Chapter 7 — The Labour Process and the Valorisation Process
Where Value is Created
This is the pivotal chapter. Marx analyses production as a dual process: the (making use-values) and the process (creating new value, including ). Both occur simultaneously in capitalist production.
7.1 The Labour Process in General
Labour is purposeful activity to create use-values. The has three moments:
Three moments of the labour process
1. Purposeful activity — the work itself (labour) 2. The object of labour — what the work is applied to (raw material) 3. The instruments of labour — tools, machines, workshops
The labour process, abstracted from capitalism
Labour as such has the character of creating use-values. This is true in all societies — human beings, using tools, act on raw materials to create useful things.
Marx is careful: the is universal. What is specific to capitalism is not labour itself but the process that overlays it.
7.2 The Valorisation Process
= the process by which capital creates new value, including surplus value.
The capitalist enters the market to buy: - Means of production (Mp) — raw materials, tools, machines - Labour-power (Lp) — the worker's capacity to labour
These are inputs into the production process. In the production process:
Inputs: Mp + Lp (means of production + labour)
↓
Production Process: P
↓
Output: C' (commodities with value > advanced capital)
The arithmetic of valorisation
Capital advanced:
(c): raw materials + machinery (transferred to product)
; creates new value including value created by the worker and kept by the capitalist">surplus value</span> (v)">labour-power; creates new value including value created by the worker and kept by the capitalist">surplus value</span>">variable capital</span></span> (v): advanced in wages (replaced by worker during the day)
Value of output:
Total value = c + v + s
Where s = (new value created beyond replacement of c+v)
The worker creates new value during the working day. The value created by the worker = necessary labour time (replaces v) + surplus labour time (creates s).
7.3 The Two Aspects of the Production Process
Marx draws a crucial distinction:
Labour creates use-values by its concrete form
A tailor makes coats. The specific, useful character of labour is what makes the product useful. This is the qualitative aspect.
Labour creates value by being abstract labour
The labour of the tailor, averaged with all other productive labour, creates value. This is the quantitative aspect — the amount of new value depends on the number of hours worked.
"All labour is: on the one hand, expenditure of human labour-power... on the other hand, average human labour, which has to be performed in any given society."
7.4 The Rate of Surplus Value, Analysed
Necessary labour vs surplus labour
Working Day = ">labour-power">necessary labour</span></span> +
= Hours to replace v + Hours of unpaid labour
to ; creates new value including surplus value (v)">labour-power; creates new value including surplus value">variable capital</span></span>, measuring the rate of exploitation">surplus value to labour-power; creates new value including surplus value">variable capital</span> — the core ratio of capitalist exploitation">rate of surplus value</span></span> (s') = / ">labour-power">necessary labour</span></span>
= s / v
Concrete example
Working day: 10 hours
labour-power">Necessary labour</span>: 6 hours (paid, value of )
labour-power">Surplus labour</span>: 4 hours (unpaid)
s' = 4/6 = 66.7%
If v (wages) = £60
s = v × s' = £60 × 0.667 = £40
New value created = v + s = £60 + £40 = £100
7.5 Constant and Variable Capital
Marx distinguishes types of capital by what happens to their value during production:
| Type | What it does | Value transfer |
|---|---|---|
| Constant capital (c) | Means of production | Value is transferred to product (no new value added) |
| Variable capital (v) | Labour-power | Value is recreated AND expanded (surplus value created) |
The distinction is not physical but qualitative: only human labour creates new value. Machines cannot create value — they can only transfer their own stored value.
The rate of profit and the organic composition of capital
Marx notes a further implication: because only ; creates new value including surplus value (v)">variable capital creates , capitals with a higher proportion of constant capital (more machinery per worker) will, all else equal, generate a lower rate of surplus value.
This becomes central to Marx's analysis of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (Chapter 23).
7.6 The Working Day in资本主义
Marx ends the chapter (and Part Two) with a political observation: the working day is not merely an economic category but a site of class conflict.
The capitalist attempts to: - Extend the working day (absolute surplus value) - Intensify labour (relative surplus value)
The worker resists: - Fighting for shorter hours - Opposing speed-ups and intensification
"In the English Factory Acts we have the legislative recognition of the fact that the working day is not a fixed given quantity, but a variable magnitude."
The legal regulation of the working day is a political achievement of the working class — not an economic law.
Summary
| Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Labour process | The transformation of raw materials into use-values through purposeful activity |
| Valorisation process | The creation of new value (including surplus value) in the production process |
| Constant capital (c) | Means of production — value transferred, not created |
| Variable capital (v) | Labour-power — creates new value |
| Surplus value (s) | Unpaid labour crystallised — new value kept by the capitalist |
| Rate of surplus value | s' = s/v — the core ratio of capitalist exploitation |
Key Diagram
The circuit of capital: money advanced (M) → commodities purchased (C) → production (P) → commodities sold (C') → more money returned (M'). The increment ΔM is , which is either consumed by the capitalist (; production restarts at the same scale">simple ) or reinvested (expanded ).
Looking Ahead
Chapters 1–7 establish the foundations: - Commodities and value - Money as the universal equivalent - Capital as self-expanding value - Surplus value as unpaid labour
Chapters 8 onwards examine how these categories play out across the workforce, the factory, and the economy: the cooperation of labour, the division of labour, and the development of machinery.
End of Part One.