Rate of Surplus Value, the relative volume of surplus value or the extent of the increase in variable capital. The rate of surplus value is determined by the ratio of surplus value and variable capital (m/v). It is expressed in percentage terms and is designated by m’. The labour input required to reproduce labour power determines the value of the labour power and, at the same time, the value of variable capital. In other words, variable capital is reproduced during the necessary working time by the worker’s necessary labour. Surplus value is created in surplus working time by the worker’s surplus labour. Therefore, surplus value is to variable capital as surplus labour is to necessary labour. The ratio of surplus and necessary labour expresses the degree of exploitation of the producer by the owner of the means of production in any antagonistic society. The ratio of surplus value and variable capital is a specific expression of the degree of exploitation of wage workers by capitalists. The rate of surplus value shows how the newly created value (v + m) is distributed between the capitalist and the wage worker, as well as the portion of the working day the worker spends reproducing his energy and the portion he spends on the capitalist. If, during half of his working day, the worker reproduces the value of his labour power and the other half works for the capitalist, the degree of exploitation will be 100 per cent. As capitalism develops, the rate of surplus value increases. This means that the exploitation of the workers increases. Thus, in 1909, the rate of surplus value in the manufacturing industry in the United States was 130 per cent, in 1929—158-188 per cent, in 1953—240 per cent and in 1966—314 per cent. Increasing exploitation of workers is conditioned by an insatiable desire on the part of capitalists to appropriate surplus value, as well as by the competitive struggle between them. Capitalists increase the rate of surplus value in two ways: by producing absolute surplus value and relative surplus value.