is due to the presence of this peculiar commodity which was absolutely unknown to any former system of society. In no social system before the advent of capitalism was human labor power an independent commodity which could be trafficked in in the market. A man's labor-power was deemed such an intimately personal attribute that it could not be considered apart from the man himself. The man himself might be free or unfree. If he was free his labor power was his own, used by himself for himself. If he was unfree, he, including his labor-power and his other personal attributes, belonged to his master. But in either case his labor power was inseparable from his body, was part and parcel of his personality as much as his personal appearance, and went with it.
It was only with the advent of capitalism that a man's labor power became separated from his body and person, when his labor power was "abstracted" from his personality and gained an independent existence. Then human labor power "as such," human labor power in the abstract, human labor power unidentified by an individual characteristic and severed from any personal relation, became an independent commodity to be trafficked in in the open market. It is the appearance of this commodity historically that ma1e capitalism possible, and it is due to its peculiar nature that so much mystery surrounds the workings of that system, upon which it has indelibly stamped its own characteristics.
The new commodity of abstract human labor, bought ani! sold in the open market, independent and irrespective of any individual or personal relation, is, at the same time, part and parcel of the commodities which constitute the stock-on-hand of the capitalist world as well as the source of all the other commodities on hand. It is also its own source and creator, being the means of its own reproduction. As the general source and creator of capitalistic commodities, this abstract human labor is the source, and therefore, the measure of the exchange value of those commodities. As its own source and reproducer it is its own source and
