the hands of the labourer to bring about a result from his labour, in spite of all pretences to the contrary, the one instrument necessary to the capitalist is the labourer himself living under such conditions that he can be used as a mere instrument for the production of profit. 260 The tools, machinery, factories, means of exchange, etc., are only intermediate aids for putting the living machine into operation.
Marx now goes on to trace the development of the capitalist in the present epoch, indicating the latest phase of the class-struggle; he points out the strife of the workman with the machine, the intensification of labour due to the constant improvement of machinery, etc. He then gives what may be called a history and analysis of the Factory Acts, the legislation to which the employing class found themselves compelled, in order to make it possible for the “free” workman to live under his new conditions of competition; in order, in short, to keep the industrial society founded by the machine-revolution from falling to pieces almost as soon as it was established.