Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
Agriculture also, though to a less degree than manufacturing, has been
revolutionized by the introduction of machines. Rural workers who have
become superfluous have betaken themselves to the cities, and there go
to swell the population already enormously increased by industrialism.
The exposition which I have just given of the origin of the
surplus-value is sufficient for this work. It is not necessary for our
subject to stop to consider the fact that a part of the surplus-value
is destined to become capital, while the other part is consumed by
those who have appropriated the whole. As has been shown above, the
employment of machines, etc., has increased in every branch of
industry, and this has brought it about that the capital necessary to
any manufacturing establishment increases continually under the
pressure of competition. Hence it follows that capitalism itself forces
the capitalist to invest as new capital part of the surplus-value
acquired by him. But aside from this, it is capitalism also that
produces the capitalist’s penchant for always investing more capital,
which, in its turn, produces a greater surplus-value than the original
capital, etc. And since the accumulation of capital has no limits, the
greediness of the capitalist has none, and he is driven to increase his
capital incessantly, even when his income is so great that it permits
him to satisfy every possible need.
However, the group of capitalists of which we have been speaking is not
the only one that gains surplus-value. Industrial capital is obliged to
share the total surplus-value with commercial capital, the capital
consisting of money, and that consisting of real estate. In the first
place, a part of the surplus-value is claimed by commercial capital.
For the economic system in force would not be able to operate without
commerce. The development of capitalism has led to an extensive
division of labor in the class of capitalists (banks, insurance
companies, etc.), and the capital invested in these enterprises must
equally have its share of the total surplus-value. Capital in the form
of money plays an increasingly important part in modern capitalism, and
so must have its share of the surplus-value.
The owners of the soil also appropriate a considerable part. The land
is the most indispensable means of production, and is incapable of
being increased at will. As capitalism increases, the demand for
territory becomes greater and greater. This causes the ground rents in
general to rise, which means that the share of the total surplus-value
which the land-owners appropriate becomes greater and greater. It is
especially in the cities, which are highly developed under capitalism,
and in which, consequently, the demand for land is great and the supply
relatively small, that ground rents have risen to an unheard of degree,
and this to the prejudice of the health and happiness of the less
privileged classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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