Quiz: Wage Labour and Capital

14 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. 1. What does Engels call “the economic constitution of our entire modern society”?

   Value is created by exchange The working class alone produces all values Land is the source of all wealth Capital and labour are equal partners in production
2. 2. Which societies does Marx name as distinct totalities of relations of production?

   Hunting, pastoral and agricultural society Tribal, national and international society Asiatic, Greek and Roman society Ancient, feudal and bourgeois society
3. 3. What does Marx conclude about the interests of capital and wage-labor, even within their relation?

   They are identical They are unrelated They are diametrically opposed They can be reconciled by arbitration
4. 4. Who translated Wage-Labor and Capital for this 1902 edition?

   Eleanor Marx Aveling Harriet Lothrop Dr. Edward Aveling Samuel Moore of Manchester
5. 5. According to Engels, what had the economists really been measuring when they spoke of the cost of production of “labor”?

   The cost of the machinery The value of the finished product he turns out for sale The cost of production of the living laborer himself The cost of the raw materials
6. 6. Determining price by cost of production is equivalent to determining it by what?

   The amount of gold in circulation The wishes and tastes of the consumers who buy it Labor-time needed to produce it The rate of interest on borrowed capital
7. 7. What kind of thing is capital, according to Marx?

   A social relation of production, a bourgeois relation of production A mere stock of tools and raw materials, in any society A natural power of money to grow by itself through interest A reward for the abstinence of those who save from income
8. 8. What does Marx call the crises that grow more frequent and violent as production expands on credit?

   Market famines Industrial earthquakes Financial avalanches Commercial hurricanes
9. 9. Which example does Marx use to show that relations of production change with the means of production?

   The steam engine transformed the whole organization of agriculture The compass transformed the guilds The discovery of the firearm transformed the organization of armies The printing press transformed the church
10. 10. According to Marx, can real wages rise while relative wages fall?

    Only in a declining economy Only in agriculture No, never Yes
11. 11. What point does Marx make with “a grain of sand is high when examined through the microscope, and a tower is low when compared with a mountain”?

    Value depends on how closely it is examined Small producers count for more in the market than the great ones do Prices are random and follow no law at all High and low prices are relative
12. 12. What happens when a commodity’s price rises well above its cost of production?

    Workers in that branch win a permanent rise in their wages Capital flows into that branch until supply brings the price down The state steps in to fix a maximum price for the commodity by law Demand for it collapses, and its production stops altogether
13. 13. According to Marx, what do workers actually sell to the capitalist?

    Their labor-power Their persons, once and for all Their products Their labor
14. 14. What is “a necessary presupposition of capital”?

    A strong central bank A large supply of gold Free trade between nations and an open world market A class which possesses nothing but the ability to work