Wages, Price and Profit

An address delivered in English by Marx at two sessions of the General Council of the International Workingmen’s Association (i.e., First International). Written on June 20 and 27, 1865, its contents were preserved in the form of manuscripts. In 1898, Marx’s daughter, Eleanor, first issued a single edition in London under the title Value, Price and Profit, with a preface written by herself, later in the publication of the German edition, title Wages, Price and Profit was used.

The full text of Wages, Price and Profit consists of an introduction and 14 sections. In the Preliminary, Marx briefly explained the purpose of writing this address. The main body of the document consists of three parts: Sections 1–5 is the first part, mainly “a reply to Weston’s nonsense”, criticizing Weston’s erroneous point of view and its theoretical grounds. Sections 6–13 is the second part, “a theoretical exposition, insofar as it was appropriate for the occasion”, in which the relation between value and price, how the value of labor-power is determined, the production and distribution of surplus-value and the relationship between profit, wages and price are explained in detail. Section 14 is the third and the concluding part, in which Marx, while criticizing Weston as well as the errors of Proudhon and Lassalle, clearly pointed out the significance of the struggle for higher wages and its limitations. In this book, Marx expounded on the process of formation of surplus-value, clarified the essence of wages, and revealed the secret of the exploitation of the worker by the capitalist (some of the important principles of Capital, to be published two years later, have been elaborated here). He pointed out that the essence of the capitalist is the pursuit of maximum profit, and that the working class, in order to curb the capitalist’s avarice, must constantly fight for higher wages and shorter working-days, so as to prevent its position from deteriorating. Marx profoundly demonstrated the necessity and importance of the economic struggle of the working class, but at the same time pointed out the limitations of the economic struggle. Therefore, he emphasized the need to combine economic struggle with political struggle. Because, while the purely economic struggle was only fighting with effects, the working class should fight with the causes of those effects; and instead of the conservative motto: “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work!” they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: “Abolition of the wages system!”

Wages, Price and Profit is of great significance in the history of the development of Marxism, as it scientifically explained the relationship between economic struggle and political struggle, which played an important guiding role in educating the leading members of the IWA, in enhancing the theoretical literacy and theoretical level of the IWA, and in the subsequent international workers’ movement and proletarian revolution.