Theories of Surplus Value, Part III, Chapter 24 - Part 23

3. Richard Jones, “Text-book of Lectures on the Political Economy of Nations”, Hertford, 1852 

[a) Jones’s Views Of Capital and the Problem of Productive and Unproductive Labour] 

Jones, in the “Text-book of Lectures on the Political Economy of Nations”, sets out his analysis of the determinants of an economy's productive capacity. It depends, he says, on the fertility of its natural resources, on the efficiency of the labour which extracts and utilises those resources, and produces commodities from them. In terms of the efficiency of this labour, he says, it comprises three elements, i) the continuity with which it is exerted, ii) the knowledge and skill with which it is applied, and iii) the mechanical power by which it is aided. 

As Marx has set out previously, this latter element is itself divided. A spinner who uses a spinning wheel increases their own mechanical power, even though they still utilise only their own human motive power to spin the wheel. The machine comprises i) the mechanism of the machine itself, which utilises or replaces the tool that the handicraft worker would have used, ii) a transmission mechanism which provides motive power to the machine, and iii) the motive power itself. In the case of the spinning wheel, the spinner's own leg-power provides the motive power, and it is transmitted via the treadle to the wheel. 

On the one hand, therefore, the effectiveness of the machine is dependent upon the technology of the actual mechanism that replaces the worker's tools. On the other, it depends upon the amount of motive-power that can be mobilised to drive such mechanisms. The more efficient the transmission mechanism, the less motive power required to drive the mechanism. A watermill or windmill can provide much greater motive-power than can be provided by human labour, and so can drive a much greater number of machines. The same applies with steam engines. 

Jones notes that a steam engine producing 40 h.p., attached to a train of carriages, will not progress well along a rough road, but, level the road, and it will proceed rapidly. 

““The best form of a plough […] will do as much work, and as well, with two horses, as the worst with four” (p. 9). 

“The steam-engine is not a mere tool, it gives additional motive force, not merely the means of using forces the labourer already possesses, with a greater mechanical advantage” (p. 10, note).” (p 419) 

Marx notes, 

“This is, therefore, according to Jones, the difference between a tool and machinery. The former provides the worker with means for employing the power he possesses to a greater mechanical advantage, the latter provides an increase of motive force.” (p 419) 

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