019-Chapter-6-The-Buying-and-Selling-of-Labour-Power

Chapter 6: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power

劳动力的买和卖

The change of value that occurs in the case of money intended to be converted
into capital, cannot take place in the money itself, since in its function of
means of purchase and of payment, it does no more than realise the price of the
commodity it buys or pays for; and, as hard cash, it is value petrified, never
varying.1 Just as little can it originate in the second act of circulation, the
re-sale of the commodity, which does no more than transform the article from its
bodily form back again into its money-form. The change must, therefore, take
place in the commodity bought by the first act, M-C, but not in its value, for
equivalents are exchanged, and the commodity is paid for at its full value. We
are, therefore, forced to the conclusion that the change originates in the
use-value, as such, of the commodity, i.e., in its consumption. In order to be
able to extract value from the consumption of a commodity, our friend,
Moneybags, must be so lucky as to find, within the sphere of circulation, in the
market, a commodity, whose use-value possesses the peculiar property of being a
source of value, whose actual consumption, therefore, is itself an embodiment of
labour, and, consequently, a creation of value. The possessor of money does find
on the market such a special commodity in capacity for labour or labour-power.

货币无法自己变为更多的货币，它只是购买手段和支付手段。Value的增加也无法由流通过程的第二阶段产生，因为商品的销售只是将它的物的形式转化为货币形式。Value的增加，肯定发生在M-C即第一阶段购买的商品上。但不是发生在此商品的Value上，因为互相交换的是等价物。因此，Value的增加只能是从此商品的使用价值中产生，即从此商品的消费中产生。此商品的使用价值，是Value的源泉。消费此商品的过程，就是将劳动凝结在物上的过程，是创造Value的过程。我们的大款在商品流通领域（在市场上）找到了这种特别的商品，它就是劳动力。

By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of
those mental and physical capabilities existing in a human being, which he
exercises whenever he produces a use-value of any description.

劳动力，或劳动的能力，是一个人每当生产某种使用价值时就要运用的脑力和体力。

But in order that our owner of money may be able to find labour-power offered
for sale as a commodity, various conditions must first be fulfilled. The
exchange of commodities of itself implies no other relations of dependence than
those which result from its own nature. On this assumption, labour-power can
appear upon the market as a commodity, only if, and so far as, its possessor,
the individual whose labour-power it is, offers it for sale, or sells it, as a
commodity. In order that he may be able to do this, he must have it at his
disposal, must be the untrammelled owner of his capacity for labour, i.e., of
his person.2 He and the owner of money meet in the market, and deal with each
other as on the basis of equal rights, with this difference alone, that one is
buyer, the other seller; both, therefore, equal in the eyes of the law. The
continuance of this relation demands that the owner of the labour-power should
sell it only for a definite period, for if he were to sell it rump and stump,
once for all, he would be selling himself, converting himself from a free man
into a slave, from an owner of a commodity into a commodity. He must constantly
look upon his labour-power as his own property, his own commodity, and this he
can only do by placing it at the disposal of the buyer temporarily, for a
definite period of time. By this means alone can he avoid renouncing his rights
of ownership over it.3

大款要在市场上找到作为商品的劳动力，第一个必要条件是：劳动者能够支配自己的劳动力，即他是他自己的劳动能力、他自己的人身自由的所有者。【他不是古代奴隶。】

The second essential condition to the owner of money finding labour-power in the
market as a commodity is this – that the labourer instead of being in the
position to sell commodities in which his labour is incorporated, must be
obliged to offer for sale as a commodity that very labour-power, which exists
only in his living self.

大款要在市场上找到作为商品的劳动力，第二个必要条件是：劳动者无法出售凝结了自己的劳动的产品，他不得不把只存在于他的活肉体中的劳动力本身当作商品来卖。【劳动者无法出售自己的劳动产品，只能给别人生产劳动产品，只能卖苦力。】

In order that a man may be able to sell commodities other than labour-power, he
must of course have the means of production, as raw material, implements, &c. No
boots can be made without leather. He requires also the means of subsistence.
Nobody – not even “a musician of the future” – can live upon future products, or
upon use-values in an unfinished state; and ever since the first moment of his
appearance on the world’s stage, man always has been, and must still be a
consumer, both before and while he is producing. In a society where all products
assume the form of commodities, these commodities must be sold after they have
been produced, it is only after their sale that they can serve in satisfying the
requirements of their producer. The time necessary for their sale is superadded
to that necessary for their production.

一个人要想出售劳动力以外的商品，就必须拥有生产资料，例如原材料、各种工具等。他没有皮革，他就无法做皮靴。他还需要拥有生活资料。即使是“未来的音乐家”，也无法靠未来的产品生存。他每天都要不停地消费。在商品社会，生产之后才能销售，销售之后才能满足生产者的各种生活需要。在生产时间和销售时间里，他必须有一定的生活资料。

For the conversion of his money into capital, therefore, the owner of money must
meet in the market with the free labourer, free in the double sense, that as a
free man he can dispose of his labour-power as his own commodity, and that on
the other hand he has no other commodity for sale, is short of everything
necessary for the realisation of his labour-power.

因此，大款的货币要想转化为资本，他就必须在市场上找到自由的劳动者。这个劳动者，一方面可以自由地出卖自己的劳动力，另一方面也只有自己的劳动力可供出售，因为他没有使用劳动力创造劳动产品时所必须的生产资料。【他自由得一无所有。】

The question why this free labourer confronts him in the market, has no interest
for the owner of money, who regards the labour-market as a branch of the general
market for commodities. And for the present it interests us just as little. We
cling to the fact theoretically, as he does practically. One thing, however, is
clear – Nature does not produce on the one side owners of money or commodities,
and on the other men possessing nothing but their own labour-power. This
relation has no natural basis, neither is its social basis one that is common to
all historical periods. It is clearly the result of a past historical
development, the product of many economic revolutions, of the extinction of a
whole series of older forms of social production.

一边是大款，一边是一无所有的劳动者。这不是自然界造成的特征，也不是所有历史时期共有的特征。显然，这是以往历史发展的结果，是多次经济变革的产物，是一系列旧的社会生产形式灭亡的产物。【它有生，它就有灭】

So, too, the economic categories, already discussed by us, bear the stamp of
history. Definite historical conditions are necessary that a product may become
a commodity. It must not be produced as the immediate means of subsistence of
the producer himself. Had we gone further, and inquired under what circumstances
all, or even the majority of products take the form of commodities, we should
have found that this can only happen with production of a very specific kind,
capitalist production. Such an inquiry, however, would have been foreign to the
analysis of commodities. Production and circulation of commodities can take
place, although the great mass of the objects produced are intended for the
immediate requirements of their producers, are not turned into commodities, and
consequently social production is not yet by a long way dominated in its length
and breadth by exchange-value. The appearance of products as commodities
pre-supposes such a development of the social division of labour, that the
separation of use-value from exchange-value, a separation which first begins
with barter, must already have been completed. But such a degree of development
is common to many forms of society, which in other respects present the most
varying historical features. On the other hand, if we consider money, its
existence implies a definite stage in the exchange of commodities. The
particular functions of money which it performs, either as the mere equivalent
of commodities, or as means of circulation, or means of payment, as hoard or as
universal money, point, according to the extent and relative preponderance of
the one function or the other, to very different stages in the process of social
production. Yet we know by experience that a circulation of commodities
relatively primitive, suffices for the production of all these forms. Otherwise
with capital. The historical conditions of its existence are by no means given
with the mere circulation of money and commodities. It can spring into life,
only when the owner of the means of production and subsistence meets in the
market with the free labourer selling his labour-power. And this one historical
condition comprises a world’s history. Capital, therefore, announces from its
first appearance a new epoch in the process of social production.4

我们前面讨论的经济范畴，也带着历史的烙印。【是一定历史阶段的产物，不是自然界的永恒产物。】要使产品成为商品，就得有一定的历史条件，产品就不能是作为生产者自己的生活资料来生产。在什么情况下，大部分产品会采取商品的形式呢？那就是只在一种特殊生产方式下，即只在资本主义生产方式下。即使绝大多数产品都直接用于满足生产者自己的需求，并没有成为商品，社会生产没有被交换价值主导，商品生产和商品流通也能够产生。产品成为商品，有一个先决条件，就是社会分工发展到这样的程度：使用价值和交换价值的分离（始于以物易物的）已经完成。历史上很多种不同的社会形态，其社会分工都发展到了这个程度。货币的存在，暗示出商品交换已经发展到某种阶段了。根据历史资料，不怎么发达的商品流通，就足以产生货币的一般等价物、流通手段、支付手段、贮藏货币、世界货币的职能。但资本不然。商品流通和货币流通决不是产生资本的充分条件。只有在生产资料和生活资料所有者在市场上找到出卖劳动力的自由劳动者的时候，资本才能产生。单单这个历史条件，就包含着一部世界史。因此，资本一出现，就标志着社会生产过程进入了新纪元。

We must now examine more closely this peculiar commodity, labour-power. Like all
others it has a value.5 How is that value determined?

现在我们必须研究这个特殊的商品，即劳动力。劳动力的Value是如何决定的？

The value of labour-power is determined, as in the case of every other
commodity, by the labour-time necessary for the production, and consequently
also the reproduction, of this special article. So far as it has value, it
represents no more than a definite quantity of the average labour of society
incorporated in it. Labour-power exists only as a capacity, or power of the
living individual. Its production consequently pre-supposes his existence. Given
the individual, the production of labour-power consists in his reproduction of
himself or his maintenance. For his maintenance he requires a given quantity of
the means of subsistence. Therefore the labour-time requisite for the production
of labour-power reduces itself to that necessary for the production of those
means of subsistence; in other words, the value of labour-power is the value of
the means of subsistence necessary for the maintenance of the labourer.
Labour-power, however, becomes a reality only by its exercise; it sets itself in
action only by working. But thereby a definite quantity of human muscle, nerve,
brain, &c., is wasted, and these require to be restored. This increased
expenditure demands a larger income.6 If the owner of labour-power works to-day,
to-morrow he must again be able to repeat the same process in the same
conditions as regards health and strength. His means of subsistence must
therefore be sufficient to maintain him in his normal state as a labouring
individual. His natural wants, such as food, clothing, fuel, and housing, vary
according to the climatic and other physical conditions of his country. On the
other hand, the number and extent of his so-called necessary wants, as also the
modes of satisfying them, are themselves the product of historical development,
and depend therefore to a great extent on the degree of civilisation of a
country, more particularly on the conditions under which, and consequently on
the habits and degree of comfort in which, the class of free labourers has been
formed.7 In contradistinction therefore to the case of other commodities, there
enters into the determination of the value of labour-power a historical and
moral element. Nevertheless, in a given country, at a given period, the average
quantity of the means of subsistence necessary for the labourer is practically
known.

同任何其他商品一样，劳动力的Value也是由生产从而再生产这种物品所必要的劳动时间决定的。从Value的角度看，劳动力只代表在它身上对象化的一定量的社会平均劳动。劳动力只是作为活的个人的能力而存在。因此，劳动力的生产要以活的个人的存在为前提。如果个人已经存在，劳动力的生产就是这个个人本身的再生产或维持。要维持活的个人，就需要一定量的生活资料。因此，劳动力的Value，就是维持劳动力所有者所必要的生活资料的Value。这个生活资料的总和应当足以使劳动者能够在正常生活状况下维持自己。由于不同国家的自然条件不同，衣食住行等自然需求就不同。另一方面，所谓“必要的生活资料”的范围，也是历史的产物，因此多半取决于一个国家的文化水平，其中主要取决于自由工人阶级是在什么条件下形成的，从而它有哪些习惯和生活要求。因此，与其他商品不同，劳动力的Value包含着一个历史的和道德的因素。但是，在给定的国家的给定历史时期内，必要生活资料的范围是一定的。

The owner of labour-power is mortal. If then his appearance in the market is to
be continuous, and the continuous conversion of money into capital assumes this,
the seller of labour-power must perpetuate himself, “in the way that every
living individual perpetuates himself, by procreation.”8 The labour-power
withdrawn from the market by wear and tear and death, must be continually
replaced by, at the very least, an equal amount of fresh labour-power. Hence the
sum of the means of subsistence necessary for the production of labour-power
must include the means necessary for the labourer’s substitutes, i.e., his
children, in order that this race of peculiar commodity-owners may perpetuate
its appearance in the market.9

劳动力所有者是会死的。要想使劳动力不断地出现在市场上，劳动者就必须能够繁殖出新的劳动者。因此，生产劳动力所必要的生活资料的总和，包括工人的补充者即工人的子女的生活资料。【不寒而栗】

In order to modify the human organism, so that it may acquire skill and
handiness in a given branch of industry, and become labour-power of a special
kind, a special education or training is requisite, and this, on its part, costs
an equivalent in commodities of a greater or less amount. This amount varies
according to the more or less complicated character of the labour-power. The
expenses of this education (excessively small in the case of ordinary
labour-power), enter pro tanto into the total value spent in its production.

为了修改人体机能，使他获得某个工业领域的技能，就必须有教育和训练，而这会花费若干货币。这个花费随着劳动性质的复杂程度不同而不同。这个教育费用（在普通劳动力那里微乎其微），就成为生产劳动力所必要的生活资料的一部分。

The value of labour-power resolves itself into the value of a definite quantity
of the means of subsistence. It therefore varies with the value of these means
or with the quantity of labour requisite for their production.

劳动力的Value等于一定量生活资料的Value。因此，它的Value随着生产这些生活资料所必要的劳动时间量的改变而改变。【衣食住行贵了，工资才会跟着贵。】

Some of the means of subsistence, such as food and fuel, are consumed daily, and
a fresh supply must be provided daily. Others such as clothes and furniture last
for longer periods and require to be replaced only at longer intervals. One
article must be bought or paid for daily, another weekly, another quarterly, and
so on. But in whatever way the sum total of these outlays may be spread over the
year, they must be covered by the average income, taking one day with another.
If the total of the commodities required daily for the production of
labour-power = A, and those required weekly = B, and those required quarterly =
C, and so on, the daily average of these commodities = (365A + 52B + 4C + &c) /
365. Suppose that in this mass of commodities requisite for the average day
there are embodied 6 hours of social labour, then there is incorporated daily in
labour-power half a day’s average social labour, in other words, half a day’s
labour is requisite for the daily production of labour-power. This quantity of
labour forms the value of a day’s labour-power or the value of the labour-power
daily reproduced. If half a day’s average social labour is incorporated in three
shillings, then three shillings is the price corresponding to the value of a
day’s labour-power. If its owner therefore offers it for sale at three shillings
a day, its selling price is equal to its value, and according to our
supposition, our friend Moneybags, who is intent upon converting his three
shillings into capital, pays this value.

The minimum limit of the value of labour-power is determined by the value of the
commodities, without the daily supply of which the labourer cannot renew his
vital energy, consequently by the value of those means of subsistence that are
physically indispensable. If the price of labour-power fall to this minimum, it
falls below its value, since under such circumstances it can be maintained and
developed only in a crippled state. But the value of every commodity is
determined by the labour-time requisite to turn it out so as to be of normal
quality.

劳动力Value的最小值，是劳动者维持身体所必不可少的生活资料的Value。如果劳动力的价格降到这个最小值，就是低于劳动力Value，因为此时的劳动力只能在萎缩破坏的情况下维持。但每种商品的Value都是由生产正常质量的商品所必要的劳动时间决定的。

It is a very cheap sort of sentimentality which declares this method of
determining the value of labour-power, a method prescribed by the very nature of
the case, to be a brutal method, and which wails with Rossi that, “To comprehend
capacity for labour (puissance de travail) at the same time that we make
abstraction from the means of subsistence of the labourers during the process of
production, is to comprehend a phantom (être de raison). When we speak of
labour, or capacity for labour, we speak at the same time of the labourer and
his means of subsistence, of labourer and wages.”10 When we speak of capacity
for labour, we do not speak of labour, any more than when we speak of capacity
for digestion, we speak of digestion. The latter process requires something more
than a good stomach. When we speak of capacity for labour, we do not abstract
from the necessary means of subsistence. On the contrary, their value is
expressed in its value. If his capacity for labour remains unsold, the labourer
derives no benefit from it, but rather he will feel it to be a cruel
nature-imposed necessity that this capacity has cost for its production a
definite amount of the means of subsistence and that it will continue to do so
for its reproduction. He will then agree with Sismondi: “that capacity for
labour ... is nothing unless it is sold.”11

如果劳动能力不卖出去，对劳动者就毫无用处，他会感到一种残酷的自然规律：它的劳动能力耗费了一定的生活资料，而且还将继续耗费一定的生活资料。他同意西斯蒙第（Sismondi）的话：“劳动能力……不卖出去，就等于零。”

One consequence of the peculiar nature of labour-power as a commodity is, that
its use-value does not, on the conclusion of the contract between the buyer and
seller, immediately pass into the hands of the former. Its value, like that of
every other commodity, is already fixed before it goes into circulation, since a
definite quantity of social labour has been spent upon it; but its use-value
consists in the subsequent exercise of its force. The alienation of labour-power
and its actual appropriation by the buyer, its employment as a use-value, are
separated by an interval of time. But in those cases in which the formal
alienation by sale of the use-value of a commodity, is not simultaneous with its
actual delivery to the buyer, the money of the latter usually functions as means
of payment.12 In every country in which the capitalist mode of production
reigns, it is the custom not to pay for labour-power before it has been
exercised for the period fixed by the contract, as for example, the end of each
week. In all cases, therefore, the use-value of the labour-power is advanced to
the capitalist: the labourer allows the buyer to consume it before he receives
payment of the price; he everywhere gives credit to the capitalist. That this
credit is no mere fiction, is shown not only by the occasional loss of wages on
the bankruptcy of the capitalist,13 but also by a series of more enduring
consequences.14 Nevertheless, whether money serves as a means of purchase or as
a means of payment, this makes no alteration in the nature of the exchange of
commodities. The price of the labour-power is fixed by the contract, although it
is not realised till later, like the rent of a house. The labour-power is sold,
although it is only paid for at a later period. It will, therefore, be useful,
for a clear comprehension of the relation of the parties, to assume
provisionally, that the possessor of labour-power, on the occasion of each sale,
immediately receives the price stipulated to be paid for it.

在大款与劳动者签订劳动合同的时候，劳动力的使用价值还没有在实际上转移到大款手中，它只在随后的劳动过程中才实现。但在这类情况中（即形式上让渡使用价值与实际上转移使用价值在时间上不一致的情况），大款的货币通常执行支付手段的职能。在每个资本主义生产方式占统治地位的国家里，都是在劳动力按一定期间（例如按月）发挥作用后，大款才支付报酬。因此，到处都是工人将劳动力的使用价值预付给资本家，是劳动者给资本家提供信贷。工人在资本家破产时失去工资，以及一系列更深远的影响，都证明了这个信贷的事实。不过，无论货币是充当购买手段还是支付手段，都不影响商品交换的本质。为方便叙述，我们假定劳动者每次出卖劳动力时就立即得到了合同规定的价格。

We now know how the value paid by the purchaser to the possessor of this
peculiar commodity, labour-power, is determined. The use-value which the former
gets in exchange, manifests itself only in the actual utilisation, in the
consumption of the labour-power. The money-owner buys everything necessary for
this purpose, such as raw material, in the market, and pays for it at its full
value. The consumption of labour-power is at one and the same time the
production of commodities and of surplus-value. The consumption of labour-power
is completed, as in the case of every other commodity, outside the limits of the
market or of the sphere of circulation. Accompanied by Mr. Moneybags and by the
possessor of labour-power, we therefore take leave for a time of this noisy
sphere, where everything takes place on the surface and in view of all men, and
follow them both into the hidden abode of production, on whose threshold there
stares us in the face “No admittance except on business.” Here we shall see, not
only how capital produces, but how capital is produced. We shall at last force
the secret of profit making.

劳动力的消费过程，就是商品和剩余价值的生产过程。劳动力的消费过程是在流通领域以外（即市场以外）进行的。因此，让我们暂时离开这个嘈杂的领域，跟随大款和劳动者进入隐蔽的生产场所吧。在挂着“闲人免进”牌子的门内，我们不仅会看到资本是如何生产的，还能看到资本是如何被生产的。最后我们将找到赚钱的秘密。【资本主义生产方式是如何进行的，这个方式是如何巩固自身的，大款如何越来越富？】

This sphere that we are deserting, within whose boundaries the sale and purchase
of labour-power goes on, is in fact a very Eden of the innate rights of man.
There alone rule Freedom, Equality, Property and Bentham. Freedom, because both
buyer and seller of a commodity, say of labour-power, are constrained only by
their own free will. They contract as free agents, and the agreement they come
to, is but the form in which they give legal expression to their common will.
Equality, because each enters into relation with the other, as with a simple
owner of commodities, and they exchange equivalent for equivalent. Property,
because each disposes only of what is his own. And Bentham, because each looks
only to himself. The only force that brings them together and puts them in
relation with each other, is the selfishness, the gain and the private interests
of each. Each looks to himself only, and no one troubles himself about the rest,
and just because they do so, do they all, in accordance with the pre-established
harmony of things, or under the auspices of an all-shrewd providence, work
together to their mutual advantage, for the common weal and in the interest of
all.

买卖劳动力的商品流通领域，确实是天赋人权的伊甸园。那里的规则只有自由、平等、所有权和边沁（Bentham）。自由，因为买家和卖家（例如劳动力的买家和卖家）都只受自己的自由意志的支配，他们以自由人的身份签订契约，契约是他们共同意志的法律形式。平等，因为每个人都只是以商品所有者的身份，进行等价交换。所有权，因为每个人都只支配自己的东西。边沁，因为每个人都在只在乎自己。使他们走到一起建立关系的唯一力量，就是他们的自私心，是他们的个人利益和利润。人人只顾自己不管别人，正因如此，他们才得以在事物的天然自洽下，在全能的神的庇佑下，步入互惠互利的、增进公共福祉的、人人受益的境界。

On leaving this sphere of simple circulation or of exchange of commodities,
which furnishes the “Free-trader Vulgaris” with his views and ideas, and with
the standard by which he judges a society based on capital and wages, we think
we can perceive a change in the physiognomy of our dramatis personae. He, who
before was the money-owner, now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of
labour-power follows as his labourer. The one with an air of importance,
smirking, intent on business; the other, timid and holding back, like one who is
bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but – a hiding.

庸俗的自由贸易论者的观点、思想、标准（用以评判基于资本和工资的社会的标准），为他们提供了这些玩意儿的简单流通领域（即商品交换领域），一旦我们离开这个领域，就会看到，人类历史剧上的演员的面貌就改变了。原来的大款，作为资本家，阔步向前；劳动力所有者作为大款的工人，跟随其后。一个春风得意，大展宏图；另一个战战兢兢，惟命是从，像在市场上卖了自己的魂一样，任人摆布。