p As already mentioned, a society, in contrast to a herd of animals, exists not by adapting to nature and consuming the means of subsistence created by it, but by adapting the natural means of subsistence to its needs, by changing the properties of material bodies created by nature, and turning them into the means of subsistence required for people’s survival. The transformation of natural objects into people’s means of subsistence and material wealth is carried out by acting on nature with specially created implements-the means of labour. This purposeful influence on nature and alteration of its properties in the interests of society is called production. The main elements of production are: (I) purposeful activity, (2) objects oi labour and (3) means of labour.

p In the labour process, human activity is carried out consciously and is subject to a strictly defined objective. Demonstrating the difference between production activity and instinctive acts of the animal, Marx pointed out this very feature-the conscious and purposeful character of labour operations. “Man,” Marx wrote, “not only effects a 321 change of form in the material on which he works, but he also realises a purpose of his own that gives the law to his modus operandi, and to which he must subordinate his will.”  [321•1 

p An object of labour is the part of nature that man influences in the process of production and that he changes into an object capable oi meeting some of society’s needs. For example, ore, coal and oil, which are extracted from the earth and undergo special treatment, are objects of labour.

p Both objects existing in their natural form ( minerals in the earth, fish in natural bodies of water, virgin forests and lands, etc.) and objects which underwent primary processing through the application of labour (ore in a foundry, cotton in a spinning mill, grain in a mill, flour in a bakery, etc.) may be considered objects of labour. An object of labour which underwent some previous treatment and which embodies a certain amount of human labour is known as a raw material. Any raw material is thus “the subject of labour, but not every subject of labour is raw material: it can only become so, after it has undergone some alteration by means of labour.”  [321•2 

p The thing or complex of things that man places between himself and the object of labour and that serve as the conductor tor his influence upon that object are called the means of labour.  [321•3 

p Machine-tools, machinery, diverse equipment, 322 production buildings, means of transport needed for servicing industrial enterprises and the like, are all means of labour in industry. For agriculture they are agricultural machines and implements used for land cultivation and harvesting, the land under cultivation, inasmuch as it is a part of a complex of conditions required for seeds to germinate, as well as for plants to grow and ripen, transport vehicles used to carry seeds and harvested crops, barns and stores for storing the harvest, and so forth. In livestock- breeding the means of labour include animals raised for their wool, milk, butter and other produce, the stalls in which the animals are kept, machines used for the upkeep and exploitation of animals, etc.

p Instruments of labour are a separate category of the means of labour. Instruments ot labour are those means of labour that are used as direct conductors ot man’s influence upon the object ot labour and that cause a corresponding alteration in the latter through their properties (mechanical, physical or chemical). All sorts of machines and gears, such as lathes, metal-working machines, textile machines, and so forth, as well as the plough, the harrow, the sowing-machine and combine harvester may serve as examples of instruments of labour. The simplest instruments of labour, created by man in the early stages of human society’s evolution, were the knife, axe, hammer, hoe, etc.

p The objects and means ot labour consitute_the means ot production.

The means of labour play an important role in the production of material wealth. The level of their development determines the character of society’s economic system and the degree of man’s domination over nahirp. “It is not the articles made,” Marx pointed out, “but how they are made, and by what instruments, that enables us to distinguish different economic epochs.”  [323•1