Thus in agriculture a vast quantity of land, tools, machines, cattle, horses, etc., passes into the hands of a small group of capitalist landlords, for whom millions of workers labour, and upon whom millions of peasants are dependent.
In the United States, where the capitalist system has developed more fully than elsewhere, there are great estates which are worked like factories. And just as, in factories, only one product is turned out, so it happens on these farms. There may be huge fields where nothing but strawberries are grown, or gigantic orchards; enormous poultry farms; colossal wheat fields, worked by machinery. Many branches of agricultural production are concentrated in a few hands. In this way, for example, there comes to exist a “chicken king” (a capitalist into whose hands is concentrated, more or less completely, the rearing of chickens), an “egg king,” and so on.
15. The dependent Position of the Proletariat; the reserve Army of Labour; Women’s Labour and Child Labour.
Under capitalism, the masses of the population are to an increasing extent transformed into wage workers. Ruined artisans, home workers, peasants, traders, minor capitalists — in a word, all who have been thrown overboard, who have been driven down by large-scale capital, fall into the ranks of the proletariat. The more that wealth undergoes concentration and passes into the hands of a small group of capitalists, the more do the masses of the people become the wage slaves of these capitalists.
Owing to the continuous decay of the middle strata and classes, the number of the workers always exceeds the requirements of capital. For this reason, the workers are bound hand and foot by capitalism. The worker must work for the capitalist. If he refuses, the employer can find a hundred others to take his place.