Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-19
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL,
BY KARL MARK.
Translated by j, l., JoYNEs.
 LCoNTINUED.

as a dwelling place. But let palace arise by the side of this small house, and it shrinks from house into hut. The smallness of the house now gives it to he understood that its occupant has either very small pretensonS or none at all; and however high it may shoot up with the progress of civilization, if the neighhor- ing palace shoots up also in the same or in greater proportion, the occupant of the comparatively small house will always Hrd himself more uncomfortable, more discOntented, more confined within his four walls.
 A notable advance in the amount paid as wages brings about rapid increase of productive capital The rapid increase of productive capital calls forth just as rapid an increase in wealth, luxury, so- cal wants and social comforts. There fore, although the comforts of the labor. CT have risen, the social satisfaction which they give has fallen in comparison with these augmented comforts of the capitalist which are unattainabe frr the laborer, and in comparison with the gen eral development of comforts. Our wants and their satisfaction have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in their relation to society, and not in rela ton to the objects which satisfy them Since their nature is social it is therefore relative.
 AS a rule then, wages are not deter mined mercy by the amount of commod- itie5 for which they may be exchanged They depend upon various relations,
 What the laborer immediately receives for his labor is a certain sum of money, Are wages determined merely by this money price:
 @- In the the sixteenth century the gold and silver in circulation in England was augmented in consequence of the discov- cry of America The value of gold and silver fell therefore, in proportion to other commodities. The laborers re- ceived for their labor the same amount of silver coin as before. The money price of their labor remained the same, and yet their wages had fallen, for in eX- change for the same sum of silver they obtained a smaller quantity of other commodities. This was one of the cir cumstances which furth'ered the increase of capital and the rise of the bourgeoisie m the sixteenth century.
 Let Us take another case In the winter of lSi1. in consequence of fail ure in the crops, there was an important increase in the price of the indispensable means of subsistence, corn, meat, butter, cheese, and so on. We will suppose that the laborers still received the same sum of money for their labor as before. Had not their wages fallen, then? Of course they had. For the same amount of money they received in exchange less bread, meat, etc.; and their wages had fallen, not because the value of silver had diminished, but because the value of the means of subsistence had increased.
 Let Us finally suppose that the money price of labor remains the same, while in consequence of the employment of new machinery, or on account of a good req son, there is fall in the price of all agri- cultural and manufactured goods. For the same amount of money the laborers can now buy more commodities of all kinds. Their wages have therefore risen, just because their money price has not changed.
 The money price of labor, the nominal amount of wages, does not therefore fall together with the real wages. that is, with the amount of commodities that may practically be obtained in exchange for the wages, Therefore if we speak of the rise and fall of wages, the money price of labor or the nominal wage, is not the only thing which we must keep in view.
 But neither the nominal wages, that is. the amount of money for which the laborer sells himself to the employer, nor yet the real wages, that is, the amount of commodities which he can buy for this money, exhaust the relations which are comprehended in the term wages.
 For the meaning of the word is chiefly determined by its relation to the gain or profit of the emplOyer-lt Is a propor- tionate and relative expression.
 The real wage expresses the price of labor in relation to the price of other commodities; the relative wage, on the contrary, expresses the price of direct labor i'll relation to that of stored-up labor, the relative value of wage-labor and capital, the proportionate value of capitalist and laborer.
 Real wages may remain the same, or they may even rise, and yet the relative wages may none the less have fallen. Let us assume, for example, that the price of all the means of subsistence has fallen by two-thirds, while a days wages have only fallen one-third, as for instance, from three shillings to two. Although the laborer has larger amount of com modites at his disposal for two shillings than he had before for three yet his wages are nevertheless diminished in proportion to the capitalists gain. The capitalists proft-the manufacturers, for instance has been augmented by shilling, since for the smaller sum of ex- change value which he pays to the labor CT, the iaborer las to produce larger sum of eXehange-value than he did be- fore. The yalup of capital is raised in