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[XXXVIII.1.]
The examination
of division of labour and exchange is of extreme interest,
because these are perceptibly alienated expressions of human activity
and essential power as a species activity and species
power.
To assert that division of labour and exchange rest on private
property is nothing but asserting that labour is the essence
of private property--an assertion which the political economist cannot
prove and which we wish to prove for him. Precisely in the fact that
division of labour and exchange are aspects of private property lies
the twofold proof, on the one hand that human life required private
property for its realisation, and on the other hand that it now requires
the supersession of private property.
Division of labour and exchange are the two phenomena which
lead the political economist to boast of the social character of his science,
while in the same breath he gives unconscious expression to the contradiction
in his science--the motivation of society by unsocial, particular interests.
The factors we have to consider are: Firstly, the propensity to exchange--the
basis of which is found in egoism--is regarded as the cause
or reciprocal effect of the division of labour. Say regards exchange as
not fundamental to the nature of society. Wealth--production--is
explained by division of labour and exchange. The impoverishment of individual
activity, and its loss of character as a result of the division of labour,
are admitted. Exchange and division of labour are acknowledged as the
sources of the great diversity of human talents--a diversity which
in its turn becomes useful as a result of exchange. Skarbek divides
man's essential powers of production--productive power--into two parts:
(1) those which are individual and inherent in him--his intelligence and
his special disposition, or capacity, for work; and (2) those derived
from society and not from the actual individual--division of labour
and exchange.
Furthermore, the division of labour is limited by the market. Human
labour is simple mechanical motion: the main work is done by the
material properties of the objects. The fewest possible operations must
be apportioned to any one individual. Splitting up of labour and concentration
of capital; the insignificance of individual production and the production
of wealth in large quantities. Meaning of free private property within
the division of labour.
[XXXIX.1.]
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[XXXVIII.2.]
The right column
is left blank...
[XXXIX.2.]
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