The Role of Production Relations in Marx’s Theory of Capitalist Exploitation

It is well known that Karl Marx explained profit in capitalist economies as arising primarily from the exploitation of productive labor. Less generally understood is Marx’s theory as to the economic logic of capitalist exploitation, in particular the sense in and degree to which the latter depends on direct capitalist control of production, which Marx termed the subsumption of labor under capital. In Volume I of Capital, Marx focuses exclusively on the purchase and consumption of labor power under capitalist production as the basis of capitalist exploitation, on the grounds that the appropriation of surplus value must be explained on the condition that commodities exchange at their respective values. However, this stipulation manifestly does not follow from the arguments Marx presents, and its apparent implications clash with Marx’s own historical account of exploitation via circuits of capital which did not in fact depend on the subsumption of labor under capital. This paper argues that the logic of capitalist exploitation is instead best understood in terms of Marx’s historical-materialist theory of profit, which depicts capitalist production relations as a historically contingent strategic response to evolving conditions of class conflict over the creation and distribution of surplus product. This account, constructed from Marx’s published and unpublished economic writing, establishes a consistent thread of argumentation linking the Grundrisse with the analysis featured in Volume I of Capital a decade later. Central to this account is the connection Marx draws between forms of surplus value and corresponding forms of subsumption. * Paper prepared for the “Marxian Economics” session of the History of Economics Society annual conference, Vancouver, BC, June 28-July 1, 1996. I have benefitted greatly from extended discussions with Frank Thompson, Fred Moseley, and especially Michael Lebowitz, but they cannot be held responsible for the views expressed herein or for any errors which may remain.