ABSTRACT
If the production of surplus value consists of producing value beyond the reproduction of labour power value, the accumulation of capital can only consist in the extension of material means of production that increase surplus labour and decrease necessary labour. Insofar as these means increase the productivity of labour, accumulation of capital coincides with a relative increase of constant capital in relation to variable capital, i.e. with the rise in the organic composition of capital (1). Thus while on the one hand accumulation of capital increases the demand for labour inasmuch as the labour supplied is potential surplus labour, on the other it tends simultaneously to reduce this demand since labour represents a cost for the capitalist or labour necessary to the worker’s reproduction. This aspect of accumulation creates a surplus population independent of the natural growth rate of population.
