Division Of Labour and Manufacture
1) Two Fold Origin Of Manufacture
Marx's use
of the term manufacturing is not the same as that we use today. He
uses the term to denote the kind of production that sits between home
based handicraft production, and the kind of machine production we
today associate with manufacturing. He writes,
“That
co-operation which is based on division of labour, assumes its
typical form in manufacture, and is the prevalent characteristic form
of the capitalist process of production throughout the manufacturing
period properly so called. That period, roughly speaking, extends
from the middle of the 16th to the last third of the 18th century.”
(p 318)
This kind of
manufacturing arises in two different ways.
Firstly, a
single capitalist can bring together a group of workers to carry out
a particular kind of production. Marx cites carriage production, but
the same thing would apply today to car production. To produce a
carriage, a whole series of different skills are required. Prior to
manufacture, and in fact more like today, these different types of
skills would have been the preserve of specific artisans and their
guilds. For example, the wheels required for the carriage would have
been bought from a wheelwright, and the same would have applied for
the upholstery etc.
But, the
capitalist instead employs his own wheelwright, upholsterer, painter,
locksmith and so on, all of whom work in the same manufactory to
produce carriages. They can all be kept employed simultaneously
because the capitalist produces several carriages at the same time –
previously carriages would have been built to order – so that each
type of worker is working at their particular part of the product,
ready for it to be passed on to the next.
In the past,
a wheelwright would have worked on all sorts of wheels, and the same
for every other type of skill. But, now each artisan works day after
day producing only the same type of product, requireed for carriage
production. This raises the productivity and skill of the worker in
producing this specific product, but, at the same time narrows the
range of their skill to that particular type of production.
Secondly,
manufacture arises by a capitalist employing, in a manufactory, a
group of workers, all doing exactly the same thing. For example,
paper production. Each worker carries out all of the processes
required. They basically continue to work as they did as handicraft
workers, but now in a manufactory alongside identical workers.
The the
capitalist assigns different stages of the production process to
different workers. The workers effectively become one collective
worker, each co-operating with the other. The advantages of this are
easily observed – as with the masons acting as a human chain to
pass on stones – as each worker becomes increasingly more
proficient in performing the tasks assigned to them.
“The
needlemaker of the Nuremberg Guild was the cornerstone on which the
English needle manufacture was raised. But while in Nuremberg that
single artificer performed a series of perhaps 20 operations one
after another, in England it was not long before there were 20
needlemakers side by side, each performing one alone of those 20
operations, and in consequence of further experience, each of those
20 operations was again split up, isolated, and made the exclusive
function of a separate workman.” (p 319-20)
But, at this
stage, the basis of this division of labour remains handicraft
production. The decisive factor remains the individual skill of the
workman.
No comments:
Post a Comment