The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1903-10-03
New Iberia, La.

the railways, in which 1t formerly
omb died itself. The bodily form
of capital may change continual.
ay while the capital itself under
goes not the slightest alteration.
But though all capital is the
sum Of commodities, of exchange
values, it is not every sum of
commodities, that is, of exchange
values, it is not every sum of com
moditieS, of exchange values, that
is capa' al.
Every sum of exchange values is
an exchange value. For instance
house worth Thousand dollars
A cents worth of paper is the sum
of the exchange valnes Of hun
dred-hundredthS of cent. pro
Outs which may be mutually eX
changed are pmWodities. This de.
finite proportion IN which they are
exchangeabla, form their exchange
value, are expressed in money,
their price. The amount of these
products can do nothing to alter
their definition as being commo-
dtties, or as representing all ex-
change value or as having a Ger
tain price. Wether tree is large
or small, it remains tree. Whet-
her we exchange IRON for other
wares in ounces or in tons, that
makes no diff renee in its charac-
ter as acommodlty possessing ex-
change value. According to it's
amount it is commodity of more
or less worth, with higher or
lower price.
How, then, can sum of commo
deties, of exchange values, become
capital?
BY maintaining and multiplying
itself as an independent social
power, that Is, as the power of a
portion of society by means of its
exchange for direct, living labor,
Capital necessarily presupposes
the existence of a class which pos
sesses nothing but labor force.
1t is the lordship of past, stored
up realized labor over actual, liv-
ing labor that transforms the
stOred-up labor INTO capital.
Capital does not consist III the
fact that stored up labor used by
living labor as a means to further
production. 1t consists in the fact
that living labor serves as the
means whereby stored up labor
may maintain and multiply its own
exchange value.
What is 1t that takes place in
the exchange between capital aud
wage. work9
The laborer receives in exchan-
&c for his labor the means of sui
sistence; but the captilists receives
IN exchange for the means of sub.
sistence-labOr, the productive
energy of the laboler, the creative
force whereby the laborer not on.
ly replaces what he consumes.
but also gives to the sto1ed-up la
Dor greater value than 1t had
before. The laborer receives from
the capitalists share of the pre-,
vided means of subsistence To
wha' use does he put these means
of subsistence? He uses them for
Immediate consumption. But as
soon as | consume my means of
subsistence, they disappear and
are irrecoverably lost to me; it
therefore becomes necessary, that
| shou Id employ my time during
which these means keep me alive
in order to produce new means of
subsistence, so that during their
consumption, | may provide for
my labor, new value, in the place
of that which thus disappear. But
it is just this grand reproduction
power which the laborer has to
bargain away to capital in excl han
&c for the means of subsistence
which he receives 70 him there
fore it is entirely lost. Let us take
an example A farmer gives his
day laboier one dollar day. For
this one dollar he works through
out the day OH the farmers field
and so secures him return of two
dollars. The farmer does not mere
ly get the value which he had adj
vanced to the day laborer replaced