Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- 1 Absolute and Relative Surplus Value in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 10 and 12
- 2 Cooperation and the Division of Labour in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 13–14
- 3 Machinery and Modern Industry in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 15
- 4 Primitive Accumulation in Capital, Vol. I, Part VIII, Ch. 26–33
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Machinery and Modern Industry in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 15
from Part I - The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- 1 Absolute and Relative Surplus Value in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 10 and 12
- 2 Cooperation and the Division of Labour in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 13–14
- 3 Machinery and Modern Industry in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 15
- 4 Primitive Accumulation in Capital, Vol. I, Part VIII, Ch. 26–33
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Having looked in detail at the transition from handicraft production to manufacturing in the previous two chapters (on cooperation and the division of labour), in Chapter 15 of Capital, Vol. I, Marx turns his attention to the transition from manufacturing industry to the period of the production of machinery by machinery, the development of which is sometimes called machinofacture in order to distinguish this from manufacture proper. If, as we have seen, the period of manufacturing industry can be said to extend from the middle of the seventeenth century to the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century as Marx claims (1974a, 318 [1976, 492]), then the period of machinofacture may be said to start from the last quarter of the eighteenth century and extend to at least the early twentieth century. Just as manufacturing industry is distinguished from handicraft production by the deskilling of the labour process involved in manufacturing industry, machinofacture is distinguished from manufacture by the fact that in machinofacture machinery replaces not just a less sophisticated tool of production, but the human hand itself (1974a, 363 [1976, 506]).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Guide to Marx's 'Capital' Vols I-III , pp. 27 - 30Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012