Now in order that the possessor of money should find this necessity to the accomplishment of his end and aim—viz. labour-power as a commodity of the market, various conditions are requisite.
“The man who is to exercise the labour-power for the capitalists’ benefit—the labourer—must be free,” that is, his labour must be at his own disposal, and also he must have nothing else to dispose of for his livelihood but his labour-power. On the other hand, any one who has to live by selling commodities other than labour-power must own the means of production, and also the means of subsistence while the commodities are 238 being got ready for the market, and being converted into money.
As to the value of this article necessary to the life of the capitalist, this labour-power, it is estimated like the value of every other commodity by the average time necessary for its production or reproduction; that is, the average time necessary in a given state of society; and in plain language this reproduction of labour-power means the maintenance of the labourer. “Given the individual, the production of labour-power consists in the reproduction of himself—or his maintenance.”
Labour-power is realised only in action, that is, when it has become actual labour, and is producing a commodity; so that, “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 those means, or with the quantity of labour requisite for their production.”
The minimum limit of the value of labour-power is therefore determined by the value of these means. If the price of labour-power falls below that minimum, 239 it is destroyed: a higgling as to its price has to be gone through between the buyer and the seller, and the price is fixed by contract, though it is not realised until the labour-power is used up or embodied in the article produced by it. From what is stated above, it will