Accumulation of Capital, "employing surplus-value as capital, reconverting it into capital...” (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, p. 543). In his teaching on surplus value, Marx examines the way it derives from capital, but in his teaching on the accumulation of capital he shows how capital originates from surplus value. Under capitalist expanded reproduction (see Reproduction, Capitalist), surplus value falls into two parts—accumulated and spent, into capital and profit. When buying labour power, the capitalist pays for it out of surplus value—the result of the workers’ past unpaid labour. Such is the class essence of capitalist accumulation. The amount accumulated depends on a number of factors. First, on the size of the surplus value. The greater its size, the greater, also, are the opportunities for accumulation. In an effort to increase surplus value, capitalists step up exploitation. If the wages of the working people are below the value of their labour power, part of the workers’ consumption fund is turned into the capital accumulation fund: hence the constant desire of capitalists to lower the living standard of the working people. Accumulation is also promoted by the growing productivity of social labour. The consequent drop in the cost of consumer goods makes labour power cheaper and allows capitalists to hire more workers with the same volume of variable capital. The lower cost of the means of production allows them to buy more machines, raw materials and implements of labour out of the part of surplus value which turns into additional constant capital. The difference between the capital used and consumed, which grows alongside technical progress, also affects the size of accumulation. Machines, equipment and other implements of labour are used fully in the production process, but are consumed only partially, since only part of their value is transferred to the finished product. They thus provide gratuitous services as do natural forces. Accumulation also depends on the amount of capital advanced. Given the same degree of exploitation, the mass of surplus value depends on the number of workers simultaneously exploited, and the number of workers, above all, on the size of the functioning capital. Accumulation, therefore, increases as capital grows. In the final analysis, all the factors facilitating accumulation lead to an intensification of the exploitation of the working people and mounting contradictions in the capitalist system. Capital is accumulated in two forms: concentration of capital and centralisation of capital. Historically, the development of these two forms of capital accumulation led to the appearance of monopolies (see Monopolies, Capitalist) and, at a certain stage,, to the dominance of monopoly capital, i. e., to imperialism. The expanding scope of production in the course of capitalist accumulation is accompanied by technical progress. The growth of the organic composition of capital and the constant upheavals in technology and production techniques are in line with developed capitalism with a corresponding technical basis—large-scale machine in’ dustry. Under conditions of a growing organic composition of capital it is accumulated with a relative decrease in the mass of living labour used by capital compared to the mass of the means of production. This intensifies the exploitation of the workers engaged in production and increases relative surplus population and the growing army of the unemployed (see Unemployment). The class antagonisms of the capitalist society grow in intensity. On the basis of his research into the way surplus value is turned into capital, and his analysis of the factors influencing this process, Marx formulated the general law of capitalist accumulation and showed the inevitability of a relative deterioration of 9 the condition of the proletariat and an absolute deterioration of the condition of the proletariat linked with it. Under contemporary conditions, capital accumulation has a number of specific features. The progressive development of science and technology and also the intensification of the competitive struggle lead to an increase in the necessary minimum increment in accumulated capital. The number of capitalists capable of accumulating capital independently, therefore, decreases. Today, only the top echelons of the monopoly bourgeoisie, enjoying the economic support of the state, can accumulate capital. The middle bourgeoisie becomes more and more dependent on the monopolies, while the petty bourgeoisie is ruined. The population is being rapidly proletarianised. On the other hand, the big bourgeoisie can systematically increase its accumulations out of monopoly profits. The basic contradiction of capitalism is intensified. Capitalism increasingly manifests itself as a society without a future.