Accumulation of Capital, ="employingsurplus-value as capital, reconverting itinto capital...'' (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I,p. 543). In his teaching on surplus value,Marx examines the way it derives fromcapital, but in his teaching on theaccumulation of capital he shows how capitaloriginates from surplus value. Undercapitalist expanded reproduction (see Reproduction, Capitalist), surplus value fallsinto two parts---accumulated and spent,into capital and profit. When buying labourpower, the capitalist pays for it out ofsurplus value---the result of the workers'past unpaid labour. Such is the class essenceof capitalist accumulation. The amountaccumulated depends on a number offactors. First, on the size of the surplus value.The greater its size, the greater, also, arethe opportunities for accumulation. In aneffort to increase surplus value,capitalists step up exploitation. If the wages ofthe working people are below the value oftheir labour power, part of the workers'consumption fund is turned into thecapital accumulation fund: hence the constantdesire of capitalists to lower the livingstandard of the working people.Accumulation is also promoted by the growingproductivity of social labour. Theconsequent drop in the cost of consumer goodsmakes labour power cheaper and allowscapitalists to hire more workers with thesame volume of variable capital. Thelower cost of the means of productionallows them to buy more machines, rawmaterials and implements of labour out ofthe part of surplus value which turnsinto additional constant capital. Thedifference between the capital used andconsumed, which grows alongside technicalprogress, also affects the size ofaccumulation. Machines, equipment and otherimplements of labour are used fully in theproduction process, but are consumed onlypartially, since only part of their value istransferred to the finished product. Theythus provide gratuitous services as donatural forces. Accumulation also depends onthe amount of capital advanced. Giventhe same degree of exploitation, the mass ofsurplus value depends on the number ofworkers simultaneously exploited, and thenumber of workers, above all, on the sizeof the functioning capital. Accumulation,therefore, increases as capital grows. Inthe final analysis, all the factors facilitatingaccumulation lead to an intensification ofthe exploitation of the working people andmounting contradictions in the capitalistsystem. Capital is accumulated in twoforms: concentration of capital and centralisation of capital. Historically, thedevelopment of these two forms of capitalaccumulation led to the appearance of monopolies(see Monopolies, Capitalist) and, at acertain stage,, to the dominance of monopolycapital, i. e., to imperialism. The expandingscope of production in the course ofcapitalist accumulation is accompanied bytechnical progress. The growth of theorganic composition of capital and theconstant upheavals in technology andproduction techniques are in line withdeveloped capitalism with a correspondingtechnical basis---large-scale machine in'dustry. Under conditions of a growingorganic composition of capital it isaccumulated with a relative decrease in themass of living labour used by capitalcompared to the mass of the means ofproduction. This intensifies the exploitation ofthe workers engaged in production andincreases relative surplus population andthe growing army of the unemployed (seeUnemployment). The class antagonisms ofthe capitalist society grow in intensity. Onthe basis of his research into the waysurplus value is turned into capital, andhis analysis of the factors influencing thisprocess, Marx formulated the general lawof capitalist accumulation and showed theinevitability of a relative deterioration ofthe condition of the proletariat and anabsolute deterioration of the condition ofthe proletariat linked with it.