MARXIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY 47
process, for production of absolute surplus value it is sufficient that the producers organized as wage labourers be brought under the direct control of the capitalist who supervises the labour process, but does not change it, to begin with. Marx calls this ^formal subjection of labour to capital." For instance, a merchant might provide the raw material to workers from peasant families who would make the product say, baskets, at their homes and then sell the product back to the merchant. Now if the merchant turns into a capitalist, and brings the basket-producers under one roof, and they produce baskets just as before, although the techniques of production as such have not changed, there has been a change in the relations of production. We now have the formal subjection of the basket-weavers as wage labourers to a capitalist. Relative surplus-value production, however, is the product of, and in turn reinforces, the real subjection of labour to capital, since it involves changes in the methods of production, and thus in the labour process.
While their analytical differences are no doubt important, absolute and relative surplus values are nonetheless species of the same genre, namely surplus value. In this article, we shall investigate the laws governing the rate of surplus values under conditions of both absolute and relative surplus-value production. We shall then examine the relationship between the value of labour power and wages, and briefly discuss various wage forms and national differences in wages. Finally, we shall offer some remarks by way of introduction to the crucial subject of the accumulation of capital.
Rate of Surplus Value
Let us recall that the rate of surplus value is the ratio of surplus labour to necessary labour. A change in the rate of surplus value can thus take place through a change in either surplus labour or necessary labour or both. Such changes depend in turn on changes in the length of the working day, the productiveness of labour and the intensity of labour. We may identify three ^pure9 cases:
a) Intensity of labour and length of the working day are given and constant: In this case, a change in the rate of surplus value can occur only through a change in the productivity of labour. When the productivity of labour increases, .the value of labour power and thus -necessary labour, goes down. So surplus labour, which is the length of the working day minus necessary labour, goes up and so does the rate of surplus value. Here surplus value and value of labour power move in opposite directions.
It is important to note, however, that even as the rate of surplus value increases due to increased productivity (and the consequent decline in the value of labour power) it is still perfectly possible for the mass of articles consumed by the worker, that is, his ^standard of living" to go up. This can happen to the extent that the price of labour power (his wages reckoned