Das Kapital Technology and Modernization Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

It is machines that abolish the role of the handicraftsman as the regulating principle of social production. Thus, on the one hand, the technical reason for the lifelong attachment of the worker to a partial function is swept away. On the other hand, the barriers placed in the way of the domination of capital by this same regulating principle now also fall. (14.5.14)

The development of machines allowed capitalists to dominate people more because they were no longer limited to using handicraft workers to power the productive process. Machines, such as steam engines, have their own motive power. The Industrial Revolution made the production process become further removed from the control of individual workers.