production as against another. Both points of view therefore have to be taken into consideration here.

Endlich ist folgendes Wesentliche zu bemerken:

one more essential point

Finally, the following essential point should be noted:

Gesetzt, 100 Pfd.St. sei der Wochenlohn von 100 Arbeitern. Gesetzt, die wöchentliche Arbeitszeit sei = 60 Stunden. Gesetzt ferner die Rate des Mehrwerts sei = 100%. In diesem Falle arbeiten die Arbeiter von den 60 Stunden 30 für sich selbst und 30 umsonst für den Kapitalisten. In den 100 Pfd.St. Arbeitslohn sind in der Tat nur 30 Arbeitsstunden der 100 Arbeiter oder zusammen 3.000 Arbeitsstunden verkörpert, während die andren 3.000 Stunden, die sie arbeiten, verkörpert sind in den 100 Pfd.St. Mehrwert, resp. Profit, den der Kapitalist einsteckt. Obgleich der Arbeitslohn von 100 Pfd.St. daher nicht den Wert ausdrückt, worin sich die Wochenarbeit der 100 Arbeiter vergegenständlicht, so zeigt er doch an (da Länge des Arbeitstags und Rate des Mehrwerts gegeben), daß von diesem Kapital 100 Arbeiter während zusammen 6.000 Arbeitsstunden in Bewegung gesetzt worden sind. Das Kapital von 100 Pfd.St. zeigt dies an, weil es erstens die Anzahl der in Bewegung gesetzten Arbeiter anzeigt, indem 1 Pfd.St. = 1 Arbeiter per Woche, also 100 Pfd.St. = 100 Arbeiter; und zweitens, weil jeder in Bewegung gesetzte Arbeiter, bei der gegebnen Mehrwertsrate von 100%, noch einmal soviel Arbeit verrichtet als in seinem Lohn enthalten ist, also 1 Pfd.St., sein Lohn, der der Ausdruck einer halben Woche Arbeit, eine ganze Woche Arbeit in Bewegung setzt, und ebenso 100 Pfd.St., obgleich sie nur 50 Wochen Arbeit enthalten, 100 Arbeitswochen. Es ist da also ein sehr wesentlicher Unterschied zu machen zwischen dem variablen, in Arbeitslohn ausgelegten Kapital, soweit sein Wert, die Summe der Arbeitslöhne, ein bestimmtes Quantum vergegenständlichter Arbeit darstellt und soweit sein Wert bloßer Index ist der Masse lebendiger Arbeit, die es in Bewegung setzt. Diese letztre ist immer größer als die in ihm enthaltne Arbeit und stellt sich daher auch in einem höhern Wert dar als dem des variablen Kapitals; in einem Wert, der bestimmt ist einerseits durch die Anzahl der vom variablen Kapital in Bewegung gesetzten Arbeiter und andrerseits durch das Quantum Mehrarbeit, das sie verrichten.

variable capital: value versus index

Suppose £100 is the weekly wage of 100 workers. Suppose the weekly working time is 60 hours. Suppose, further, that the rate of surplus-value is 100 per cent. In that case the workers spend 30 of the 60 hours working for themselves, and 30 hours working for nothing for the capitalist.

In fact the £100 wage embodies only 30 hours of labour from each of the 100 workers — 3,000 hours of labour in all — while the other 3,000 hours they work are embodied in the £100 of surplus-value, or profit, that the capitalist pockets. So although the £100 wage does not express the value in which the week's labour of the 100 workers is objectified, it nonetheless shows — since the length of the working day and the rate of surplus-value are given — that this capital has set 100 workers in motion for 6,000 hours of labour in all.

The £100 capital shows this for two reasons. First, it indicates the number of workers set in motion, since £1 equals 1 worker per week, so £100 equals 100 workers. Second, because every worker set in motion, at the given rate of surplus-value of 100 per cent, performs twice as much labour as is contained in his wage: so £1, his wage — itself the expression of half a week's labour — sets a whole week's labour in motion, and likewise £100, although it contains only 50 weeks of labour, sets 100 weeks of labour in motion.

There is, then, a very essential distinction to be drawn in the variable capital laid out in wages: between its value, the sum of the wages, so far as that value represents a determinate quantity of objectified labour, and that same value so far as it is merely an index of the mass of living labour it sets in motion. The mass of living labour set in motion is always greater than the labour contained in the variable capital, and so it is also expressed in a higher value than the value of the variable capital itself — a value fixed, on one side, by the number of workers the variable capital sets in motion, and on the other, by the quantity of surplus labour they perform.

Kap. 8

Ungleiche Profitraten bei gleicher Mehrwertsrate - und die gleichen Kostpreise

The framing pages held the degree of exploitation equal in every line of production within one country, defined the technical, the value and the organic composition of a capital, and showed an outlay on labour standing for more labour than it contains. The demonstration those pages were built for now follows.

Es folgt aus dieser Betrachtungsweise des variablen Kapitals:

what follows from this view

It follows from this way of looking at variable capital:

Wenn eine Kapitalanlage in der Produktionssphäre A auf je 700 des Gesamtkapitals nur 100 in variablem Kapital verausgabt und 600 in konstantem, während in der Produktionssphäre B 600 in variablem und nur 100 in konstantem verausgabt werden, so wird jenes Gesamtkapital A von 700 nur eine Arbeitskraft von 100 in Bewegung setzen, also unter der frühern Annahme nur 100 Arbeitswochen oder 6.000 Stunden lebendiger Arbeit, während das gleich große Gesamtkapital B 600 Arbeitswochen und daher 36.000 Stunden lebendiger Arbeit in Bewegung setzt. Das Kapital in A würde daher nur 50 Arbeitswochen oder 3.000 Stunden Mehrarbeit aneignen, während das gleich große Kapital in B 300 Arbeitswochen oder 18.000 Stunden. Das variable Kapital ist der Index nicht nur der in ihm selbst enthaltnen Arbeit, sondern, bei gegebner Mehrwertsrate, zugleich der von ihm über dies Maß hinaus in Bewegung gesetzten überschüssigen oder Mehrarbeit. Bei gleichem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit wäre der Profit im ersten Fall 100/700 = 1/7 = 14 2/7 % und im zweiten = 600/700 = 85 5/7 %, die sechsfache Profitrate. Aber in der Tat wäre in diesem Fall der Profit selbst sechsmal größer, 600 für B gegen 100 für A, weil sechsmal soviel lebendige Arbeit mit demselben Kapital in Bewegung gesetzt, also bei gleichem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit auch sechsmal soviel Mehrwert, daher sechsmal soviel Profit gemacht wird.

two spheres, sixfold profit

Suppose a capital invested in one sphere of production, A, lays out only 100 of its total 700 as variable capital and 600 as constant, while in another sphere, B, 600 is laid out as variable and only 100 as constant. Then the total capital of 700 in A sets in motion a labour-power of only 100 — on the earlier assumption, 100 weeks of labour, or 6,000 hours of living labour — while the equal-sized total capital of 700 in B sets in motion 600 weeks, or 36,000 hours of living labour. Capital A would therefore appropriate only 50 weeks, or 3,000 hours, of surplus labour, while the equal-sized capital in B would appropriate 300 weeks, or 18,000 hours.

Variable capital is an index not only of the labour it itself contains, but — given a fixed rate of surplus-value — also of the extra, surplus labour it sets in motion beyond that. At the same degree of exploitation of labour, the profit would be 100/700 = 1/7 = 14 2/7 per cent in the first case, and 600/700 = 85 5/7 per cent in the second: six times the rate. But in fact the profit itself would also be six times greater in this case — 600 for B against 100 for A — because six times as much living labour is set in motion with the same capital, so that at the same degree of exploitation of labour, six times the surplus-value, and hence six times the profit, is made.

Würden in A nicht 700, sondern 7.000 Pfd.St., in B dagegen nur 700 Pfd.St. Kapital angewandt, so würde das Kapital A, bei gleichbleibender organischer Zusammensetzung, 1.000 Pfd.St. von den 7.000 Pfd.St. als variables Kapital anwenden, also 1.000 Arbeiter wöchentlich = 60.000 Stunden lebendiger Arbeit, wovon 30.000 Stunden Mehrarbeit. Aber nach wie vor würde A mit je 700 Pfd.St. nur 1/6 soviel lebendige Arbeit und daher auch nur 1/6 soviel Mehrarbeit in Bewegung setzen wie B, also damit auch nur 1/6 soviel Profit produzieren. Wird die Profitrate betrachtet, so ist 1.000/7.000 = 100/700 = 14 2/7 % gegen 600/700 oder 85 5/7 % des Kapitals B. Gleich große Kapitalbeträge genommen, ist hier die Profitrate verschieden, weil bei gleicher Mehrwertsrate, infolge der verschiednen Massen in Bewegung gesetzter lebendiger Arbeit, die Massen der produzierten Mehrwerte und daher die Profite verschieden sind.

same result, any size

Suppose that instead of 700, capital A applied £7,000, while B still applied only £700. Then, with the organic composition unchanged, capital A would lay out £1,000 of the £7,000 as variable capital — that is, 1,000 workers weekly, or 60,000 hours of living labour, of which 30,000 hours would be surplus labour. But as before, A would set in motion, for each £700, only a sixth as much living labour, and hence only a sixth as much surplus labour, as B, and so also produce only a sixth as much profit. Looking at the rate of profit: 1,000/7,000 = 100/700 = 14 2/7 per cent, against 600/700, or 85 5/7 per cent, for capital B. Taking equal amounts of capital, the rate of profit differs here because, at an equal rate of surplus-value, the differing masses of living labour set in motion mean that the masses of surplus-value produced, and hence the profits, differ.

Dasselbe Resultat folgt tatsächlich, wenn die technischen Verhältnisse in der einen Produktionssphäre dieselben sind wie in der andern, aber der Wert der angewandten konstanten Kapitalelemente größer oder kleiner ist. Nehmen wir an, beide wenden 100 Pfd.St. als variables Kapital an und brauchen also 100 Arbeiter wöchentlich, um dasselbe Quantum Maschinerie und Rohstoff in Bewegung zu setzen, aber letztre seien teurer in B als in A. In diesem Falle kämen auf 100 Pfd.St. variables Kapital in A z.B. 200 Pfd.St. konstantes und in B 400. Dann ist bei einer Mehrwertsrate von 100% der produzierte Mehrwert beide mal gleich 100 Pfd.St.; also auch der Profit beidemal gleich 100 Pfd.St. Aber in A 100/200c+100v = 1/3 = 33 1/3 %; dagegen in B 100/400c+100v = 1/5 = 20%. In der Tat, nehmen wir in beiden Fällen einen bestimmten aliquoten Teil des Gesamtkapitals, so bildet in B von je 100 Pfd.St. nur 20 Pfd.St. oder 1/5 variables Kapital, während in A von je 100 Pfd.St. 33 1/3 Pfd.St. oder 1/3 variables Kapital ist. B produziert auf je 100 Pfd.St. weniger Profit, weil es weniger lebendige Arbeit in Bewegung setzt als A. Die Verschiedenheit der Profitraten löst sich hier also wieder auf in Verschiedenheit der auf je 100 der Kapitalanlagen erzeugten Profitmassen, weil Massen des Mehrwerts.

same result, dearer means of production

The same result follows, in fact, when the technical relations are the same in one sphere of production as in the other, but the value of the constant-capital elements applied is greater or smaller. Suppose both apply £100 as variable capital, and so both need 100 workers weekly to set the same quantity of machinery and raw material in motion — but that this quantity is dearer in B than in A. Then for every £100 of variable capital, A might need, say, £200 of constant capital, and B £400. At a rate of surplus-value of 100 per cent, the surplus-value produced is £100 in both cases, and so the profit is also £100 in both cases. But in A, 100/(200c + 100v) = 1/3 = 33⅓ per cent; in B, 100/(400c + 100v) = 1/5 = 20 per cent. Indeed, taking a definite fraction of the total capital in each case, in B only £20 out of every £100, or a fifth, is variable capital, while in A, £33⅓ out of every £100, or a third, is variable. B produces less profit for every £100 because, for every £100, it sets less living labour in motion than A. The difference in the rates of profit resolves, once again, into a difference in the masses of profit produced for every 100 of capital invested — that is, into a difference in the masses of surplus-value produced.

Der Unterschied dieses zweiten Beispiels vom vorhergehenden ist nur der: Die Ausgleichung zwischen A und B würde im zweiten Fall nur einen Wertwechsel des konstanten Kapitals, sei es von A oder B, bei gleichbleibender technischer Grundlage erfordern; im ersten Fall dagegen ist die technische Zusammensetzung selbst in den beiden Produktionssphären verschieden und müßte zur Ausgleichung umgewälzt werden.

what equalizing would take

The difference between this second example and the one before is only this: equalizing A and B in the second case would require only a change in the value of the constant capital, whether A's or B's, with the technical basis unchanged; in the first case, by contrast, the technical composition itself differs between the two spheres of production, and would have to be revolutionized to bring about equality.

Die verschiedne organische Zusammensetzung der Kapitale ist also unabhängig von ihrer absoluten Größe. Es fragt sich stets nur, wieviel von je 100 variables und wieviel konstantes Kapital ist.

organic composition, not absolute size

So the differing organic composition of capitals is independent of their absolute size. The only question is always how much of every 100 is variable capital, and how much is constant.

Kapitale von verschiedner Größe prozentig berechnet, oder was hier auf dasselbe herauskommt, Kapitale von gleicher Größe erzeugen also bei gleichem Arbeitstag und gleichem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit sehr verschiedne Mengen von Profit, weil von Mehrwert, und zwar weil, nach der verschiednen organischen Kapitalzusammensetzung in verschiednen Produktionssphären ihr variabler Teil verschieden ist, also die Quanta der von ihnen in Bewegung gesetzten lebendigen Arbeit verschieden, also auch die Quanta der von ihnen angeeigneten Mehrarbeit, der Substanz des Mehrwerts und daher des Profits. Gleich große Stücke des Gesamtkapitals in den verschiednen Produktionssphären schließen ungleich große Quellen des Mehrwerts ein, und die einzige Quelle des Mehrwerts ist die lebendige Arbeit. Bei gleichem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit hängt die Masse der von einem Kapital = 100 in Bewegung gesetzten Arbeit, und daher auch der von ihm angeeigneten Mehrarbeit, von der Größe seines variablen Bestandteils ab. Wenn ein Kapital, das prozentig aus 90c +10v besteht, bei gleichem Exploitationsgrad der Arbeit ebensoviel Mehrwert oder Profit erzeugte wie ein Kapital, das aus 10c + 90v besteht, dann wäre es sonnenklar, daß der Mehrwert und daher der Wert überhaupt eine ganz andre Quelle haben müßte als die Arbeit und daß damit jede rationelle Grundlage der politischen Ökonomie wegfiele. Setzen wir fortwährend 1 Pfd.St. gleich dem Wochenlohn eines Arbeiters für 60 Arbeitsstunden und die Mehrwertsrate = 100%, so ist klar, daß das Gesamtwertprodukt, das ein Arbeiter in einer Woche liefern kann = 2 Pfd.St.; 10 Arbeiter könnten also nicht mehr liefern als 20 Pfd.St.; und da von diesen 20 Pfd.St. 10 Pfd.St. den Arbeitslohn ersetzen, so könnten die 10 keinen größern Mehrwert schaffen als 10 Pfd.St.; während die 90, deren Gesamtprodukt = 180 Pfd.St., und deren Arbeitslohn = 90 Pfd.St., einen Mehrwert von 90 Pfd.St. schüfen. Die Profitrate wäre also im einen Fall 10%, im andern 90%. Sollte es anders sein, so müßten Wert und Mehrwert etwas andres sein als vergegenständlichte Arbeit. Da also Kapitale in verschiednen Produktionssphären, prozentig betrachtet - oder gleich große Kapitale -, sich ungleich einteilen in konstantes und variables Element, ungleich viel lebendige Arbeit in Bewegung setzen und daher ungleich viel Mehrwert, also Profit erzeugen, so ist die Rate des Profits, die eben in der prozentigen Berechnung des Mehrwerts auf das Gesamtkapital besteht, in ihnen verschieden.

the source is living labour

Capitals of different sizes reduced to percentages — or, which comes to the same thing here, capitals of equal size — therefore produce, at an equal working day and an equal degree of exploitation of labour, very different amounts of profit, because they produce very different amounts of surplus-value; and this is because, given the differing organic composition of capital in different spheres of production, their variable part differs, so the quantities of living labour they set in motion differ, and so too do the quantities of surplus labour they appropriate — the substance of surplus-value, and hence of profit.

Equal-sized pieces of the total capital in different spheres of production enclose unequal-sized sources of surplus-value — and the only source of surplus-value is living labour. At an equal degree of exploitation of labour, the amount of labour set in motion by a capital of 100, and hence also the surplus labour it appropriates, depends on the size of its variable component.

If a capital whose percentage composition is 90c + 10v produced, at the same degree of exploitation of labour, just as much surplus-value or profit as a capital of 10c + 90v, then it would be crystal clear that surplus-value — and so value itself — would have to have some quite different source than labour, and that this would knock away every rational basis for political economy. Let £1 stand throughout for a worker's weekly wage for 60 hours of labour, and the rate of surplus-value = 100 per cent. Then plainly the total value-product one worker can deliver in a week is £2; ten workers, then, could deliver no more than £20 — and since £10 of that £20 replaces wages, the ten could create no greater surplus-value than £10. But the ninety, whose total product = £180 and whose wages = £90, would create a surplus-value of £90. The rate of profit would then be 10 per cent in the one case, 90 per cent in the other. Were it otherwise, value and surplus-value would have to be something other than objectified labour.

So because capitals in different spheres of production, reduced to percentages — that is, capitals of equal size — divide unequally into constant and variable elements, set unequal amounts of living labour in motion, and therefore create unequal amounts of surplus-value, and so of profit, the rate of profit — which is simply surplus-value calculated as a percentage of the total capital — differs between them.

Wenn aber die Kapitale verschiedner Produktionssphären, prozentig berechnet, also gleich große Kapitale in verschiednen Produktionssphären ungleiche Profite erzeugen, infolge ihrer verschiednen organischen Zusammensetzung, so folgt, daß die Profite ungleicher Kapitale in verschiednen Produktionssphären nicht im Verhältnis zu ihren respektiven Größen stehn können, daß also die Profite in verschiednen Produktionssphären nicht den Größen der respektive in ihnen angewandten Kapitale proportional sind. Denn solches Wachsen des Profits pro rata der Größe des angewandten Kapitals würde unterstellen, daß prozentig betrachtet die Profite gleich sind, daß also gleich große Kapitale in verschiednen Produktionssphären gleiche Profitraten haben, trotz ihrer verschiednen organischen Zusammensetzung. Nur innerhalb derselben Produktionssphäre, wo also die organische Zusammensetzung des Kapitals gegeben ist, oder zwischen verschiednen Produktionssphären von gleicher organischer Zusammensetzung des Kapitals, stehn die Massen der Profite in geradem Verhältnis zur Masse der angewandten Kapitale. Daß die Profite ungleich großer Kapitale im Verhältnis ihrer Größen sind, heißt überhaupt nichts, als daß gleich große Kapitale gleich große Profite abwerfen oder daß die Profitrate für alle Kapitale gleich ist, welches immer ihre Größe und ihre organische Zusammensetzung.

profits are not proportional across spheres

But if capitals of different spheres of production, reduced to percentages — that is, capitals of equal size in different spheres of production — produce unequal profits owing to their differing organic composition, it follows that the profits of unequal capitals in different spheres of production cannot stand in proportion to their respective sizes: that is, profits in different spheres of production are not proportional to the sizes of the capitals respectively applied in them. For profit growing in proportion to the size of the capital applied would presuppose that, considered as percentages, the profits are equal — that equal-sized capitals in different spheres of production have equal rates of profit despite their differing organic composition. Only within one and the same sphere of production, where the organic composition of capital is given, or between different spheres of production of equal organic composition, do the masses of profit stand in direct proportion to the mass of capital applied. To say that the profits of capitals of unequal size are proportional to their sizes means nothing more than that equal-sized capitals throw off equal-sized profits, or that the rate of profit is the same for all capitals, whatever their size and their organic composition.

Es findet das Entwickelte statt unter der Voraussetzung, daß die Waren zu ihren Werten verkauft werden. Der Wert einer Ware ist gleich dem Wert des in ihr enthaltnen konstanten Kapitals, plus dem Wert des in ihr reproduzierten variablen Kapitals, plus dem Inkrement dieses variablen Kapitals, dem produzierten Mehrwert. Bei gleicher Rate des Mehrwerts hängt seine Masse offenbar ab von der Masse des variablen Kapitals. Der Wert des Produkts des Kapitals von 100 ist in dem einen Fall 90c + 10v + 10m = 110; im andern Fall 10c + 90v + 90m = 190. Werden die Waren zu ihren Werten verkauft, so das erste Produkt zu 110, wovon 10 Mehrwert oder unbezahlte Arbeit darstellt; das zweite Produkt dagegen zu 190, wovon 90 Mehrwert oder unbezahlte Arbeit.

value equation, sold at values

All this holds on the assumption that commodities are sold at their values. The value of a commodity equals the value of the constant capital contained in it, plus the value of the variable capital reproduced in it, plus what is added on top of that variable capital — the surplus-value produced. At an equal rate of surplus-value, the amount of surplus-value obviously depends on the amount of variable capital. The value of the product of a capital of 100 is, in the one case, 90c + 10v + 10s = 110; in the other, 10c + 90v + 90s = 190. If the commodities are sold at their values, the first product sells at 110, of which 10 is surplus-value, or unpaid labour; the second sells at 190, of which 90 is surplus-value, or unpaid labour.

Es ist dies namentlich wichtig, wenn nationale <1. Auflage: internationale> Profitraten miteinander verglichen werden. In einem europäischen Land sei die Rate des Mehrwerts 100%, d.h., der Arbeiter arbeite den halben Tag für sich und den halben Tag für seinen Beschäftiger; in einem asiatischen Land sei sie = 25%, d.h., der Arbeiter arbeite 4/5 des Tages für sich und 1/5 für seinen Beschäftiger. In dem europäischen Land aber sei die Zusammensetzung des nationalen Kapitals 84c + 16v, und im asiatischen Land, wo wenig Maschinerie etc. angewandt und in einer gegebnen Zeit von einer gegebnen Menge Arbeitskraft relativ wenig Rohmaterial produktiv konsumiert wird, sei die Zusammensetzung 16c + 84v. Wir haben dann folgende Rechnung:

comparing national profit rates

This matters especially when national rates of profit are compared with one another. Suppose that in a European country the rate of surplus-value is 100 per cent — that is, the worker works half the day for himself and half for his employer — while in an Asian country it is 25 per cent — the worker works four-fifths of the day for himself and one-fifth for his employer. But suppose the composition of the national capital in the European country is 84c + 16v, while in the Asian country, where little machinery is applied and a given quantity of labour-power productively consumes relatively little raw material in a given time, the composition is 16c + 84v. We then have the following calculation:

Im europäischen Land Produktwert = 84c + 16v + 16m = 116; Profitrate = 16/100 = 16%.

the European calculation

In the European country the product is worth 116 for every 100 laid out — 84c + 16v + 16s = 116 — so the rate of profit is 16/100 = 16 per cent.

Im asiatischen Land Produktwert = 16c + 84v + 21m = 121; Profitrate = 21/100 = 21%.

the Asian calculation

In the Asian country the product is worth 121 for every 100 laid out — 16c + 84v + 21s = 121 — so the rate of profit is 21/100 = 21 per cent.

Die Profitrate ist also im asiatischen Land um mehr als 25% größer als im europäischen, obgleich die Mehrwertsrate in jenem viermal kleiner ist als in diesem. Die Careys, Bastiats und tutti quanti werden gerade auf das Umgekehrte schließen.

against Carey and Bastiat

So the rate of profit is more than 25 per cent greater in the Asian country than in the European, even though the Asian rate of surplus-value is only a fourth as great as the European. Carey, Bastiat, and their like will conclude exactly the opposite.

Dies beiläufig; verschiedne nationale Profitraten werden meist auf verschiednen nationalen Mehrwertsraten beruhen; wir vergleichen aber in diesem Kapitel ungleiche Profitraten, die aus einer und derselben Mehrwertsrate entspringen.

one rate of surplus-value only

A remark in passing: different national rates of profit will mostly rest on different national rates of surplus-value. But what we are comparing in this chapter are unequal rates of profit that spring from one and the same rate of surplus-value.

Außer der verschiednen organischen Zusammensetzung der Kapitale, also außer den verschiednen Massen von Arbeit und damit auch, bei sonst gleichen Umständen, von Mehrarbeit, die Kapitale von gleicher Größe in verschiednen Produktionssphären in Bewegung setzen, besteht noch eine andre Quelle der Ungleichheit der Profitraten: die Verschiedenheit in der Länge des Umschlags des Kapitals in den verschiednen Produktionssphären. Wir haben im IV. Kapitel gesehn, daß bei gleicher Zusammensetzung der Kapitale und bei sonst gleichen Umständen die Profitraten sich umgekehrt verhalten wie die Umschlagszeiten, und ebenso, daß dasselbe variable Kapital, wenn es in verschiednen Zeiträumen umschlägt, ungleiche Massen von jährlichem Mehrwert zuwege bringt. Die Verschiedenheit der Umschlagszeiten ist also ein andrer Grund, warum gleich große Kapitale in verschiednen Produktionssphären nicht gleich große Profite in gleichen Zeiträumen produzieren und warum daher die Profitraten in diesen verschiednen Sphären verschieden sind.

turnover: a second inequality

Besides the differing organic composition of capitals — that is, besides the differing amounts of labour, and so, other things equal, of surplus labour, that equal-sized capitals set in motion in different spheres of production — there is another source of inequality among rates of profit: the difference in how long capital takes to turn over in different spheres of production. We saw in Chapter 4 that, with capitals of equal composition and other circumstances equal, rates of profit vary inversely with turnover times, and likewise that the same variable capital, turning over in different periods, brings in unequal amounts of surplus-value in the course of the year. So the difference in turnover times is another reason why equal-sized capitals in different spheres of production do not produce equal-sized profits in equal periods, and why the rates of profit in these different spheres therefore differ.

Was dagegen das Verhältnis der Zusammensetzung der Kapitale aus fixem und zirkulierendem Kapital betrifft, so affiziert es, an und für sich betrachtet, die Profitrate durchaus nicht. Es kann sie nur affizieren, wenn entweder diese verschiedne Zusammensetzung zusammenfällt mit verschiednem Verhältnis zwischen dem variablen und konstanten Teil, wo also diesem Unterschied, und nicht dem von zirkulierendem und fixem, die Verschiedenheit der Profitrate geschuldet ist; oder wenn das verschiedne Verhältnis zwischen fixen und zirkulierenden Bestandteilen eine Verschiedenheit bedingt in der Umschlagszeit, während welcher ein bestimmter Profit realisiert wird. Wenn Kapitale in verschiedner Proportion in fixes und zirkulierendes zerfallen, wird dies zwar stets Einfluß auf ihre Umschlagszeit haben und eine Verschiedenheit derselben hervorrufen; es folgt daraus aber nicht, daß die Umschlagszeit, worin dieselben Kapitale Profit realisieren, verschieden ist. Ob A z.B. beständig einen größern Teil des Produkts in Rohstoff etc. umsetzen muß, während B für längre Zeit dieselben Maschinen etc. bei weniger Rohstoff braucht, beide haben, soweit sie produzieren, stets einen Teil ihres Kapitals engagiert; der eine in Rohstoff, also zirkulierendem Kapital, der andre in Maschinen etc., also in fixem Kapital. A verwandelt beständig einen Teil seines Kapitals aus Warenform in Geldform und aus dieser zurück in die Form des Rohstoffs; während B einen Teil seines Kapitals ohne solche Veränderung für längren Zeitraum als Arbeitsinstrument benutzt. Wenn beide gleich viel Arbeit anwenden, so werden sie im Lauf des Jahrs zwar Produktenmassen von ungleichem Wert verkaufen, aber beide Produktenmassen werden gleich viel Mehrwert enthalten, und ihre Profitraten, die auf das gesamte vorgeschoßne Kapital berechnet werden, sind dieselben, obgleich ihre Zusammensetzung aus fixem und zirkulierendem Kapital und ebenso ihre Umschlagszeit verschieden ist. Beide Kapitale realisieren in gleichen Zeiten gleiche Profite, obgleich sie in verschiednen Zeiten umschlagen.²¹ Die Verschiedenheit der Umschlagszeit hat an und für sich nur Bedeutung, soweit sie die Masse der Mehrarbeit affiziert, die von demselben Kapital in einer gegebnen Zeit angeeignet und realisiert werden kann. Wenn also eine ungleiche Zusammensetzung aus zirkulierendem und fixem Kapital nicht notwendig eine Ungleichheit der Umschlagszeit einschließt, die ihrerseits Ungleichheit der Profitrate bedingt, so ist klar, daß, soweit letztre stattfindet, dies nicht aus der ungleichen Zusammensetzung von zirkulierendem und fixem Kapital an sich herrührt, sondern vielmehr daraus, daß diese letztre hier nur eine die Profitrate affizierende Ungleichheit der Umschlagszeiten anzeigt.

fixed and circulating decide nothing alone

As for the proportion in which capitals divide into fixed and circulating capital, this, taken by itself, does not affect the rate of profit at all. It can only affect it if this differing proportion happens to coincide with a differing ratio between the variable and constant parts — so that it is this difference, and not the one between circulating and fixed, that the differing rate of profit is really owed to — or if the differing ratio between fixed and circulating components brings about a difference in the turnover time within which a given profit is realized.

If capitals split in different proportions into fixed and circulating capital, this will indeed always influence their turnover time and produce a difference in it. But it does not follow that the turnover time in which these same capitals realize profit is different. Suppose A must constantly convert a larger part of its product into raw material and the like, while B needs the same machines for a longer time with less raw material: so far as each is producing, both always have a part of their capital tied up — one in raw material, that is, circulating capital, the other in machines, that is, fixed capital. A constantly converts a part of its capital from commodity-form into money-form and back again into the form of raw material, while B uses a part of its capital, without any such change, as an instrument of labour for a longer period. If both apply the same amount of labour, then over the course of the year they will indeed sell masses of product of unequal value, but both masses of product will contain the same amount of surplus-value, and their rates of profit, reckoned on the whole capital advanced, are the same — although their composition of fixed and circulating capital, and likewise their turnover time, differ. Both capitals realize equal profits in equal times, although they turn over in different times.

The difference in turnover time matters, taken by itself, only so far as it affects the amount of surplus labour that the same capital can appropriate and realize in a given time. So if an unequal composition of circulating and fixed capital does not necessarily bring with it an inequality of turnover time — which is what in turn produces an inequality in the rate of profit — then it is clear that, where such an inequality does occur, it does not arise from the unequal composition of circulating and fixed capital as such, but rather from the fact that this unequal composition here merely signals an inequality of turnover times, and it is that which affects the rate of profit.

Die verschiedne Zusammensetzung des konstanten Kapitals aus zirkulierendem und fixem in verschiednen Industriezweigen hat an sich also keine Bedeutung für die Profitrate, da das Verhältnis des variablen Kapitals zum konstanten entscheidet und der Wert des konstanten Kapitals, also auch seine relative Größe im Verhältnis zum variablen, durchaus unabhängig ist von dem fixen oder zirkulierenden Charakter seiner Bestandteile. Wohl aber wird sich finden - und dies leitet mit zu falschen Schlüssen -, daß da, wo das fixe Kapital bedeutend entwickelt, dies nur Ausdruck davon ist, daß die Produktion auf großer Stufenleiter betrieben wird und daher das konstante Kapital sehr überwiegt über das variable, oder daß die angewandte lebendige Arbeitskraft gering ist im Verhältnis zur Masse der von ihr in Bewegung gesetzten Produktionsmittel.

the illusion machinery creates

So the differing composition of constant capital into circulating and fixed, across different branches of industry, has no significance in itself for the rate of profit, since it is the ratio of variable to constant capital that decides it, and the value of the constant capital — and so also its relative size against the variable — is entirely independent of whether its components are fixed or circulating in character. What will indeed be found, though — and this is part of what leads to false conclusions — is that wherever fixed capital is heavily developed, this is only an expression of the fact that production is being carried on on a large scale, so that constant capital greatly outweighs variable, or that the living labour-power applied is small relative to the mass of means of production it sets in motion.

Wir haben also gezeigt: daß in verschiednen Industriezweigen, entsprechend der verschiednen organischen Zusammensetzung der Kapitale, und innerhalb der angegebnen Grenzen auch entsprechend ihren verschiednen Umschlagszeiten, ungleiche Profitraten herrschen und daß daher auch bei gleicher Mehrwertsrate nur für Kapitale von gleicher organischer Zusammensetzung - gleiche Umschlagszeiten vorausgesetzt - das Gesetz (der allgemeinen Tendenz nach) gilt, daß die Profite sich verhalten wie die Größen der Kapitale und daher gleich große Kapitale in gleichen Zeiträumen gleich große Profite abwerfen. Das Entwickelte gilt auf der Basis, welche überhaupt bisher die Basis unsrer Entwicklung war: daß die Waren zu ihren Werten verkauft werden. Andrerseits unterliegt es keinem Zweifel, daß in der Wirklichkeit, von unwesentlichen, zufälligen und sich ausgleichenden Unterschieden abgesehn, die Verschiedenheit der durchschnittlichen Profitraten für die verschiednen Industriezweige nicht existiert und nicht existieren könnte, ohne das ganze System der kapitalistischen Produktion aufzuheben. Es scheint also, daß die Werttheorie hier unvereinbar ist mit der wirklichen Bewegung, unvereinbar mit den tatsächlichen Erscheinungen der Produktion und daß daher überhaupt darauf verzichtet werden muß, die letztren zu begreifen.

the seeming contradiction

So we have shown that in different branches of industry, corresponding to the differing organic composition of capitals and — within the limits set out — also to their differing turnover times, unequal rates of profit prevail. It follows that, even at an equal rate of surplus-value, the law that profits stand in proportion to the sizes of the capitals, and that equal-sized capitals therefore throw off equal-sized profits in equal periods, holds — as a general tendency — only for capitals of equal organic composition, and only assuming equal turnover times besides. What has been shown holds on the same basis that has been the basis of our whole account so far: that commodities are sold at their values.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that in reality — setting aside inessential, accidental differences that cancel each other out — the difference between the average rates of profit across the various branches of industry does not exist, and could not exist, without abolishing the whole system of capitalist production.

It seems, then, that the theory of value is incompatible here with the actual movement of things, incompatible with the actual appearances of production, and that any hope of understanding those appearances must therefore be given up altogether.

Aus dem ersten Abschnitt dieses Buchs ergibt sich, daß die Kostpreise dieselben sind für Produkte verschiedner Produktionssphären, in deren Produktion gleich große Kapitalteile vorgeschossen sind, wie verschieden immer die organische Zusammensetzung dieser Kapitale sein möge. Im Kostpreis fällt der Unterschied von variablem und konstantem Kapital für den Kapitalisten fort. Ihm kostet eine Ware, zu deren Produktion er 100 Pfd. St. auslegen muß, gleich viel, lege er nun 90c + 10v oder 10c + 90v aus. Sie kostet ihm stets 100 Pfd. St., weder mehr noch weniger. Die Kostpreise sind dieselben für gleich große Kapitalauslagen in verschiednen Sphären, so sehr auch die produzierten Werte und Mehrwerte verschieden sein mögen. Diese Gleichheit der Kostpreise bildet die Basis der Konkurrenz der Kapitalanlagen, wodurch der Durchschnittsprofit hergestellt wird.

for the capitalist, the difference vanishes

It follows from Part One of this volume that cost prices are the same for products of different spheres of production in which equal-sized portions of capital have been advanced, however different the organic composition of these capitals may be. In the cost price, the distinction between variable and constant capital disappears for the capitalist. A commodity that costs him £100 to produce costs him the same £100 whether he lays out 90c + 10v or 10c + 90v to produce it. It always costs him £100, neither more nor less. Cost prices are the same for equal-sized capital outlays in different spheres of production, however different the values and surplus-values produced may be. This equality of cost prices forms the basis of the competition among capital investments, through which average profit is established.

Kap. 8

Variable Capital as Index of Labour, and Organic Composition

In the previous Part we showed, among other things, how the rate of profit may vary, either rising or falling, even with the same rate of surplus-value. In this chapter we now assume that the degree of exploitation of labour, i.e. the rate of surplus-value, and the length of the working day, is the same in all the spheres of production among which social labour is divided in the country in question. As far as the many variations in the exploitation of labour between different spheres of production are concerned, Adam Smith has already shown fully enough how they cancel one another out through all kinds of compensations, either real or accepted by prejudice, and how therefore they need not be taken into account in investigating the general conditions, as they are only apparent and evanescent. Other distinctions, for instance in the level of wages, depend to a large measure on the distinction between simple and complex labour that was mentioned already in the first chapter of Volume 1, p. 135, and although they make the lot of the workers in different spheres of production very unequal, they in no way affect the degree of exploitation of labour in these various spheres. If the work of a goldsmith is paid at a higher rate than that of a day-labourer, for example, the former’s surplus labour also produces a correspondingly greater surplus-value than does that of the latter. And even though the equalization of wages and working hours between one sphere of production and another, or between different capitals invested in the same sphere of production, comes up against all kinds of local obstacles, the advance of capitalist production and the progressive subordination of all economic relations to this mode of production tends nevertheless to bring this process to fruition. Important as the study of frictions of this kind is for any specialist work on wages, they are still accidental and inessential as far as the general investigation of capitalist production is concerned and can therefore be ignored. In a general analysis of the present kind, it is assumed throughout that actual conditions correspond to their concept, or, and this amounts to the same thing, actual conditions are depicted only in so far as they express their own general type.

the chapter's assumption: exploitation held equal

The distinctions between rates of surplus-value in different countries and hence between the different national levels of exploitation of labour are completely outside the scope of our present investigation. The object of this Part is simply to present the way in which a general rate of profit is arrived at within one particular country. It is clear for all, however, that in comparing different national rates of profit one need only combine what has been developed earlier with the arguments to be developed here. One would first consider the variation between national rates of surplus-value and then compare, on the basis of these given rates of surplus-value, how national rates of profit differ. In so far as their variation is not the result of variation in the national rates of surplus-value, it must be due to circumstances in which, as in this chapter, surplus-value is assumed to be everywhere the same, to be constant.

national rates of surplus-value set aside

We showed in the previous chapter that, if the rate of surplus-value is taken as constant, the rate of profit yielded by a particular capital can rise or fall as a result of circumstances that increase or decrease the value of one or other portion of the constant capital, and thereby affect the ratio between the constant and variable components of the capital as a whole. We also noted that circumstances which lengthen or shorten a capital’s turnover time may affect the rate of profit in a similar way. Since the amount of profit is identical with the amount of surplus-value, with surplus-value itself, it was also apparent that the amount of profit — as distinct from the rate of profit — was not affected by the fluctuations in value just mentioned. These only modified the rate in which a given surplus-value and hence also a profit of given magnitude was expressed, i.e. its relative magnitude, its magnitude compared with the magnitude of the capital advanced. In so far as these fluctuations in value led to the tying-up or the release of capital, both the rate of profit and profit itself could be affected by this indirect route. However, this was true only of capital already invested, not of new capital investments; and moreover the expansion or contraction of profit itself was always dependent on the extent to which more or less labour could be set in motion with the same capital, as a result of these price fluctuations, i.e. the extent to which a greater or lesser amount of surplus-value could be produced with the same capital, at the same rate of surplus-value. Far from contradicting the general law or forming an exception to it, this apparent exception was in actual fact only a special case of the general law’s application.

mass of profit versus its rate

It was shown in the previous Part that, with a constant level of exploitation of labour, the profit rate alters with changes in the value of the constituent elements of the constant capital, as well as with changes in the capital’s turnover time. From this it follows naturally that the rates of profit in different spheres of production that exist simultaneously alongside one another will differ if, other things remaining equal, either the turnover times of the capitals invested differ, or the value relations between the organic components of these capitals in different branches of production. What we previously viewed as changes that the same capital underwent in succession, we now consider as simultaneous distinctions between capital investments that exist alongside one another in different spheres of production.

different capitals compared side by side

We have now to investigate: (1) differences in the organic composition of capitals, (2) differences in their turnover time.

two questions to examine next

Here we will need to examine: first, the difference in the organic composition of capitals; second, the difference in their turnover time.

For this whole investigation, when we speak of the composition or the turnover of capital in a specific branch of production, it should be clear enough that we always mean the normal, average situation for capital invested in this branch of production, and refer always to the average of the total capital in the sphere in question, not to chance differences between individual capitals invested there.

the sphere's average, not one firm

Since we also assume that the rate of surplus-value and the working day are constant and since this assumption also involves constancy of wages, a certain quantity of variable capital means a certain quantity of labour-power set in motion and hence a certain quantity of labour objectifying itself. Thus if £100 expresses the weekly wage of 100 workers, thus indicating 100 units of labour-power, then n × £100 expresses the wages of n × 100 workers, and £ 100/n the wages of 100/n workers. The variable capital serves here, as always when wages are taken as constant, as an index of the mass of labour set in motion by a certain total capital; variations in the magnitude of the variable capital applied serve as indices of variations in the mass of labour-power applied. If £100 represents 100 workers per week, and thus 6,000 hours’ labour if the workers work a 60-hour week, then £200 represents 12,000 hours’ labour, and £50 only 3,000.

what variable capital indexes

By the composition of capital we mean, as already stated in Volume 1, the ratio between its active and its passive component, between variable and constant capital. Two relationships are involved here which are not of equal importance, even though they may in certain circumstances produce the same effect.

two ratios, not equally important

The first relationship depends on technical conditions and is to be taken as given, at any particular stage of development of productivity. A certain quantity of labour-power, represented by a certain number of workers, is required to produce a certain volume of products in a day, for example, and this involves putting a certain definite mass of means of production in motion and consuming them productively — machines, raw materials etc. A definite number of workers corresponds to a definite quantity of means of production, and thus a definite amount of living labour to a definite amount of labour already objectified in means of production. This proportion can vary greatly between different spheres of production and often even between different branches of one and the same industry, although it may also happen to be the same in branches of industry that are very far apart.

workers to means of production

This proportion constitutes the technical composition of capital, and is the actual basis of its organic composition.

technical composition defined

This ratio forms the technical composition of capital, and it is the actual basis of the capital's organic composition.

But it is possible for the proportion to be the same in different branches of industry only in so far as variable capital serves simply as an index of labour-power, and constant capital as an index of the volume of means of production that labour-power sets in motion. Certain operations in copper or iron, for example, may involve the same proportion between labour-power and means of production. But because copper is dearer than iron, the value relationship between variable and constant capital will be different in each case, and so therefore will the value composition of the two capitals taken as a whole. The distinction between technical composition and value composition shows itself in every branch of industry by the way the value ratio between the two portions of capital may change while the technical composition remains constant, whereas, with a changed technical composition, the value ratio may remain the same; the latter, of course, happens only if the change in the proportionate quantities of means of production and labour-power applied is cancelled out by an opposite change in their values.

technical and value composition can diverge

The organic composition of capital is the name we give to its value composition, in so far as this is determined by its technical composition and reflects it. ²⁰

organic composition defined

The value composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by the capital's technical composition and reflects that technical composition, we call the organic composition of capital.

The variable capital, therefore, is assumed to be an index of a definite amount of labour-power, a definite number of workers or definite masses of living labour set in motion. We saw in the previous Part how changes in the magnitude of the variable capital may represent nothing but a higher or lower price for the same amount of labour. Here, however, this does not apply, as both the rate of surplus-value and the working day are taken as constant, and the wage for a certain labour-time is also given. A difference in the magnitude of the constant capital, on the other hand, may well be the index of a change in the volume of means of production set in motion by a certain quantity of labour-power; though it can also arise from a difference in the value that the means of production set in motion in one sphere of production have as compared with those in other spheres. Here, therefore, these two aspects both come into consideration.

constant capital: either mass or value

The following fundamental point should also be noted:

one more essential point

Finally, the following essential point should be noted:

Assume that £100 is the weekly wage for 100 workers, the working week is 60 hours, and the rate of surplus-value is 100 per cent. In this case, the workers work 30 of these 60 hours for themselves and 30 gratis for the capitalist. The £100 in wages actually embodies only 30 working hours of these 100 workers, or a total of 3,000 hours, while the other 3,000 hours that they work are embodied in the £100 surplus-value or profit that the capitalist tucks away. Even though the wage of £100 does not express the value in which the week’s work of 100 workers is objectified, it still indicates, since the length of the working day and the rate of surplus-value are given, that 100 workers are set in motion for a total of 6,000 hours. The capital of £100 indicates this for two reasons. Firstly, because it indicates the number of workers set in motion, since £1 = 1 worker per week, i.e. £100 = 100 workers; the second reason is this: owing to the fact that each worker, set in motion at the given rate of surplus-value of 100 per cent, performs as much labour again as is contained in his wage, i.e. £1, this wage, which is the expression of half a week’s labour, sets a whole week’s labour in motion, and similarly £100, though it contains only 50 weeks’ labour, sets in motion 100 weeks’. There is therefore a very fundamental distinction to be made between the variable capital laid out on wages to the extent that its value, the sum of wages paid, represents a definite quantity of objectified labour, and the variable capital to the extent that its value is simply an index of the mass of living labour that it sets in motion. This last is always greater than the labour contained in the variable capital and is thus also expressed in a higher value than that of the variable capital; in a value that is determined on the one hand by the number of workers that this variable capital sets in motion and on the other hand by the quantity of surplus labour they perform.

variable capital: value versus index

Kap. 8

Unequal Rates of Profit at an Equal Rate of Surplus-Value - and Equal Cost Prices

Considering the variable capital in this way, we arrive at two conclusions:

what follows from this view

It follows from this way of looking at variable capital:

If a capital invested in sphere of production A spends only 100 in variable capital against 600 in constant, for each 700 overall, while in sphere of production B 600 is spent in variable capital and only 100 in constant, then that total capital A of 700 sets in motion a labour-power of only 100, thus under our above assumptions only 100 working weeks or 6,000 hours of living labour, while the equally large total capital B sets in motion 600 working weeks and therefore 36,000 hours of living labour. The capital in sphere A would therefore appropriate only 50 working weeks’ or 3,000 hours’ surplus labour, while the capital of equal size in sphere B would appropriate 300 working weeks or 18,000 hours. The variable capital is not only an index of the labour it itself contains, but also, at a given rate of surplus-value, of the excess or surplus labour that it sets in motion over and above this amount. At the same level of exploitation of labour, the profit would be 100/700 = 1/7 = 14 2/7 per cent in the first case, and 600/700 = 85 5/7 per cent in the second case, six times as much. Not only that, but the actual profit in this case would itself be six times greater, 600 for B as against 100 for A, as six times as much living labour has been set in motion with the same capital, and so six times as much surplus-value, and thus six times as much profit, has been made with the same degree of exploitation of labour.

two spheres, sixfold profit

If in sphere A it was not £700 but £7,000 that had been invested, as against a capital of only £700 in sphere B, then capital A, with the organic composition remaining the same, would use £1,000 of this £7,000 as variable capital and thus employ 1,000 workers for a week = 60,000 hours’ living labour, of which 30,000 hours would be surplus labour. But A would still, as before, set in motion only a sixth as much living labour for each £700 as would B and would therefore produce only a sixth as much profit. If we consider the rate of profit, then 1,000/7,000 = 100/700 = 14 2/7 per cent, against 600/700 or 85 5/7 per cent for capital B. With equal amounts of capital, the rates of profit here are different, since at equal rates of surplus-value the masses of surplus-value and therefore profit that are produced differ as a result of the different masses of living labour set in motion.

same result, any size

The same result follows in fact if the technical conditions in the one sphere of production are the same as in the other, but the value of the constant capital element is greater or less. Let us assume that both capitals employ £100 as variable capital and thus use 100 workers for a week to set the same quantity of machinery and raw material in motion, but that this quantity is dearer in case B than in case A. In this case, £100 variable capital would be combined with, say, £200 constant capital in case A and £400 in case B. At a rate of surplus-value of 100 per cent, then, the surplus-value produced is in both cases £100, and the profit in both cases similarly £100. But in A, 100/(200c + 100v) = 1/3 = 33⅓ per cent, while in B, 100/(400c + 100v) = 1/5 = 20 per cent. In actual fact, if we take a definite aliquot part of the total capital in both cases, then in case B only £20 of each £100, or a fifth, forms the variable capital, while in case A £33⅓ of each £100, or a third, is variable capital. B produces less profit for each £100 than does A, because it sets less living labour in motion [for each £100]. The difference in the rate of profit is thus reduced here again to a difference in the mass of profit — because mass of surplus-value — produced for each 100 units of capital invested.

same result, dearer means of production

The distinction between this second example and the one before is simply this: the equalization of A and B in the second case would require no more than a change in the value of the constant capital, either in A or B, with the technical basis remaining the same; in the first case, on the other hand, the technical composition itself differs between the two spheres of production and would have to be transformed in order for such an equalization to occur.

what equalizing would take

Differing organic compositions of capitals are thus independent of their absolute magnitudes. The only question is always how much of each 100 units is variable capital and how much is constant.

organic composition, not absolute size

So the differing organic composition of capitals is independent of their absolute size. The only question is always how much of every 100 is variable capital, and how much is constant.

Capitals of the same size, or capitals of different magnitudes reduced to percentages, operating with the same working day and the same degree of exploitation of labour, thus produce very different amounts of surplus-value and therefore profit, and this is because their variable portions differ according to the differing organic composition of capital in different spheres of production, which means that different quantities of living labour are set in motion, and hence also different quantities of surplus labour, of the substance of surplus-value and therefore of profit, are appropriated. Equal-sized portions of the total capital in different spheres of production include sources of surplus-value of unequal size, and the only source of surplus-value is living labour. At any given level of exploitation of labour, the mass of labour set in motion by a capital of 100, and thus also the surplus labour it appropriates, depends on the size of its variable component. If a capital whose percentage composition is 90c + 10v were to produce just as much surplus-value or profit, at the same level of exploitation of labour, as a capital of 10c + 90v, it would be as clear as day that surplus-value and hence value in general had a completely different source from labour, and in this way any rational basis for political economy would fall away. If we continue to take £1 as the weekly wage of one worker for 60 hours’ work and the rate of surplus-value as 100 per cent, it is readily apparent that the total value product that a worker can supply in a week is £2. Therefore, 10 workers cannot supply more than £20, and as £10 of this £20 has to replace the wages, these workers cannot create a surplus-value greater than £10. However, 90 workers whose total product was £180 and whose wages £90 would create a surplus-value of £90. The rate of profit here would be in the one case 10 per cent and in the other case 90 per cent. If it should be otherwise, value and surplus-value would have to be something other than objectified labour. Since capitals of equal size in different spheres of production, capitals of different size considered by percentage, are unequally divided into a constant and a variable element, set in motion unequal amounts of living labour and hence produce unequal amounts of surplus-value or profit, the rate of profit, which consists precisely of the surplus-value calculated as a percentage of the total capital, is different in each case.

the source is living labour

But if capitals of equal size in different spheres of production, and thus capitals of different size, taken by percentage, produce unequal profits as a result of their differing organic composition, it follows that the profits of unequal capitals in different spheres of production cannot stand in proportion to their respective sizes, and that profits in different spheres of production are not proportionate to the magnitudes of the capitals that are respectively employed. For if profits did increase in proportion to the size of the capital applied, this would imply that the percentage of profit was always the same and that capitals of equal size had the same rate of profit in different spheres of production, despite their varying organic composition. It is only within the same sphere of production, where the organic composition of capital is therefore given, or between different spheres of production with the same organic composition of capital, that the mass of profit stands in exact proportion to the mass of capital employed. If the profits of unequal capitals were in proportion to their size, this would mean that equal capitals yielded equal profits, or that the rate of profit was the same for all capitals irrespective of their magnitude and their organic composition.

profits are not proportional across spheres

The above argument assumes that commodities are sold at their values. The value of a commodity is equal to the value of the constant capital contained in it, plus the value of the variable capital reproduced in it, plus the increment on this variable capital, the surplus-value produced. Given a certain rate of surplus-value, its mass evidently depends on the mass of the variable capital. The value produced by a capital of 100 would be in the one case 90c + 10v + 10s = 110; in the other case 10c + 90v + 90s = 190. If commodities are sold at their values, the first product is sold at 110, of which 10 represents surplus-value or unpaid labour; the second product is sold at 190, of which 90 is surplus-value or unpaid labour.

value equation, sold at values

This is particularly important when the rates of profit in different countries are compared with one another. In a European country the rate of surplus-value might be 100 per cent, i.e. the worker might work half the day for himself and half the day for his employer; in an Asian country it might be 25 per cent, i.e. the worker might work four-fifths of the day for himself and one-fifth of the day for his employer. In the European country, however, the composition of the national capital might be 84c + 16v, and in the Asian country, where little machinery, etc. is used and relatively little raw material productively consumed in a given period of time, the composition might be 16c + 84v. We then have the following calculation:

comparing national profit rates

In the European country, the value of the product = 84c + 16v + 16s = 116; rate of profit = 16/100 = 16 per cent.

the European calculation

In the European country the product is worth 116 for every 100 laid out — 84c + 16v + 16s = 116 — so the rate of profit is 16/100 = 16 per cent.

In the Asian country, the value of the product = 16c + 84v + 21s = 121; rate of profit = 21/100 = 21 per cent.

the Asian calculation

In the Asian country the product is worth 121 for every 100 laid out — 16c + 84v + 21s = 121 — so the rate of profit is 21/100 = 21 per cent.

The rate of profit in the Asian country would thus be some 25 per cent higher than in the European country, even though the rate of surplus-value was only a fourth as great. Carey, Bastiat and their like would draw precisely the opposite conclusion.

against Carey and Bastiat

We may remark in passing that different national rates of profit generally depend on different national rates of surplus-value; but in this chapter we are comparing unequal rates of profit that spring from one and the same rate of surplus-value.

one rate of surplus-value only

Besides the differing organic composition of capital, i.e. besides the different masses of labour, and therefore, other things being equal, of surplus labour as well, set in motion by capitals of the same size in different spheres of production, there is a further source of inequality between rates of profit: the variation in the length of capital turnover in the different spheres of production. We have already seen in Chapter 4 that with the same composition of capital, other things being equal, rates of profit vary in inverse proportion to the turnover time, and similarly that the same variable capital, taking different periods of time to turn over, brings in unequal masses of surplus-value in the course of the year. Variation in the turnover time is thus a further reason why capitals of equal size do not produce equally large profits in equal periods of time, and why rates of profit thus vary between the different spheres.

turnover: a second inequality

As far as concerns the proportion in which the capital is composed of fixed and circulating elements, this does not in any way affect the profit rate, taken by itself. It can only affect it either if this differing composition coincides with a differing ratio between the variable and constant portions, in which case the variation in the rate of profit is due to this difference and not to the different ratio between circulating and fixed; or alternatively if the varying ratio between fixed and circulating components involves a variation in the turnover time that it takes to realize a certain profit. If capitals exhibit different proportions of fixed and circulating capital, this always has an influence on their turnover time and gives rise to differences in it; but it does not follow from this that the turnover time in which the same capitals realize a certain profit necessarily differs. Though A might always have to convert a greater portion of its product into raw material, etc., while B uses the same machines for a longer time with less raw material, both have regularly committed a portion of their capital, to the extent of their production; the one in raw material, i.e. circulating capital, the other in machines, etc., i.e. in fixed capital. A is constantly transforming a portion of its capital from the commodity form into the money form, and from this back into the form of raw material; while B uses part of its capital as an instrument of labour for a longer period of time without such a change. If both of them employ the same amount of labour, they will certainly sell products of unequal value in the course of a year, but in each case the mass of products will contain the same amount of surplus-value, and their rates of profit will be the same, calculated on the total capital advanced, despite the differences in their composition in terms of fixed and circulating capital, and similarly their turnover time. The two capitals realize equal profits in equal times, even though they take different times to turn over. ²¹ Variation in the turnover time is significant in and of itself only in so far as it affects the mass of surplus-value that the same capital can appropriate and realize in a given time. Thus if unequal compositions of circulating and fixed capital do not necessarily go together with unequal turnover times, which in turn mean unequal rates of profit, it is evident that, in so far as the latter does occur, this does not arise from the unequal composition of circulating and fixed capital as such, but rather from the way that this latter simply indicates an inequality in turnover times that affects the rate of profit.

fixed and circulating decide nothing alone

Thus the differing proportions of circulating and fixed capital, of which constant capital is composed, in the different branches of industry, do not have any bearing in themselves on the rate of profit; what is decisive is the ratio between the variable capital and the constant, while the value of the constant capital, and thus its relative magnitude in relation to the variable, is quite independent of the fixed or circulating character of its components. We do find, however — and this can lead to incorrect conclusions — that where fixed capital is strongly developed, this is simply an expression of the fact that production is pursued on a large scale and that constant capital is very much predominant over variable, i.e. that the living labour-power applied is small in comparison with the volume of means of production that it sets in motion.

the illusion machinery creates

We have shown, therefore, that in different branches of industry unequal profit rates prevail, corresponding to the different organic composition of capitals, and, within the indicated limits, corresponding also to their different turnover times; so that at a given rate of surplus-value it is only for capitals of the same organic composition — assuming equal turnover times — that the law holds good, as a general tendency, that profits stand in direct proportion to the amount of capital, and that capitals of equal size yield equal profits in the same period of time. The above argument is true on the same basis as our whole investigation so far: that commodities are sold at their values. There is no doubt, however, that in actual fact, ignoring inessential, accidental circumstances that cancel each other out, no such variation in the average rate of profit exists between different branches of industry, and it could not exist without abolishing the entire system of capitalist production. The theory of value thus appears incompatible with the actual movement, incompatible with the actual phenomena of production, and it might seem that we must abandon all hope of understanding these phenomena.

the seeming contradiction

It has emerged from Part One of this volume that cost prices are the same for the products of different spheres of production if equal portions of capital are advanced in their production, no matter how different the organic composition of these capitals might be. In the cost price, the distinction between variable and constant capital is abolished, as far as the capitalist is concerned. For him, a commodity which he must lay out £100 to produce costs the same whether he lays out 90c + 10v or 10c + 90v. In each case it costs him £100, neither more nor less. Cost prices are the same for equal capital investments in different spheres, however much the values and surplus-values produced may differ. This equality in the cost prices forms the basis for the competition between capital investments by means of which an average profit is produced.

for the capitalist, the difference vanishes