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use, for a limited time, of my particular bodily and mental aptitudes and capabilities; because in
consequence of this restriction, they are impressed with a character of alienation with regard to me as
a whole. But by the alienation of all my labour-time and the whole of my work, I should be converting
the substance itself, in other words, my general activity and reality, my person, into the property of
another.” (Hegel, “Philosophie des Rechts.” Berlin, 1840, p. 104, § 67.)
4
The capitalist epoch is therefore characterised by this, that labour-power takes in the eyes of the
labourer himself the form of a commodity which is his property; his labour consequently becomes
wage-labour. On the other hand, it is only from this moment that the produce of labour universally
becomes a commodity.
5
“The value or worth of a man, is as of all other things his price — that is to say, so much as would be
given for the use of his power.” (Th. Hobbes: “Leviathan” in Works, Ed. Molesworth. Lond. 1839-44,
v. iii. p. 76.)
6
Hence the Roman Villicus, as overlooker of the agricultural slaves, received “more meagre fare than
working slaves, because his work was lighter.” (Th. Mommsen, Röm. Geschichte, 1856, p. 810.)
7
Compare W. Th. Thornton: “Over-population and its Remedy,” Lond., 1846.
8
Petty.
9
“Its (labour’s) natural price ... consists in such a quantity of necessaries and comforts of life, as, from
the nature of the climate, and the habits of the country, are necessary to support the labourer, and to
enable him to rear such a family as may preserve, in the market, an undiminished supply of labour.”
(R. Torrens: “An Essay on the External Corn Trade.” Lond. 1815, p. 62.) The word labour is here
wrongly used for labour-power.
10
Rossi: “Cours d’Econ. Polit.,” Bruxelles, 1842, p. 370.
11
Sismondi: “Nouv. Princ. etc.,” t. I, p. 112.
12
“All labour is paid after it has ceased.” (“An Inquiry into those Principles Respecting the Nature of
Demand,” &c., p. 104.) Le crédit commercial a dû commencer au moment où l’ouvrier,
premier
artisan de la production, a pu, au moyen de ses économies, attendre le salaire de son travail jusqu’à la
fin de la semaine, de la quinzaine, du mois, du trimestre, &c.” [“The system of commercial credit had
to start at the moment when the labourer, the prime creator of products, could, thanks to his savings,
wait for his wages until the end of the week.”] (Ch. Ganilh: “Des Systèmes d’Econ. Polit.” 2éme édit.
Paris, 1821, t. II, p. 150.)
13
“L’ouvrier prête son industrie,” but adds Storch slyly: he “risks nothing” except “de perdre son
salaire ... l’ouvrier ne transmet rien de matériel.” [“The labourer lends his industry ... the loss of his
wages ... the labourer does not hand over anything of a material nature.”] (Storch: “Cours d’Econ.
Polit.” Pétersbourg, 1815, t. II., p. 37.)
14
One example. In London there are two sorts of bakers, the “full priced,” who sell bread at its full
value, and the “undersellers,” who sell it under its value. The latter class comprises more than three-
fourths of the total number of bakers. (p. xxxii in the Report of H. S. Tremenheere, commissioner to
examine into “the grievances complained of by the journeymen bakers,” &c., Lond. 1862.) The
undersellers, almost without exception, sell bread adulterated with alum, soap, pearl ashes, chalk,
Derbyshire stone-dust, and such like agreeable nourishing and wholesome ingredients. (See the above
cited Blue book, as also the report of “the committee of 1855 on the adulteration of bread,” and Dr.
Hassall’s “Adulterations Detected,” 2nd Ed. Lond. 1861.) Sir John Gordon stated before the
committee of 1855, that “in consequence of these adulterations, the poor man, who lives on two
pounds of bread a day, does not now get one fourth part of nourishing matter, let alone the deleterious
effects on his health.” Tremenheere states (l.c., p. xlviii), as the reason, why a very large part of the
working-class, although well aware of this adulteration, nevertheless accept the alum, stone-dust, &c.,
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as part of their purchase: that it is for them “a matter of necessity to take from their baker or from the
chandler’s shop, such bread as they choose to supply.” As they are not paid their wages before the end
of the week, they in their turn are unable “to pay for the bread consumed by their families, during the
week, before the end of the week,” and Tremenheere adds on the evidence of witnesses, “it is
notorious that bread composed of those mixtures, is made expressly for sale in this manner.” In many
English and still more Scotch agricultural districts, wages are paid fortnightly and even monthly; with
such long intervals between the payments, the agricultural labourer is obliged to buy on credit.... He
must pay higher prices, and is in fact tied to the shop which gives him credit. Thus at Horningham in
Wilts, for example, where the wages are monthly, the same flour that he could buy elsewhere at 1s
10d per stone, costs him 2s 4d per stone. (“Sixth Report” on “Public Health” by “The Medical Officer
of the Privy Council, &c., 1864,” p.264.) “The block printers of Paisley and Kilmarnock enforced, by
a strike, fortnightly, instead of monthly payment of wages.” (“Reports of the Inspectors of Factories
for 31st Oct., 1853,” p. 34.) As a further pretty result of the credit given by the workmen to the
capitalist, we may refer to the method current in many English coal mines, where the labourer is not
paid till the end of the month, and in the meantime, receives sums on account from the capitalist, often
in goods for which the miner is obliged to pay more than the market price (Truck-system). “It is a
common practice with the coal masters to pay once a month, and advance cash to their workmen at the
end of each intermediate week. The cash is given in the shop” (i.e., the Tommy shop which belongs to
the master); “the men take it on one side and lay it out on the other.” (“Children’s Employment
Commission, III. Report,” Lond. 1864, p. 38, n. 192.)