ABSTRACT
Capitalism, which began in the sixteenth century, did not create inequality. That began long before, at the start of recorded history. At the beginning of capitalism absolute exploitation or the reduction of wages, extension of the working day to as much as fourteen hours or the intensification of work through work discipline were the primary ways of increasing surplus value and accumulation. Accumulation of capital takes the form of a mounting spiral of capital or of value in motion. The working class, which is the agent that produces value under the ferule of capital, is an intrinsic part of its history. Moreover, wage labour or free labour emerged in tandem with and also in rivalry to other forms of exploitation including serf and slave labour. The advance of wage labour in the heart of Europe entailed the simultaneous advance of serfdom and slavery on its periphery from the sixteenth century onwards.
