The Melody of Surplus in the Azure Sky: Capitalism, 19th Century

The Melody of Surplus in the Azure Sky: Capitalism, 19th Century

Workers sell their labor to capitalists and receive only the minimum wage necessary to reproduce their labor. In reality, however, the worker is made to work more than that, and the excess becomes surplus labor and profit for the capitalist, i.e., surplus value. Wages only reflect the value of labor power, not the value of labor itself. Thus, surplus value is positioned as the fundamental exploitative structure of capitalism.

During the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, long working hours were widespread in the United Kingdom and other countries. In 1847, a law was issued limiting the working hours of young people and women to 10 hours a day, but the reality was that overwork and oppression were still the norm. This historical background was the setting in which the dynamics of the capitalists' pursuit of absolute surplus value took shape. In particular, the combination of the absolute method of extending the working day and the method of expanding relative surplus value by reducing the necessary working hours through mechanization and process reforms formed the capitalist growth strategy.

The diversification of wage systems also served to mask exploitation. Hourly and piece-rate forms of pay vary the amount paid, but essentially compensate only for necessary labor and serve to conceal the surplus. Furthermore, in the process of capital accumulation, investment in machinery increases, and the ratio of invariable capital increases, creating a surplus in the demand for labor. In other words, an industrial reserve army = an unemployed class is formed, and discipline is institutionalized that suppresses wages and subordinates workers to the order of capital. Thus, the theory of surplus value provides a perspective that separates profit from market chance and competition and reads it within the structure of the working day, social institutions, and historical processes.