Accumulation of Capital
Autor: Sebastião Matias de Carvalho Neto | Publicado: 2012-10-15T08:07:00-03:00

Accumulation of Capital, =

"employing
surplus-value as capital, reconverting it
into capital...'' (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I,
p. 543). In his teaching on surplus value,
Marx examines the way it derives from
capital, but in his teaching on the
accumulation of capital he shows how capital
originates from surplus value. Under
capitalist expanded reproduction (see 
Reproduction, Capitalist), surplus value falls
into two parts---accumulated and spent,
into capital and profit. When buying labour
power, the capitalist pays for it out of
surplus value---the result of the workers'
past unpaid labour. Such is the class essence
of capitalist accumulation. The amount
accumulated depends on a number of
factors. First, on the size of the surplus value.
The greater its size, the greater, also, are
the opportunities for accumulation. In an
effort to increase surplus value,
capitalists step up exploitation. If the wages of
the working people are below the value of
their labour power, part of the workers'
consumption fund is turned into the
capital accumulation fund: hence the constant
desire of capitalists to lower the living
standard of the working people.
Accumulation is also promoted by the growing
productivity of social labour. The
consequent drop in the cost of consumer goods
makes labour power cheaper and allows
capitalists to hire more workers with the
same volume of variable capital. The
lower cost of the means of production
allows them to buy more machines, raw
materials and implements of labour out of
the part of surplus value which turns
into additional constant capital. The
difference between the capital used and
  
consumed, which grows alongside technical
progress, also affects the size of
accumulation. Machines, equipment and other
implements of labour are used fully in the
production process, but are consumed only
partially, since only part of their value is
transferred to the finished product. They
thus provide gratuitous services as do
natural forces. Accumulation also depends on
the amount of capital advanced. Given
the same degree of exploitation, the mass of
surplus value depends on the number of
workers simultaneously exploited, and the
number of workers, above all, on the size
of the functioning capital. Accumulation,
therefore, increases as capital grows. In
the final analysis, all the factors facilitating
accumulation lead to an intensification of
the exploitation of the working people and
mounting contradictions in the capitalist
system. Capital is accumulated in two
forms: concentration of capital and 
centralisation of capital. Historically, the
development of these two forms of capital
accumulation led to the appearance of monopolies
(see Monopolies, Capitalist) and, at a
certain stage,, to the dominance of monopoly
capital, i. e., to imperialism. The expanding
scope of production in the course of
capitalist accumulation is accompanied by
technical progress. The growth of the
organic composition of capital and the
constant upheavals in technology and
production techniques are in line with
developed capitalism with a corresponding
technical basis---large-scale machine in'
dustry. Under conditions of a growing
organic composition of capital it is
accumulated with a relative decrease in the
mass of living labour used by capital
compared to the mass of the means of
production. This intensifies the exploitation of
the workers engaged in production and
increases relative surplus population and
the growing army of the unemployed (see
Unemployment). The class antagonisms of
the capitalist society grow in intensity. On
the basis of his research into the way
surplus value is turned into capital, and
his analysis of the factors influencing this
process, Marx formulated the general law
of capitalist accumulation and showed the
inevitability of a relative deterioration of


the condition of the proletariat and an
absolute deterioration of the condition of
the proletariat linked with it. Under
contemporary conditions, capital accumulation
has a number of specific features. The
progressive development of science and
technology and also the intensification of
the competitive struggle lead to an increase
in the necessary minimum increment in
accumulated capital. The number of
capitalists capable of accumulating capital
independently, therefore, decreases. Today,
only the top echelons of the monopoly
bourgeoisie, enjoying the economic support
of the state, can accumulate capital. The
middle bourgeoisie becomes more and
more dependent on the monopolies, while
the petty bourgeoisie is ruined. The
population is being rapidly proletarianised. On the
other hand, the big bourgeoisie can
systematically increase its accumulations out of
monopoly profits. The basic contradiction
of capitalism is intensified. Capitalism
increasingly manifests itself as a society
without a future.