The Trinity Formula: Interaction of Capital and Values Anonymous College

Karl Marx introduces the trinity formula to us near the end of the work. One interpretation of the trinity formula is that it's a description of how capital (the collective value of the means of production), land (arable land is the example), and labor (productive activity by human beings) interact with one another. He reduces these three concepts to values and then shows what happens when you change them. Capital is not a thing, but rather a definite social production relation, belonging to a definite historical formation of society, which is manifested in a thing and lends this thing a specific social character. Capital pumps the surplus-labor, which is represented by surplus-value and surplus-product, directly out of the laborers. In this sense, it may be regarded as the producer of surplus-value. Marx says that landed property has nothing to do with the actual process of production. He gives the following: "a certain quantity of labor produces a certain product—in accordance with the natural fertility of the soil." In other words, fertility does not affect labor or capital. If soil is more fertile than average, that means a larger quantity of products is produced for the same amount of value. Marx says that labor is “a mere...