Workmen's advocate., 1886-11-28
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL
BY KARL MARX.
Translated by |. l., JoYNEs.
 lCONTINUED.

price of a commodity to its cost of pro- ductlon. 1t is true that the precise price of a commodity is always either above or below it's cost of production; but the rise and fall reciprocally balance each other, So,WIthln certain period, if the ebb and flow of business are reCkoned up together, commodities are exchanged with one another in accordance with their cost of production; and thus their cost of pro duction determines their price.
 The determination of price by cost of production Is not to De understood in the sense of the economists The economists declare that the average price of com modltles Is equal to the cost of produc- ton; this, according to them, is law. The anarChlCal movements in which the rise is compensated by the fall, and the fall by the rise, they ascribe to chance. With Just as good right as this, which the other economists assume, we might consider the fluctuations as the law, and ascribe the fixing of price by cost of pro- ductlon to chance. But if we look close ly, we see that it is precisely these fluctu- ationS, although they bring the most terrible desolatiOn in their train and
 
 earthquakes, it is precisely these huctu ations which in their course determine price by cost of production. In the to- tallty of this disOrderly movement is to be found it's order. Throughout these alternating movements, i'll the course of this industrial anarchy, competition, as it were, cancels one excess by means of another
 We gather, therefore, that the price of commodity is determined by its cost of production, in such manner that the periods in which the price of this com modlty rises above its cost of production are compensated by the periods in which 1t sinks below this cost, and conversely or course this does not hold good for one single particular product of an industry, but only for that entire branch of indus try. So also it does not hold good for a particular manufacturer, but only for the entire industrial class.
 The determination of price by cost of production is the same thing as its de- termination by the duration of the labor which IS required for the manufacture of commodity; for cost of production may be divided into CD raw material and implements, that is, products of industry whose manufacture has cost certain | number of days work, and which there fore represents certain duration of labor, and @ actual labor, which is measured by its duration.
 Now the same general laws, which uni versally regulate the price of commodi- | ties, regulate, of course, wages, the price of labor.
 Wages will rise and fall in accordance with the proportion between demand and supply, that IS, in accordance with the conditions of the competition between capitalists as buyers, and laborers as sellers of labor. The fluctuations of wages correspond in general with the fluctuations in the price of commodities. Within these fluctuations the price of labor is regulated by it's cost of produc- tion that IS, by the duration of labor which Is required in order to produce this commodity, labor.
 Now what Is the cost of production of labor itself?
 It is the cost required for the produc- tlon of q laborer and for his maintenance as a labOrer.
 The shorter the time requisite for in StructIOn in any labor, the less is the la borers cost of production, and the lower are his wages, the price of his work. In those branches of industry which scarcely require any period of appren- tlceShip, and where the mere bodily eX- istenCe of the labOrer is sufficient, the requisite cost of his production and main tenance are almost limited to the cost of the commodities which are requisite to keep him alive. The price of his labor is therefore determined by the price of the bare necessaries of his existence.
 Here. however, another consideration comes in. The manufacturer who reckons up his expenses of production and determines accordingly the price of the product, takes into account the wear and tear of the machinery. If machine costs him 100 pounds and wears itself out in ten years, he adds ten pounds a year to the price of his goods, in order to replace the worn out machine by a new one when the ten years are up. In the same way we must reckon in the cost of production of simple labor the cost of its propagation; so that the race of laborers may be put in a position to multiply and to replace the worn-out workers by new ones Thus the wear and tear of the laborer must be taken into account just as much as the wear and tear of the machine.
 Thus the cost of production of simple lahor amounts to tte cost of the Iaborer'S S,bsifence and propagation, and the price of this cost determines his wages. When We speak of wages we mean the minimum of wages. This minimum of wages holds good, Just as does the deter mutation hy' t6e Cost of production of the price of commodities in general, not for the particular individual bat for the species. Ind.viduai laborers, indeed mil. Enns nf tbem. do mt receive ennngh to