Wage Labour and Capital & Value, Price and Profit

The Introduction provides some background context for the essay. It explains that “Value, Price and Profit” was first given as a set of two lectures delivered to the First International on June 20 and June 27 of 1865 in response to John Weston’s assertion in an earlier session. Weston argued that an increase in wages would not improve the material conditions of the working class, and by extension, that trade unions are harmful to the material interests of the working class because of their negative impact on industry. His main reason for arguing this is that any increase in wages would be met with a reaction from capitalists to protect their profit (such as increasing the price on essential commodities or hiring fewer workers), and this would offset the benefit.

This context explains the structure and organization of “Value, Price and Profit.” The first five chapters are devoted to criticizing the ideas put forth by Weston, while at the same time refuting the theory of wages fund (i.e., the idea that there is a fixed amount of capital that capitalists can pull from to pay wages) that he is influenced by.