Meanwhile, the capitalist learns by experience that if the workers are
so organised as to co-operate with one another, the productivity of
labour increases. From this arises the mode of labour which Marx calls
Co-operation, or a reorganisation of the workplace, which raises the
entire production of commodities to a higher level. The co-operation
of the workers in the process of production soon leads to the
discovery that, if the worker does not himself create the whole
product, but only a part thereof, he loses less time and becomes
quicker and more skilful in his work and produces more than
previously. This discovery leads to the "division of labour," which
indeed reduces the worker to the position of an automaton, or a living
machine, but considerably augments commodity wealth. Division of
labour again demands finer tools; mechanical problems arise to be
solved by mechanicians and engineers. This favours the progress of
mechanics. The growing commodity wealth, and the pressure to realise
it profitably, renders necessary more extensive markets; the need for
extension comes up against transport difficulties; transport problems
arise, to be solved by road and canal engineers. The increasing
variety of the labour process and the categories of commodities which
are produced results in new metallurgical, physical, and chemical
problems. Natural science flourishes.
Meanwhile, things are not so peaceful in the places of manufacture.
The lengthening of labour the closer strain on their nerves and
muscles, as well as the arrangement of the work, cause the workers to
combine and struggle for improved conditions of labour. This struggle,
together with the progress of natural science, of technology, and the
expansion of markets, result in the discovery of machine technology,
of steam and electricity, the foundation of large-scale industry.
The capitalist is impelled, on the one hand, to make himself as
independent as possible of living labour-power; on the other hand, to
increase the volume of his profits. The means thereto are offered him
by the new technical discoveries. Those workers who still possessed
some pride in handicraft, or as expropriated small peasants were not
able to submit to factory discipline, and showed themselves
rebellious, were partly replaced by the labour of women and children,
and partly curbed and made pliable. The labour time is repeatedly
lengthened, and the exploitation of the labour of women and children
assumes terrible proportions. The wage worker, who entered into the
manufacturing premises of the employer full of the pride of his
calling and often with his own tools, became then a small cog in a
gigantic, relentless piece of working machinery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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