ABSTRACT
Every regime of exploitation of the direct producer obeys a specific law of appropriation of the surplus labor by the exploiter, i.e., appropriation of that part of labor which results in a surplus created by the worker above and beyond the product necessary for his sustenance and reproduction. The analysis of the law of surplus value says nothing of the commodity’s process of realization. The monetary nature of that income is not affected by the process of direct exchange either, which was common in the triangular trade of the colonial mercantilist period. The categories of natural income and money income allow people to establish a fundamental difference between two historical types of slavery: patriarchal and mercantile or colonial. Its production consisted mainly of consumer goods, some of which would be traded for other consumer goods.
