Economics and the Worker

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 1, 1 February 1913, Page 3

Economics and the Worker

One golden sovereign exchanges for another. Did you ever ask yourselves the reason why? They are of the same value, they are each worth the same thing. But what is this same thing which constitutes their worth ?

It is not enough to explain that each sovereign is worth twenty shillings, for then we should have to ask ourselves what constitutes the worth of one shilling. If a sovereign cost more than twenty shillings in its production, then twenty shillings would not he worth a sovereign. If a sovereign cost less than twenty shillings in its production, then a sovereign would not be worth twenty shillings. But if it cost twenty shillings to produce a sovereign, then a sovereign would be worth twenty shillings, that is, the cost of its production. And an ordinary sovereign will always exchange for twenty shillings.

There, then, is the reason why one sovereign will exchange for another —their respective costs of production are equal. Gold, whether in the form of a trinket or a coin, is a commodity, and, like any other article of commerce. its average exchange price is the cost of its production. A sovereign exchanges for a sovereign, no more and no less.

IO am a tailor and make a coat, of 'Much the cost of production is a sovereign, will I take less than a sovereign for it ? No! If I need a hat, and wish to exchange! m y coat for a hat, will I take a pat that is not worth a sovereign, I the cost of the production of my coat ? However much I may need the hat, will the hatter let me have o(ne worth more than a sovereign,! that is, its cost of production, and I will not have it if it is worth less. No! I will not take less, lie will not take less, than the cost of the production of our respective commodities, and neither of us cares whether or not money is used p facilitate the exchange. Thqn tjiat must be the general law that governs the exchange of commodities ?—That is so. The average price of a commodity equals the cost of its production. Labour power, the energy the labourer exerts, is also a commodity, for it is bought and sold like any’ other article of commerce.

Then the average price of labour power, also, must equal the cost of its production ?—Certainly. And wliat is the cost of the production of labour power ?—Why, the cost of the production of the necessaries of life.

If it cost a sovereign to produce, weeldy, the food, ; clothing, and the usual items in the labourer’s ordinary standard of living, then the labourer’s weekly wages will be a sovereign.

The labourer’s cost of subsistence is the basis on which his wages are reckoned. So long, therefore, as labour power remains a commodity, so long as labour power is bought and sold on the market, so long will the labourer remain on the brink of penury, outside the region of thrift, and be bound to sell his labour power, or starve. Thrift for him means semi-starvation, a lowering of his ordinary standard of living. —A.H.