Karl Marx: Capital. Critique of political Economy, 1867. Section: "The Working Day" 1) "We started with the supposition that labour-power is bought and sold at its value. Its value, like that of all other commodities, is determined by the working-time necessary to its production. If the production of the average daily means of subsistence of the labourer takes up six hours, he must work, on the average, six hours every day, to produce his daily labour-power, or to reproduce the value received as the result of its sale. The necessary part of his working day amounts to six hours, and is, therefore, caeteris paribus, a given quantity. But with this, the extent of the working day itself is not yet given... One of its parts, certainly, is determined by the working-time required for the continual reproduction of the labourer himself. But its total amount varies with the length or the duration of surplus-labour.... Although the working day is not a fixed, but a fluent quantity, it can, on the other hand, only vary within certain limits" (pp. 198, 199 [214-15]). 2) "The minimum limit" (of the working day) "is, however, not determinable; of course, if we make the surplus-labour=0, we have a minimum limit, i. e., the part of the day which the labourer must necessarily work for his own maintenance. On the basis of the capitalist mode of production, however, this necessary labour can form a part only of his working day; the working day itself can never be reduced to this minimum. On the other hand, the working day has a maximum limit. It cannot be prolonged beyond a certain point. This maximum limit is determined by two things. First, by the physical bounds of labour-power. Within the 24 hours of the natural day a man can expend only a definite quantity of his vital force and the extent of this expenditure of force is a measure for his physically possible working-time. A horse, in like manner, can only work from day to day for 8 hours. During part of the day this force must rest, sleep; during another part the man has to satisfy other physical needs, to feed, wash and clothe himself, etc. Besides these purely physical limitations, the extension of the working day encounters moral ones. The labourer needs time for satisfying his intellectual and social wants, the extent and number of which are determined by the general level of culture... But both these limits" (the physical and moral maximum limits) "are of a very elastic nature, and allow the greatest latitude. So we find working days of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 hours" (p. 199). Herr v. Hofstetten makes nonsense of the passage he plagiarises. Thus, for example, he lets the maximum limit of the working day be determined by purely physical, and the minimum limit by moral limitations, although he himself has earlier mechanically repeated that the necessary part of the working day, i.e., its absolute minimum limit, is determined by the working-time necessary to maintain the labour-power! 3) On the intensification of labour and the achievement of equal or greater surplus-labour" by the enforced legal restriction of the working day in England see pp, 401-09. 4) "The capitalist maintains his rights as a purchaser when he tries to make the working day as long; as possible, and to make, whenever possible, two working days out of one. On the other hand, the peculiar nature of the commodity sold implies a limit to its consumption by the purchaser, and the labourer maintains his right as seller when he wishes to reduce the working day to a definite normal duration... I will" (he says) "husband my sole wealth, labour-power... The use of my labour-power and the spoliation of it are quite different things... You pay me for one day's labour-power, whilst you that of three days. That against our contract and the law of commodity exchange. I demand, therefore, a working day of normal length, etc. (pp. 202, 201). 5) "The Factory Act of 1850 now in force" (not in England, but in specific industries of the United Kingdom named by Marx) "allows for the average working day of 10 hours... Certain guardians of the law are appointed, Factory Inspectors, directly under the Home Secretary, whose reports are published half-yearly by order of Parliament" (p. 207). ...Limitations of the working day for miners exist in certain States of North America in reality, not just in preparation (p. 244), limitation of the working day in general in France (p. 251), for children in some cantons of Switzerland (p. 251), in Austria (p. 252), in Belgium nothing of the kind (ibid.). The ordinances of Messrs. v. d. Heydt and Manteuffel, etc., would be praiseworthy if they were put into practice (ibid.). "in the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralysed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic... But out of the death of slavery a new young life at once arose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight hours agitation. At the same time the "The International Working Men 's Congress", made the following resolution: "...We propose eight hours work as the legal limit of the working day" (pp.279, 280). In the same manner as Herr v. Hofstetten, the speaker who followed him, Herr Geib of Hamburg, bowdlerised the history of the English factory legislation given by Marx. Both gentlemen take the same care not to divulge the source of their wisdom.
Economic Manuscripts: Reviews of Volume One of Capital