Wealh of Nations, 1776, (about the time of our revolution) and Das Kapital in 1867, (about the time of our civil conflict).. these two important works were approximately 90 years apart, two very important works to grasp the rise of production, and the rise of labor to ask for their share of the profits gained. Wealth was written in 76 as we were leaving the agrarian ( realm of KINGDOMS to the rise of small merchants, and production systems, ie the invention of the yigit..) Das Kapital was written 90 years later.. Synopsis[edit] Book I: Of the Causes of Improvement in the productive Powers of Labour[edit] Of the Division of Labour: Division of labour has caused a greater increase in production than any other factor. This diversification is greatest for nations with more industry and improvement, and is responsible for universal opulence in those countries. Agriculture is less amenable than industry to division of labour; hence, rich nations are not so far ahead of poor nations in agriculture as in industry. Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division of Labour: Division of labour arises not from innate wisdom, but from humans propensity to barter. The apparent difference in natural talents between people is a result of specialization, rather than any innate cause. That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market: Limited opportunity for exchange discourages division of labour. Because water-carriage extends the market, division of labour, with its improvements, comes earliest to cities near waterways. Civilization began around the highly navigable Mediterranean Sea. Of the Origin and Use of Money: With division of labour, the produce of ones own labour can fill only a small part of ones needs. Different commodities have served as a common medium of exchange, but all nations have finally settled on metals, which are durable and divisible, for this purpose. Before coinage, people had to weigh and assay with each exchange, or risk the grossest frauds and impositions. Thus nations began stamping metal, on one side only, to ascertain purity, or on all sides, to stipulate purity and amount. The quantity of real metal in coins has diminished, due to the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, enabling them to pay their debts in appearance only, and to the defraudment of creditors. 1867 ~~~ In Capital: Critique of Political Economy (1867), Karl Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labour, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value and then profit both of which concepts have a specific meaning for Marx. The employer is able to claim the right to profits because he or she owns the productive capital assets (means of production), which are legally protected by the capitalist state through property rights (the historical section shows how this right was acquired in the first place chiefly through plunder and conquest and the activity of the merchant and middle-man). In producing capital (money) as well as commodities (goods and services), the workers continually reproduce the economic conditions by which they labour. Capital proposes an explanation of the laws of motion of the capitalist economic system, from its origins throughout its future, by describing the dynamics of the accumulation of capital, the growth of wage labour, the transformation of the workplace, the concentration of capital, commercial competition, the banking system, the decline of the profit rate, land-rents, et cetera.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:22:32 +0000
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