In general, the greater the productiveness of labor, the less is the labor-time required for the production of an article, the less is the amount of labor crystallised in that article, and the less is its value and vice versa, the less the productiveness of labor, the greater is the labor-time required for the production of an article, and the greater is its value. Consequently much labor is represented in a small compass. Diamonds are of very rare occurrence on the earth’s surface, and hence their discovery costs, on average, a great deal of labor-time.

The same labor extracts from rich mines more metal than from poor mines. For example, the same amount of labor in favorable seasons is embodied in eight bushels of corn, and in unfavourable, only in four. This productiveness is determined by various circumstances, among others, by the average amount of skill of the workmen, the state of science and the degree of its practical application, the social organization of production, the extent and capabilities of the means of production, and by physical conditions. But the latter changes with every variation in the productiveness of labor. The value of a commodity would therefore remain constant, if the labor-time required for its production also remained constant. The labor-time socially necessary is that required to produce an article under the normal conditions of production, and with the average degree of skill and intensity prevalent at the time. Each of these units is the same as any other, so far as it has the character of the average labor-power of society, and takes effect as such that is, so far as it requires for producing a commodity, no more time than is needed on an average, no more than is socially necessary. The total labor-power of society, which is embodied in the sum total of the values of all commodities produced by that society, counts here as one homogeneous mass of human labor-power, composed though it be of innumerable individual units.

The labor, however, that forms the substance of value, is homogeneous human labor, expenditure of one uniform labor-power. Some people might think that if the value of a commodity is determined by the quantity of labor spent on it, the more idle and unskilful the laborer, the more valuable would his commodity be, because more time would be required in its production.

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