Marx’s Theory of the Social Power of Capital and Its Contemporary Value

I. Origin of the Problem

一、问题缘起

Regarding the “social power of capital,” Marx first pointed out in *Wage Labour and Capital* that it is an “independent social force,” and in the *Communist Manifesto* he described it as “a social force.” In *Capital*, Marx explicitly states that capital “is a social power.” However, academic research on Marx’s concept of the social power of capital has not been extensive. At the beginning of the establishment of the socialist market economy system, a large amount of research provided theoretical justifications and countermeasures for “capital expansion.” After entering the 21st century, a few scholars began to notice the negative effects of capital expansion, especially the harmful nature of “capitalization of power” and “empowerment of capital.” Since the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in December 2020, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has repeatedly emphasized the need to “strengthen anti-monopoly efforts and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital,” to “set up ‘traffic lights’ for capital to prevent some capital from growing wildly,” and to “regulate and guide the healthy development of capital.” [1]1 “Pro-clean” (亲清) is a term used in Chinese political discourse to describe a government-business relationship that is close (亲) but clean (清), meaning supportive and cooperative without corruption or improper collusion. Since then, research on Marx’s theory of the “power of capital” has received more attention. Scholars regard the power of capital as the key distinguishing Marxian economics from bourgeois economics, believing that the power of capital originates from the relationship between accumulated labor and living labor, or from capital’s control over human material labor, including surplus labor; the power of capital is the means and method of capital’s self-valorization; the power of capital includes three forms: economic power, political power, and cultural power; as long as capital is reproduced as the dominant relation of production, the power of capital is necessarily reproduced; the expansion of the power of capital inevitably leads to the resistance of the proletariat, thereby achieving human liberation, and only by rebuilding individual property and abolishing the rule of the power of capital over labor can the logic of the power of capital be transcended. These studies and conclusions have, to a certain extent, elucidated and enriched Marx’s theory of the social power of capital. However, research on the forms of expression and content of the social power of capital remains relatively general. For example, how exactly are the economic power, political power, and cultural power of capital elaborated in *Capital* and its manuscripts? Although there are some discussions in the current academic circles, they are fragmentary and lack systematicity. Secondly, most studies only examine the “power of capital” itself, failing to see that capital “is a social power.” Finally, attributing the generative logic of the social power of capital solely to the attribute of capital as a relation of production and its profit-driven nature only explains the social roots of the generation of the power of capital. From the perspective of historical materialism, this is clearly far from sufficient to clarify the historical logic of the social power of capital.

关于“资本的社会权力”,马克思最早在《雇佣劳动与资本》中就指出它是一种“独立的社会力量”，并在《共产党宣言》中将其描述为“一种社会力量”。在《资本论》中，马克思明确指出资本“是一种社会权力”。然而，学界对马克思关于资本社会权力的研究并不多。社会主义市场经济体制确立之初，大量的研究是为“资本扩张”提供学理依据和对策。进入21世纪以后，个别学者开始注意到资本扩张的负面影响，尤其是对“权力资本化”和“资本权力化”的危害性的关注。自2020年12月中央政治局会议以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央反复强调要“强化反垄断，防止资本无序扩张”,“要为资本设置‘红绿灯’,防止有些资本野蛮生长”,要“规范和引导资本健康发展”。自此，关于马克思“资本权力”理论的研究才得到较多的关注。学者们把资本权力看作是马克思经济学与资产阶级经济学区分开来的关键，认为资本权力根源于积累的劳动与活劳动的关系，或资本对包括剩余劳动在内的人类物质劳动的掌控；资本权力是资本增殖的手段与方式；资本权力包括经济权力、政治权力和文化权力三种形式；只要资本作为主导性的生产关系再生出来，资本的权力就必然地再生出来；资本权力扩张必然导致无产阶级的反抗从而实现人类解放，只有重建个人所有制、取消资本权力对劳动的统治才能超越资本权力的逻辑。上述这些研究和结论，在一定程度上阐释并丰富了马克思的资本社会权力理论。但是，对资本社会权力的表现形式及其内容的研究还比较笼统，比如资本的经济权力、政治权力、文化权力在《资本论》及其手稿中究竟是怎样阐述的?目前学界虽有论述，但还属于片段性的，缺乏系统性；其次，大多研究仅从“资本权力”本身来研究，没有看到资本“是一种社会权力”;最后，把资本社会权力的生成逻辑归因于资本作为生产关系的属性和资本的逐利本性，只是说明了资本权力生成的社会根源，但从唯物史观的视野来看，要把资本社会权力的历史逻辑说清楚，这显然是远远不够的。

Looking at recent research surrounding the “disorderly expansion of capital,” the focus of debate lies in whether capital is a factor of production or a relation of production, with insufficient attention paid to the attribute of capital as a social power. In Marx’s view, capital is formally a factor of production but essentially a relation of production. However, Marx did not stop there; he elevated it to a social power. In *Capital* and its manuscripts, although no chapter is specifically titled “The Social Power of Capital,” the discussion of the social power of capital runs throughout.

从近期围绕“资本无序扩张”的研究来看，其争论的焦点在于资本是一种生产要素还是一种生产关系，对资本社会权力属性的研究重视不够。在马克思看来，资本形式上是一种生产要素，本质上是一种生产关系。然而，马克思并没有止步于此，而是将其上升为一种社会权力。在《资本论》及其手稿中，虽然其中没有一个篇章以“资本的社会权力”为题，但却始终贯穿着对资本社会权力的论述。

In summary, given the current state of academic research and the high importance attached to the issue of capital by the Party Central Committee, this article will primarily use *Capital* and its manuscripts as a blueprint to systematically sort out and excavate Marx’s exposition on capital “being a social power.” It will focus on summarizing and refining the manifestations of the social power of capital in different fields as revealed by Marx, and deeply explore the generative logic and evolutionary laws of the social power of capital. On this basis, combined with the problems of disorderly expansion of capital that have emerged in the practice of the socialist market economy, it will draw insights for regulating and guiding the healthy development of capital.

综上所述，鉴于学界的研究现状和党中央对资本问题的高度重视，本文将主要以《资本论》及其手稿为蓝本，系统梳理和挖掘马克思关于资本“是一种社会权力”的论述，重点归纳和提炼马克思所揭示的资本社会权力在不同领域的表现，深入探究资本社会权力的生成逻辑和演变规律。在此基础上，结合社会主义市场经济实践中所出现的资本无序扩张问题，从中汲取规范和引导资本健康发展的启示。

II. The Content of the Social Power of Capital

二、资本社会权力的内容

Capital “is a social power” is an abstract, general statement by Marx. To fully understand Marx’s concept of the social power attribute of capital, it is first necessary to clarify the specific content and forms that the social power of capital includes.

资本“是一种社会权力”,是马克思的一个抽象的、总的表述。要全面理解马克思关于资本的社会权力属性，必须首先明确资本的社会权力包括哪些具体内容和形式。

1. Capital is the Economic Power that Dominates Everything in Bourgeois Society

1.资本是资产阶级社会的支配一切的经济权力

Marx pointed out in the “Introduction” to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*: “Capital is the economic power that dominates everything in bourgeois society.” [2]2 Historical nihilism (历史虚无主义) is a term in Chinese political discourse referring to the denial or distortion of established historical narratives, particularly those concerning the CPC’s revolutionary history and the socialist system. In *Capital* and its manuscripts, Marx vividly depicts the economic power of capital.

马克思在《〈政治经济学批判〉导言》中指出：“资本是资产阶级社会的支配一切的经济权力。”在《资本论》及其手稿中，马克思生动地刻画了资本的经济权力。

(1) Capital as a Form of Property Right – The Fundamental Power of Capital

(1)资本是一种所有权——资本的根本权力

Capital, as a relation of production, is first embodied in capital’s ownership of the means of production. Capital’s ownership of the objective conditions of labor (means of production) determines that capital necessarily possesses substantive ownership of the subjective conditions of labor. Capital’s ownership of the means of production is undisputed, but capital’s ownership of labor power is an issue easily overlooked. Under the conditions of capitalist wage labor, the worker owns his own labor power and sells only its use value; this seems to be basic common sense. As Marx pointed out in Chapter Four of Volume I of *Capital*, “The Buying and Selling of Labor-Power”: “In order that the possessor of labor-power may sell it as a commodity, he must be able to dispose of it, and hence must be the free proprietor of his own labor-capacity, his own person. … He must constantly treat his labor-power as his own property, his own commodity.” [3]3 This appears to be a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or policy document, criticizing the lack of regulation in platform and digital economies. However, the worker’s ownership and control over his own labor power is merely a surface phenomenon of the simple sphere of circulation. “When we leave this sphere of simple circulation or the exchange of commodities, … a certain change takes place, or so it seems, in the physiognomy of our dramatis personae. He who was previously the money-owner now strides out in front as a capitalist; the possessor of labor-power follows as his worker. The one smirks self-importantly and is intent on business; the other is timid and holds back, like someone who has brought his own hide to market and now has nothing to expect but – a tanning.” [4]4 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 5. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. That is to say, once the transaction between capital and labor power is concluded, it means the worker loses the ownership and autonomy over his labor power, and awaits him is the capitalist exercising the rights of an owner, as if arbitrarily disposing of his own property. This shows that under capitalist private ownership, the worker’s ownership of labor power is merely formal ownership, while in reality it is capital’s ownership of labor power. An abundant supply of labor power is a basic condition for capitalist production, but “when capital considers it necessary, it enforces its ownership of the free worker through coercive laws.” [5]5 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 3. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. Marx gives the example that before 1815, England prohibited machine workers from emigrating abroad, with severe penalties for violators. Also, the American Civil War led to the European cotton famine and the unemployment of most cotton textile workers, prompting workers and other social strata to call for relocating the “surplus population” to British colonies or America. However, the British cotton mill owners opposed transferring the unemployed workers away. Marx then wrote: “These places revealed without concealment capital’s ownership of labor power.” [6]6 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

资本作为一种生产关系，首先体现为资本对生产资料的所有权。资本对劳动的客观条件(生产资料)的所有权，决定了资本必然对劳动的主观条件拥有实质上的所有权。资本对生产资料的所有权是没有异议的，但是资本对劳动力的所有权却是一个容易被忽视的问题。在资本主义雇佣劳动条件下，劳动者对自己的劳动力拥有所有权，他出卖的只是劳动力的使用权，这似乎是一个基本常识。正如马克思在《资本论》第一卷第四章“劳动力的买和卖”一节中所指出的：“劳动力占有者要把劳动力当做商品出卖，他就必须能够支配它，从而必须是自己的劳动能力、自己人身的自由所有者。……他在让渡自己的劳动力时不放弃自己对它的所有权。”然而，劳动者对自己劳动力的所有权和支配权，只是简单流通领域的表面现象。“一离开这个简单流通领域或商品交换领域，……就会看到，我们的剧中人的面貌已经起了某些变化。原来的货币占有者作为资本家，昂首前行；劳动力占有者作为他的工人，尾随于后。一个笑容满面，雄心勃勃；一个战战兢兢，畏缩不前，像在市场上出卖了自己的皮一样，只有一个前途——让人家来鞣。”也就是说，一旦资本与劳动力的买卖达成协议，就意味着劳动者失去了劳动力的所有权及自主权，等待他的将是资本家行使像任意处置自己的物品一样的所有者权利。这表明在资本主义私有制条件下劳动者对劳动力的所有权只是形式上的所有权，而实际上是资本对劳动力的所有权。充裕的劳动力是资本主义生产的基本条件，但是当“资本在它认为必要的时候，就通过强制性法律来实现它对自由工人的所有权”。马克思举例说在1815年以前，英国禁止机器工人移居国外，违者予以严惩；还有，美国南北战争导致欧洲棉荒和大部分棉纺织业工人失业，于是工人和其他社会阶层呼吁把“多余的人”迁往英国的殖民地或美国，可是英国的棉纺织厂主却反对把失业工人转移出去。马克思随后写道：“这些地方毫无掩饰地表明了资本对劳动力的所有权。”

Under capitalist conditions, “the conditions of labor exist as capital, in social opposition to labor, and are transformed into a personal power confronting and dominating labor.” [7]7 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. Based on this fundamental power of capital ownership, capital naturally possesses all power to dominate labor.

在资本主义条件下，“劳动条件作为资本而存在，同劳动处于社会对立中，并且转化为同劳动相对立并且支配着劳动的个人权力”。建立在资本所有权这一根本权力之上，资本自然就拥有了支配劳动的一切权力。

(2) Capital’s Right to Appropriate Surplus Labor – The Core Economic Power of Capital

(2)资本对剩余劳动的占有权——资本的核心经济权力

Adam Smith, in *The Wealth of Nations*, recognized capital’s power over labor. However, Marx pointed out that capital is not merely the power over general labor; “by its very nature, it is the power over unpaid labor.” [8]8 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. Under conditions of private ownership, surplus labor becomes unpaid labor. Under capitalist commodity economy conditions, this surplus labor is transformed into surplus value.

亚当·斯密在《国富论》中就意识到了资本对劳动的支配权，然而马克思指出资本不是对一般劳动的支配权，“按其本质来说，它是对无酬劳动的支配权”。剩余劳动在私有制条件下成为无酬劳动，在资本主义商品经济条件下这种剩余劳动就转化为剩余价值。

That capital obtains surplus value is the realization of capital's ownership right, just as Marx said: "Distribution relations are essentially identical with these relations of production, their opposite." [1]1 “Pro-clean” (亲清) is a term used in Chinese political discourse to describe a government-business relationship that is close (亲) but clean (清), meaning supportive and cooperative without corruption or improper collusion. However, "the right of property for the capitalist is the right to appropriate the unpaid labor of others or its product, and for the worker, the impossibility of appropriating his own product." [2]2 Historical nihilism (历史虚无主义) is a term in Chinese political discourse referring to the denial or distortion of established historical narratives, particularly those concerning the CPC’s revolutionary history and the socialist system. The "right" of capital to obtain surplus value possesses economic compulsion. Under the pressure of external competition, the power to command unpaid labor becomes a means of competition among capitalists.

资本获得剩余价值是资本所有权的实现，正如马克思所说：“分配关系本质上和这些生产关系是同一的，是生产关系的反面。”然而，“所有权对于资本家来说，表现为占有他人无酬劳动或它的产品的权利，而对于工人来说，则表现为不能占有自己的产品”。资本获取剩余价值的“权利”具有经济强制性。在外部竞争压力下，对无酬劳动的支配权，成为资本家之间竞争的手段。

Capital not only appropriates the surplus value created by industrial workers in the sphere of production, but also appropriates the surplus value realized by the surplus labor of commercial workers in the sphere of circulation. Capital's power to appropriate surplus value is manifested not only as the power to appropriate the surplus value created by living labor, but also as the power of various forms of capital to demand an equal share of surplus value. Therefore, in the form of average profit, "capital is conscious of itself as a social power, and every capitalist participates in this power in proportion to his share in the total social capital." [3]3 This appears to be a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or policy document, criticizing the lack of regulation in platform and digital economies. Industrial capital, commercial capital, loan capital, bank capital, agricultural capital, and other forms of capital all demand a share of the total social surplus value, thereby forming specific forms of surplus value such as industrial profit, commercial profit, interest, and bank profit. When fictitious capital emerged, it also demanded a share of future surplus value, or discounted existing surplus value by drawing on future surplus value. In Volume 3 of *Capital*, Marx analyzed how several forms of fictitious capital that existed at the time, such as stocks, government bonds, and bank accommodation bills, appropriated surplus value by virtue of capital ownership. It can be seen that the historical evolution of the forms of capital does not weaken capital but rather strengthens its economic power.

资本不仅在生产领域占有产业工人创造的剩余价值，而且在流通领域占有商业工人的剩余劳动所实现的剩余价值。资本占有剩余价值的权力不仅表现为占有活劳动创造的剩余价值，而且还表现为各种资本要求平等地分割剩余价值的权力。所以，在平均利润这种形式上“资本就意识到自己是一种社会权力，每个资本家都按照他在社会总资本中占有的份额而分享这种权力”。产业资本、商业资本、借贷资本、银行资本、农业资本等各种资本都要求分割社会的总剩余价值，从而形成产业利润、商业利润、利息、银行利润等剩余价值的具体形式。当虚拟资本出现以后，虚拟资本也要求分割未来的剩余价值，或者通过对未来剩余价值的贴现，分割现有的剩余价值。马克思在《资本论》第三卷中分析了当时出现的股票、国家债券、银行空头汇票等几种虚拟资本怎样凭借资本所有权分割剩余价值。可见，资本形态的历史演变，不会削弱资本反而会增强资本的经济权力。

(3) Capital's power of command and supervision over labor

(3)资本对劳动的指挥权、监督权

When analyzing the capitalist labor process, Marx pointed out that "capital appears in the production process as the manager and commander of labor," [4]4 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 5. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. "the worker works under the supervision of the capitalist, and his labor belongs to the capitalist. The capitalist watches to ensure that the work is done properly and that the means of production are used as intended," [5]5 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 3. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. and "supervises the workers to work regularly and with the required intensity." [6]6 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

马克思在分析资本主义劳动过程时指出，“资本在生产过程中是作为劳动的管理者和指挥者出现的”[13],“工人在资本家的监督下劳动，他的劳动属于资本家。资本家进行监视，使劳动正常进行，使生产资料用得合乎目的”[11]216,“监督工人有规则地并以应有的强度工作”。

Capital's power of command and supervision is determined by the antagonistic nature of the capitalist labor process. "The labor of directing and supervising... is a function arising from the opposition between the owner of the means of production and the mere owner of labor-power." [7]7 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. "The interconnection of their labor confronts them, ideally, as the plan of the capitalist, and, practically, as his authority, as the power of an alien will which subjects their activity to its own purpose." [8]8 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

资本的指挥和监督权是由资本主义劳动过程的对抗性质所决定的。“指挥和监督的劳动…是由生产资料所有者和单纯的劳动力所有者之间的对立所引起的职能”。“劳动的联系，在观念上作为资本家的计划，在实践中作为资本家的权威，作为他人意志——他们的活动必须服从这个意志的目的——的权力，而和他们相对立。”

With the continuous development of the division of labor and cooperation, "the command of capital develops into a necessary condition for the labor process itself, into a real condition of production," [9]9 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. just as "a general is indispensable on the battlefield" and "an orchestra needs a conductor"; [10]10 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. "once the labor subordinated to capital becomes cooperative labor, this function of management, supervision, and regulation becomes a function of capital." [11]11 Marx, *Grundrisse*, Notebook IV. The quote is from the section on money. Those who actually perform the functions of command and supervision are the "industrial officers (managers) and non-commissioned officers (overseers, foremen)," who "command in the name of capital during the labor process. The work of supervision becomes their exclusive function." [12]12 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation.

随着分工协作的不断发展，“资本的指挥发展成为劳动过程本身的进行所必要的条件，成为实际的生产条件”,“就像在战场上不能缺少将军”“一个乐队就需要一个乐队指挥”一样；“一旦从属于资本的劳动成为协作劳动，这种管理、监督和调节的职能就成为资本的职能”,实际承担指挥和监督职能的是“工业上的军官(经理)和军士(监工)”,他们“在劳动过程中以资本的名义进行指挥。监督工作固定为他们的专职”。

(4) Capital's power of compulsion over labor

(4)资本对劳动的强制权

The worker's labor for the capitalist "appears very much like the result of a freely negotiated agreement," [13]13 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation. but in essence it is indirect and concealed forced labor. Regarding the fact that capital extracts surplus labor from the worker without giving an equivalent, "labor is not voluntary labor, but coerced forced labor." [14]14 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation. "Capital develops into a coercive relation, which compels the working class to perform more labor than the narrow round of its own needs would dictate." [15]15 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation.

工人为资本家劳动，“看起来非常像是自由协商议定的结果”,实质上是具有间接性、隐蔽性的强制劳动。就资本未付等价物而从工人身上榨取剩余劳动来看，“劳动不是自愿的劳动，而是被迫的强制劳动”。“资本发展成为一种强制关系，迫使工人阶级超出自身生活需要的狭隘范围而从事更多的劳动”。

Capital's power of compulsion over labor is manifested in the form of forced overwork imposed on employed workers, such as greatly extending working hours, or having workers take work home after normal working hours while actually paying them below-market rates; and in the case of those who are physically strong but lack the means of subsistence or employment, those receiving relief, and vagrants and beggars, they are often taken in or placed under control and forced to work without pay. [16]16 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 3, Chapter 47, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the genesis of capitalist ground-rent. When machinery appeared, this powerful means of replacing labor and workers instead brought "women and children, who have no muscle power or whose bodies are not yet fully developed but whose limbs are more agile" [17]17 Engels, *Anti-Dühring*, Part II, Chapter 1. The quote is from a discussion of the theory of force. into the ranks of forced labor. "It not only robs children of their playtime, but also robs the family itself of the free labor time customarily needed within the household." [18]18 This is a quotation from an official Chinese document or policy statement on the current forms of capital in China’s socialist market economy.

资本对劳动的强制权表现为对在业工人采取大大延长劳动时间，或者在正常劳动时间结束后让工人把工作带回家去完成而实际上支付低于市场价格的报酬等强制过度劳动方式；对那些身体强壮而没有生存资料或职业的人、受救济者、游荡和行乞的人，往往被收容或管制起来进行强制劳动而不支付报酬。当机器出现后，机器这种代替劳动和工人的有力手段，反而把“没有肌肉力或身体发育不成熟而四肢比较灵活的”妇女和儿童也纳入强制劳动的队伍，“不仅夺去了儿童游戏的时间，而且夺去了家庭本身惯常需要的、在家庭范围内从事的自由劳动的时间”。

Capital's forced labor differs from the direct, naked, extra-economic forced labor of slavery; it is an economic compulsion determined by the nature of capitalist private property, a compulsion imposed on workers by the logic of capital. "The mere conversion of money into the material factors of the production process, into means of production, transforms the means of production into a legal right and a coercive power to appropriate the labor and surplus labor of others," [19]19 This is a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or document, emphasizing the socialist character of China’s market economy. and "capital, in its energy, greed, and efficiency, far surpasses all previous systems of production based on direct forced labor." [20]20 The “Two Unswervinglies” (两个毫不动摇) refer to the policy of unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector of the economy and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector.

资本的强制劳动，不同于奴隶制直接的、赤裸裸的、超经济的强制劳动，而是基于资本主义私有制性质所决定的经济性的强制，是资本逻辑强加给工人的。“货币单纯地转化为生产过程的物质因素，转化为生产资料，就使生产资料转化为占有他人劳动和剩余劳动的合法权和强制权”,并且“资本在精力、贪婪和效率方面，远远超过了以往一切以直接强制劳动为基础的生产制度”。

(5) Capital's power of arbitrary use and dismissal of labor-power

(5)资本对劳动力的任意使用权和解雇权

"The nature of commodity exchange itself imposes no limits on the working day, and therefore no limits on surplus labor. The capitalist insists on his right as a buyer, and he tries to extend the working day as much as possible, turning one working day into two if he can." [21]21 The “Two Immovables” (两个不能动摇) refer to the principle that the dominant position of public ownership and the leading role of the state-owned economy cannot be shaken. Although large-scale machine industry created the conditions for shortening labor time, it "became the most reliable means of turning the whole lifetime of the worker and his family into labor time at the disposal of capital for the purpose of valorizing capital," [22]22 The “universal light” (普照的光) is a metaphor used by Marx to describe how a dominant mode of production modifies and colors all other modes of production within a social formation. so that "science, the immense forces of nature, and the social mass of labor are all embodied in the system of machinery and, together with it, constitute the power of the 'master,'" [23]23 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15. and the formal subsumption of labor under capital is transformed into the real subsumption.

“商品交换的性质本身没有给工作日规定任何界限，因而没有给剩余劳动规定任何界限。资本家要坚持他作为买者的权利，他尽量延长工作日，如果可能，就把一个工作日变成两个工作日”。尽管机器大工业为缩短劳动时间创造了条件，却“成为把工人及其家属的全部生活时间转化为受资本支配的增殖资本价值的劳动时间的最可靠的手段”,使得“科学、巨大的自然力、社会的群众性劳动都体现在机器体系中，并同机器体系一道构成‘主人’的权力”,劳动对资本形式上的从属转变为实际上的从属。

Capital not only possesses the power to use labor-power arbitrarily, but also the power to dismiss workers arbitrarily. "If the worker does not have average efficiency, and therefore cannot provide a certain minimum daily amount of labor, he is dismissed;" [24]24 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 12. to reduce labor costs, employers often threaten fathers with dismissal to force them to send their children to work. When children "grow too old for child labor, that is, at the latest by the time they are 17, they are dismissed from the printing works;" [25]25 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15. when the cost of adopting new machinery is less than the total wages of the labor-power displaced by the machinery, the capitalist dismisses the workers without mercy. Thus, every improvement in machinery leads to the dismissal of a portion of the workers; when the market price of a certain commodity tends to fall over a relatively long period and on a relatively large scale, the wage workers producing these commodities are dismissed; during economic crises, both productive and unproductive workers are dismissed by capital.

资本不仅拥有任意使用劳动力的权力，而且拥有任意解雇工人的权力。“如果工人没有平均的工作效率，因而不能提供一定的最低限度的日劳动，他就会被解雇”;为了减少用工成本，雇主们经常用解雇威胁家长，强迫他们把孩子送去劳动。当儿童“长大到不适于从事儿童劳动时，也就是最迟到17岁时，就被印刷厂解雇”;当采用新机器的费用少于机器所排挤的劳动力的工资总额时，资本家就会毫不留情地解雇工人。因而机器每改良一次，都会有一部分工人被解雇；当某种商品在较大范围内持续较长时间市场价格趋于下降时，生产这些商品的雇用工人就会被解雇；经济危机时期，生产工人和非生产工人都会遭到资本的解雇。

Capital also uses the dismissal of workers as a means of suppressing the workers' movement. For example, "in County Cork, where public discontent was most strongly expressed, the bosses used their power to dismiss workers to suppress the movement;" [26]26 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 10. when the air at the coal face in a mine was insufficient, "if anyone complained to the inspector about the ventilation, he would be dismissed and become a 'marked' man, unable to find work anywhere else." [27]27 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15. "As soon as a worker showed dissatisfaction or offended the overseer in any way, the overseer would make a mark or a note next to his name in the supervision book and dismiss him when the new year's contract was signed." [28]28 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15. In short, capital's power of arbitrary dismissal over workers is subordinated to capital's need to extract surplus value.

资本还把解雇工人作为压制工人运动的手段。例如，“在公众的不满情绪表现得最强烈的科克郡，老板们利用他们解雇工人的权力，把运动压了下去”;当煤矿井下工作面空气不足时，“如果有谁向视察员控诉通风情况，那他就会被解雇，并且成为一个‘被记名的’人，到别的地方也找不到工作”。“只要工人流露出不满，或者在哪一方面得罪了监工，监工就在监督簿上他们的姓名下面作个记号或加个注，等到签订新的一年的契约时就把他们解雇”。总之，资本对工人的任意解雇权服从于资本榨取剩余价值的需要。

In summary, the right to appropriate surplus labor, the power to command and supervise wage labor, the power of forced labor, and the power to arbitrarily use and dismiss workers at will are all powers derived from capital's ownership right, and are essentially economic powers centered on the command of unpaid labor.

综上所述，对剩余劳动的占有权、对雇佣劳动的指挥权和监督权、强制劳动权以及任意使用和随意解雇工人的权力等，都是资本所有权所衍生出来的权力，实质上都是围绕支配无酬劳动展开的经济权力。

2. Capital's political power

2.资本的政治权力

"Political power is merely the product of economic power." [29]29 This is a paraphrase of a common Marxist formulation; the closest direct source is likely Engels, "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State," Chapter 9. To satisfy its insatiable pursuit of surplus value, capital is not content with economic power but seeks political power to obtain greater benefits.

“政治权力只不过是经济权力的产物。”为了满足对剩余价值无止境的追求，资本并不满足于经济权力，而是谋求政治权力以获取更大的利益。

(1) Capital Power and State Power

(1)资本权力与国家权力

The state power of the capitalist state is the concentrated expression of capital power. However, the elevation of capital power into state power or the will of the state requires a relatively long process. In its embryonic period, capital, relying solely on the force of economic relations, was insufficient to absorb enough surplus labor; it also needed the assistance of state power. Marx pointed out: “The rising bourgeoisie needed and employed state power to ‘regulate’ wages, i.e., to force them into the limits suitable for making a profit, to lengthen the working day, and to keep the worker himself at the normal level of dependence. This is an essential element of so-called primitive accumulation.” [1]1 “Pro-clean” (亲清) is a term used in Chinese political discourse to describe a government-business relationship that is close (亲) but clean (清), meaning supportive and cooperative without corruption or improper collusion. Taking the English Labour Statute of 1349 under Edward III and the French ordinance of 1350 as examples, Marx explained that early labour laws were the result of capital seeking help from state power: they all set a maximum wage but no minimum; employers who paid above the legal wage were imprisoned, while workers who accepted higher wages were subjected to even harsher punishment. Furthermore, the colonial system, the national debt system, the modern tax system, and the system of protective tariffs at the end of the 17th century in England — “all these methods employ the power of the state … to forcibly promote the transformation from the feudal mode of production to the capitalist mode of production and to shorten the transition period.” [2]2 Historical nihilism (历史虚无主义) is a term in Chinese political discourse referring to the denial or distortion of established historical narratives, particularly those concerning the CPC’s revolutionary history and the socialist system.

资本主义国家权力是资本权力的集中体现。然而，资本权力上升为国家权力或国家意志需经历一个较长的过程。资本在萌芽时期，单纯依靠经济关系的力量不足以吮吸足够多的剩余劳动，还需要借助于国家政权的帮助。马克思指出：“新兴的资产阶级为了‘规定’工资，即把工资强制地限制在有利于赚钱的界限内，为了延长工作日并使工人本身处于正常程度的从属状态，就需要并运用国家权力。这是所谓原始积累的一个重要因素。”马克思以英国1349年爱德华三世时的劳工法和法国1350年颁布的敕令为例，说明早期的劳工法就是资本求助于国家权力的结果：它们都规定了工资的最高限度，但没有规定工资的最低限度；支付高于法定工资的雇主要被监禁，但接受高工资的工人则要受到更严厉的处罚；还有英国17世纪末的殖民制度、国债制度、现代税收制度和保护关税制度，“所有这些方法都利用国家权力，……来大力促进从封建生产方式向资本主义生产方式的转化过程，缩短过渡时间”。

With the continuous expansion of capital power, state power was completely reduced to a servant of capital power. In his exposition of capital accumulation, Marx sarcastically noted: “The progress of the 18th century shows itself in this, that the law itself now becomes the instrument by which the people’s land is plundered, although the large farmers also use their own independent private petty means.” [3]3 This appears to be a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or policy document, criticizing the lack of regulation in platform and digital economies.

随着资本权力的不断扩张，国家权力完全变成了资本权力的奴仆。马克思在阐述资本积累时讽刺道：“18世纪的进步表现为：法律本身现在成了掠夺人民土地的工具，虽然大租地农场主同时也使用自己独立的私人小手段。”

Capital and state power often collude with and penetrate each other. Capital, by bribing officials or insinuating itself into the organs of state power, makes state power serve its own purposes — this is what is meant by “the capitalization of power”; conversely, officials wielding state power also ally with capital for personal gain — this is what is meant by “the powerization of capital.” [4]4 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 5. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. As an example, Marx noted that, in order to oppose the legal provisions of the Factory Acts requiring the installation of safety devices on production equipment, factory owners established a “National Association for the Amendment of the Factory Acts,” which included magistrates, most of whom were factory owners or their friends, and some engineers who, in their capacity as experts, did their utmost to defend the factory owners. As Engels pointed out: “In this state, wealth wields its power indirectly but all the more surely. Its form is, on the one hand, the direct bribery of officials (the classic example of this is America), and, on the other hand, the alliance between the government and the stock exchange.” [5]5 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 3. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

资本和国家权力往往相互勾结、相互渗透。资本通过收买官员或跻身国家权力机构，使国家权力为之所用，之所谓“资本权力化”;拥有国家权力的官员也与资本联合为个人谋利，之所谓“权力资本化”。马克思举例说，为了反对工厂法关于给生产设备安装安全设施的法律规定，工厂主成立了包括治安法官在内的“争取修改工厂法全国协会”,而其中的治安法官大多数是工厂主或工厂主的朋友，还有一些工程师以专家的身份尽力替工厂主进行辩护。正如恩格斯所指出的：“在这种国家中，财富是间接地但也是更可靠地运用它的权力的。其形式一方面是直接收买官吏(美国是这方面的典型例子),另一方面是政府和交易所结成联盟。”

When the expansion of capital power threatens the interests of the bourgeois state, the state power of the capitalist state may also restrict capital power, as seen, for example, in the modern Factory Acts’ limitations on the working day and the use of child labor. The restriction or intervention of capitalist state power in capital power is, in the final analysis, aimed at safeguarding the overall interests of the bourgeoisie.

当资本权力的扩张危及资产阶级国家利益时，资本主义国家权力也会制约资本权力，比如现代工厂法对工作日和使用童工的限制。资本主义国家权力对资本权力的限制或干预，归根到底是为了维护资产阶级的整体利益。

In short, whether in its early development when it was dependent on state power, or after it grew strong and came to possess state power, capital has always been unable to do without the support of state power. State power, as the general representative of capital power, always upholds the power of capital.

总之，不管是资本发展的早期依附于国家权力，还是资本壮大后拥有国家权力，资本始终都离不开国家权力的支持，国家权力作为资本权力的总代表，始终维护资本的权力。

(2) Capital’s Class Rule

(2)资本的阶级统治权

After the bourgeoisie seized political power from the feudal ruling class, it used this power to force the working class, which had once been its ally in the struggle against feudalism, back into its former state of oppression.

资产阶级从封建主阶级手里夺取政治权力以后，资产阶级便利用这个权力使曾与他们一起反封建的同盟者工人阶级回到从前那种受压迫的地位。

The bourgeoisie’s rule over the proletariat originates from capital’s economic power, that is, “the silent compulsion of economic relations sets the seal on the domination of the capitalist over the worker.” [6]6 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. In Volume III of *Capital*, Marx emphasized that class distinctions cannot be explained by simply looking at distribution relations and sources of income in isolation from relations of production: “The specific economic form in which unpaid surplus labor is pumped out of the direct producers determines the relationship of domination and servitude, as it grows directly out of production itself and, in turn, reacts upon it as a determining factor.” [7]7 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

资产阶级对无产阶级的统治权源自资本的经济权力，即“经济关系的无声的强制保证资本家对工人的统治”。马克思在《资本论》第三卷中强调不能离开生产关系单纯从分配关系和收入来源来解释阶级的差别，“从直接生产者身上榨取无酬剩余劳动的独特经济形式，决定了统治和从属的关系，这种关系是直接从生产本身中生长出来的，并且又对生产发生决定性的反作用。”

With the development of productive forces, capital’s domination over labor becomes easier. During the period of manufacture, through the division of manual labor and the specialization of tools, the crippling of workers’ skills made labor subordinate to capital, thereby “producing new conditions for the domination of capital over labor.” [8]8 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. After large-scale machine industry, “the machine not only acts as a powerful competitor, always on the point of making the wage-laborer ‘superfluous’,” but also becomes “the most powerful weapon for suppressing strikes, those periodic revolts of the working class against the autocracy of capital.” [9]9 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts.

随着生产力的发展，资本对劳动的统治变得更加容易。工场手工业时期通过对手工劳动的分解和工具的专门化，以工人技能的畸形化使劳动隶属于资本，从而“生产了资本统治劳动的新条件”。机器大工业以后，“机器不仅是一个极强大的竞争者，随时可以使雇佣工人‘过剩’”,而且“成了镇压工人反抗资本专制的周期性暴力和罢工等等的最强有力的武器”。

Under normal circumstances, capital’s domination over labor is governed by the “natural laws of capitalist production,” that is, by the subordination of labor to capital. In exceptional periods, such as when workers’ strikes threaten bourgeois rule, the bourgeoisie will resort to “extra-economic, direct force,” i.e., employing the state apparatus to suppress them. For example, the strike of Belgian miners in February 1867 was “put down with powder and shot.” [10]10 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6. The quote is from a discussion of the Factory Acts. Furthermore, the shortening of the working day under capitalist conditions was a concession the bourgeoisie was forced to make during the prolonged struggle of the working class; on the surface, it served the interests of the working class, but in essence, it was aimed at stabilizing bourgeois rule.

通常情况下，资本对劳动的统治是由资本主义“生产的自然规律”支配的，即由劳动对资本的从属关系支配的。在特殊时期，比如工人罢工影响到资产阶级统治的时候，资产阶级就会运用“超经济的直接的暴力”即运用国家机器进行镇压。比如，1867年2月比利时矿工罢工就是“用火药和枪弹镇压下去的”。此外，资本主义条件下工作日的缩短是工人阶级长期斗争的过程中资产阶级不得不做出的让步，表面上是维护工人阶级利益，实质上是为了稳固资产阶级的统治。

3. Capital’s Cultural Power

3.资本的文化权力

Capital’s cultural power is mainly manifested in its control over ideology. Ideology is the conceptual reflection of a given society’s politics and economy. In *The German Ideology*, Marx pointed out: “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production, so that the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are, in general, subject to it.” [11]11 Marx, *Grundrisse*, Notebook IV. The quote is from the section on money. In order to realize their economic dominance and political rule, the bourgeoisie inevitably make their own ideas, concepts, or values the ruling ideology of the entire society. Consequently, bourgeois ideology is essentially the conceptualization of the logic of capital, an ideology of the bourgeoisie built upon the capitalist economic system and the political and legal systems of the capitalist state.

资本的文化权力主要体现为对意识形态的控制权，意识形态是一定社会的政治和经济在观念形态上的反映。马克思在《德意志意识形态》中指出：“一个阶级是社会上占统治地位的物质力量，同时也是社会上占统治地位的精神力量。支配着物质生产资料的阶级，同时也支配着精神生产资料。”资产阶级为了实现他们在经济上的支配权和政治上的统治权，必然把他们的思想观念或价值观作为整个社会占统治地位的意识形态。因而，资产阶级的意识形态实质上是资本逻辑的观念化，是建立在资本主义经济制度和政治法律制度之上的资产阶级的意识形态。

Capital’s control over ideology is manifested in the bourgeoisie’s ostentatious advocacy of freedom, democracy, equality, and human rights on the surface, while behind the scenes, it excludes ideologies that do not conform to the logic of capital by restricting freedom of speech and the press. As early as in *On the Jewish Question*, Marx elaborated on the class character of press freedom, pointing out that “the right of man to freedom ceases to be a right as soon as it comes into conflict with political life,” [12]12 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation. and also stated that freedom of the press should be a right universally enjoyed by the people, not a privilege of the bourgeoisie. In response to the new Prussian press censorship decree of December 24, 1841, Marx wrote “Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction” in January 1842, criticizing Prussian press censorship legislation and demanding freedom of the press. However, due to the Prussian government’s suppression of progressive articles, it was not published until February 1843 in Switzerland. The *Rheinische Zeitung*, founded on January 1, 1842, was banned by the Prussian government effective April 1, 1843, due to its increasingly evident revolutionary democratic tendencies. In 1851, Hermann Becker began publishing Marx’s collected works in Cologne, but the publication was banned after the first volume appeared due to suppression by the Prussian government. *Capital* itself faced opposition from capital forces upon its publication. In the Afterword to the Second Edition of *Capital*, Marx noted: “The question is no longer whether this or that theorem is true, but whether it is useful to capital or harmful, expedient or inexpedient, politically dangerous or not. In place of disinterested inquirers, there are hired prize-fighters; in place of genuine scientific research, the bad conscience and the evil intent of the apologist.” [13]13 Marx, *Capital*, Vol. 1, Chapter 3, Section 2. The quote is from a discussion of the means of circulation. This fully demonstrates the hypocrisy and deceptiveness of bourgeois freedom, democracy, equality, and human rights.

资本对意识形态的控制权表现为资产阶级表面上极力宣扬自由、民主、平等、人权，背后又通过限制言论和出版自由排除不符合资本观念的意识形态。马克思早在《论犹太人问题》中就阐述了新闻出版自由的阶级性，指出“自由这一人权一旦同政治生活发生冲突，就不再是权利”,同时也指出新闻出版自由应当是人民普遍享有的权利，而不应当是资产阶级的特权。针对1841年12月24日普鲁士政府颁布的新书报检查令，马克思于1842年1月撰写了《评普鲁士最近的书报检查令》,批评普鲁士的书报检查立法，要求新闻出版自由，但由于普鲁士政府对进步文章的查禁，直到1843年2月才在瑞士得以发表。1842年1月1日创刊的《莱茵报》,由于日益明显的革命民主主义倾向，于1843年4月1日起被普鲁士政府查封。1851年，海·贝克尔(Hermann Becker)开始在科伦出版马克思文集，但由于普鲁士政府的查禁，该文集在第一版出版后即被禁止。《资本论》在出版时就受到了来自资本势力的反对，马克思在《资本论》第二版跋中指出：“现在问题不再是这个或那个原理是否正确，而是它对资本有利还是有害，方便还是不方便，违背警章还是不违背警章。无私的研究让位于豢养的文丐的争斗，不偏不倚的科学探讨让位于辩护士的坏心恶意。”足见资产阶级自由、民主、平等、人权的虚伪性和欺骗性。

The equality of capital is merely the equality of capital’s exploitation of labor. Marx pointed out: “Capital is the inherent leveller; that is, it demands the equality of the conditions of the exploitation of labor in all spheres of production as its innate right.” “Equal exploitation of labor-power is capital’s primary human right.” For example, because factory laws restricted capital’s exploitation of child labor, factory owners, to prevent other factories from illegally using child labor and thereby obtaining more profit, called for the law to strictly prohibit the illegal use of child labor in all sectors, demanding “equal restrictions on the exploitation of labor.” The so-called equal rate of profit on equal capital is merely the equality of capital’s power to share in society’s surplus value, an equality among capitalists, not an equality between the capitalist class and the working class.

资本的平等，只不过是资本对劳动剥削的平等。马克思指出：“资本是天生的平等派，就是说，它要求把一切生产领域内剥削劳动的条件的平等当做自己的天赋人权”,“平等地剥削劳动力，是资本的首要的人权。”比如，由于工厂法限制资本对儿童劳动的剥削，工厂主为了防止别的工厂违规使用童工而获得更多利润，呼吁法律严禁一切部门违规使用童工，“要求对劳动的剥削实行平等的限制”。所谓等量资本获得等量利润，也不过是资本瓜分社会剩余价值的权力的平等，是资本家之间的平等，而不是资本家阶级与工人阶级之间的平等。

In the early stages of capitalist development, workers had not the slightest human rights. “As for the time for personal education, the time for developing intelligence, the time for fulfilling social functions, the time for social intercourse, the time for the free exercise of physical and mental faculties, even the rest time on Sundays (even in countries that observe the Sabbath) — all this is sheer nonsense!” The 1844 Factory Act stipulated that children under 11 could not be employed, while simultaneously allowing children aged 11-13 to be employed for up to 10 hours a day, which meant abolishing the education children could otherwise have received. The combination of education with productive labor was a germ of future education that sprouted gradually within the factory system with the development of machinery and large-scale industry, but the starting point of capitalist education was to serve capital’s profit-making, not the free and comprehensive development of the individual.

在资本主义发展初期，工人是没有丝毫人权的。“至于个人受教育的时间，发展智力的时间，履行社会职能的时间，进行社交活动的时间，自由运用体力和智力的时间，以至于星期日的休息时间(即使是在信守安息日的国家里),——这全都是废话!”1844年的法令规定不允许雇佣11岁以下的儿童，同时允许雇佣11-13岁的儿童每天工作10小时，这就意味着取消了儿童本来可以受到的教育。把教育与生产劳动相结合是随着机器和大工业的发展而逐渐在工厂制度中萌发出来的未来教育的幼芽，但是资本主义教育的出发点是为资本赚钱服务，而不是人的自由全面发展。

Take the right to vote, for example. The working class and working people were initially deprived of the franchise. Only later, through continuous workers’ movements and parliamentary struggles, did they win the right to vote for a minority of seats. Even within the bourgeoisie itself, its democratic rights depend on the quantity and strength of capital; large capital squeezes out, oppresses, and dominates small capital. As Marx pointed out, “The nature of elections does not depend on this name, but on the economic base, on the economic relations among the voters.”

再拿选举权来说，工人阶级和劳动人民一开始就被剥夺了选举权，后来在工人阶级不断进行工人运动和议会斗争后，才争取到了少数席位的选举权。即使在资产阶级内部，其民主权利也取决于资本的数量多少与实力大小，大资本排挤、压榨和统治小资本。正如马克思所指出的，“选举的性质并不取决于这个名称，而是取决于经济基础，取决于选民之间的经济联系”。

Thus, it can be seen that the so-called freedom, democracy, equality, and human rights of capitalism, as the ideology of the bourgeoisie, are in essence the privileges of capital, a discourse system ultimately serving the valorization of capital. The bourgeoisie packages its own privileges as natural rights, replacing the concrete privileges of the bourgeoisie with abstract freedom, equality, and human rights.

可见，资本主义的所谓自由、民主、平等、人权作为资产阶级的意识形态，实质上是资本的特权，归根到底是为资本增殖服务的话语体系。资产阶级把自己的特权包装为天赋人权，以抽象的自由、平等、人权代替具体的资产阶级的特权。

The above review of the content of Marx’s capital social power shows that capital, as “a social power,” is based on the fundamental power of capital ownership, from which it generates all powers dominating bourgeois society, including economic, political, and cultural powers. Therefore, it can also be said that capital itself is a kind of power; power is a basic attribute of capital. As long as capital exists, capital power can permeate every aspect of social life; with the continuous growth of capital accumulation, the power of capital also grows.

以上对马克思资本社会权力内容的梳理表明：资本作为“一种社会权力”是以资本所有权这一根本权力为基础而孳生的包括经济、政治、文化等权力在内的支配资产阶级社会的一切权力。因此，也可以说，资本本身就是一种权力，权力是资本的基本属性。只要资本存在，资本权力就能够渗透到社会生活的方方面面；随着资本积累的不断增长，资本的权力也一同增长。

III. The Logic of Generation and Development Trend of Capital’s Social Power

三、资本社会权力的生成逻辑和发展趋势

1. The Historical Origin of Capital’s Social Power — Capital’s Social Power Evolves from the Social Power of Commodities

1.资本社会权力的历史渊源——资本的社会权力是从商品的社会权力演化而来的

In *Capital* and its manuscripts, Marx, following the method of the unity of logic and history, expounds how capital’s social power evolved from the social power of commodities.

马克思在《资本论》及其手稿中按照逻辑与历史相统一的方法，论述了资本的社会权力是怎样从商品的社会权力演化而来的。

First, the power of commodities is a social power. A commodity cannot express its own value by itself; “it can only be expressed in the social relation between one commodity and another.” One party alienates use-value to obtain value, while the other alienates value to obtain use-value. “In any case, on the commodity market, it is only commodity owners who confront each other; the power they exercise over each other is only the power of their commodities.” The power of commodities comes from “value,” which embodies the relations of production among commodity producers; this is the premise and foundation for commodity owners to exercise their power.

首先，商品的权力是一种社会权力。商品自己不能表现自己的价值，“只能在商品同商品的社会关系中表现出来”,一方让渡使用价值从而获得价值，另一方让渡价值获得使用价值。“在任何情形下，在商品市场上，只是商品占有者与商品占有者相对立，他们彼此行使的权力只是他们商品的权力。”而商品的权力来自体现商品生产者之间生产关系的“价值”,这是商品所有者行使商品权力的前提和基础。

Second, the social power of commodities transforms into the social power of money. In the long process of commodity exchange, the value-form, after a lengthy evolution, finally takes the money-form as its completed form. Money, as the universal equivalent, becomes the “direct social incarnation of all human labor” in commodity society. The social power of commodities thus transforms into the social power of money, i.e., “the individual’s product or activity must first be transformed into the form of exchange-value, into money, and only through this material form does it acquire and prove its social power.” People can either use this “nerve of things” or “social pledge” to purchase any commodity, or hoard it as a representative of social wealth. [11]11 Marx, *Grundrisse*, Notebook IV. The quote is from the section on money.154 In this way, the money owner can “exercise power over the activities of others or over the wealth of society,” because “he carries his social power and his connection with society in his pocket.” “With the extension of commodity circulation, the power of money — the absolutely available social form of wealth — increases.”

其次，商品的社会权力转化为货币的社会权力。在商品交换长期发展过程中，价值形式经过漫长的演变最终以货币形式作为它的完成形态，货币作为一般等价物成为商品社会“一切人类劳动的直接的社会化身”,商品的社会权力就转化为货币的社会权力，即“个人的产品或活动必须先转化为交换价值的形式，转化为货币，并且通过这种物的形式才取得和证明自己的社会权力”。人们既可以手握这个“物的神经”或“社会的抵押品”购买任何商品，也可以把它作为社会财富的代表贮藏起来。[11]154这样，货币所有者就可以“行使支配别人的活动或支配社会财富的权力”,因为“他在衣袋里装着自己的社会权力和自己同社会的联系”。“随着商品流通的扩展，货币——财富的随时可用的绝对社会形式——的权力增大了”。

Finally, the social power of money transforms into the social power of capital. In the capital movement G—W—G’, we can fully see how commodity power transforms into capital power: money cannot become capital without taking the commodity form. “All commodities, no matter how ugly or smelly they may be, are in faith and in fact money, circumcised Jews, and are a wonderful means of turning money into more money.” The commodities here include not only commodities as things, but, more importantly, the human being as the subject of labor becomes a commodity. Once labor-power becomes a commodity, capital gains a series of powers, including the power to dominate, supervise, and command labor.

最后，货币的社会权力转化为资本的社会权力。在资本运动G—W—G’中，我们可以完整地看到商品权力怎样转化为资本权力：货币不采取商品形式，就不能成为资本，“一切商品，不管它们多么难看，多么难闻，在信仰上和事实上都是货币，是行过内部割礼的犹太人，并且是把货币变成更多的货币的奇妙手段”。这里的商品，不仅包括作为物的商品，更重要的是作为劳动主体的人成为商品。劳动力成为商品后，资本就拥有了对劳动的支配权、监督权、指挥权等一系列权力。

In summary, from a historical origin perspective, capital’s social power evolves from the social power of commodities. When commodities transform into money, the power of commodities transforms into the power of money; when money transforms into capital, the power of money transforms into the power of capital. Capital’s social power ultimately originates from the social labor that produces value.

总之，从历史渊源来看，资本的社会权力是从商品的社会权力演化而来的。商品转化为货币，商品的权力就转化为货币的权力；货币转化为资本，货币的权力就转化为资本的权力。资本的社会权力最终来源于生产价值的社会劳动。

2. The Social Root of Capital’s Social Power Lies in the Relations of Production from Which Capital Arises

2.资本社会权力的社会根源是资本赖以产生的生产关系

In Volume III of *Capital*, Marx points out: “We must always, in the direct relationship between the owners of the conditions of production and the direct producers… find the innermost secret, the hidden basis of the entire social structure, and consequently of the political form of sovereignty and dependence, in short, of any particular form of the state at any given time.” This “innermost secret” and “hidden basis” are the relations of production. The social power of capital is determined by the social nature of capital as a relation of production. Engels, in *Anti-Dühring*, pointed out: “All social power and all political power originate from the economic preconditions, from the historically produced mode of production and mode of exchange of each respective society.” [17]17 Engels, *Anti-Dühring*, Part II, Chapter 1. The quote is from a discussion of the theory of force. The nature of capital’s economic relations determines that it dominates not only the entire economic activity but also the politics, law, thought, morality, and all social life of bourgeois society. As Marx said, “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life.”

马克思在《资本论》第三卷中指出：“任何时候，我们总是要在生产条件的所有者同直接生产者的直接关系……当中，为整个社会结构，从而也为主权关系和依附关系的政治形式，总之，为任何当时的独特的国家形式，发现最隐蔽的秘密，发现隐藏着的基础。”这个“最隐蔽的秘密”和“隐藏着的基础”就是生产关系。资本的社会权力是由资本作为生产关系的社会性质所决定的。恩格斯在《反杜林论》中指出：“一切社会权力和一切政治权力都起源于经济的先决条件，起源于各该社会的历史地产生的生产方式和交换方式。”[17]资本的经济关系性质决定了它不仅支配整个经济活动，而且支配资产阶级社会的政治、法律、思想、道德和一切社会生活。正如马克思所说的“物质生活的生产方式制约着整个社会生活、政治生活和精神生活的过程”。

The various powers of domination exercised by the capitalist over wage-labor are not determined by his purely personal status, but by his economic status as the dominator of the relations of production. As Marx pointed out: “The capitalist is a capitalist not because he is an industrial manager; on the contrary, he becomes an industrial commander because he is a capitalist. The supreme power in industry becomes an attribute of capital.”

资本家对雇佣劳动行使的各种支配权不是由其纯粹个人的地位决定的，而是由其作为生产关系的支配者的经济地位决定的。正如马克思所指出的：“资本家所以是资本家，并不是因为他是工业的管理者，相反，他所以成为工业的司令官，因为他是资本家。工业上的最高权力成了资本的属性。”

In the process of social reproduction, capital first appears as a factor of production. However, the power of capital to participate in distribution as a factor cannot be explained solely by the importance of the factor of production; rather, it must be explained by the fundamental economic relations that capital represents, i.e., the basis for factor participation in distribution is the ownership or property rights of the factor. Ownership, reflected in capitalist legal relations, is bourgeois right. Bourgeois right gives rise to capital’s power of domination in all spheres, i.e., political, legal, and ideological power.

在社会再生产过程中，资本首先表现为一种生产要素，但是资本作为要素参与分配的权力不能仅从生产要素的重要性去解释，而是要从资本所代表的根本经济关系中去解释，即要素参与分配的依据是要素的所有权或产权。所有权反映在资本主义法律关系上就是资产阶级法权。资产阶级法权衍生出资本在一切领域的统治权，即政治的、法律的和意识形态方面的权力。

Thus, Marx’s analysis of capital’s social power does not discuss capital’s power purely in terms of capital’s power itself, but is built on the logic of “things” or economic relations; that is, capital’s social power is a power of people over people mediated by “things” and based on people’s power of domination over things, and is a direct product of the production relations of bourgeois society. Bourgeois scholars, by contrast, understand capital merely as a “relation of things,” “reducing capital truly to pure exchange, thereby causing capital as power to disappear.” It is precisely because Marx found the “most hidden secret” and the “concealed foundation” of capital’s social power that the theory of capital’s social power acquired a deep foundation.

可见，马克思对资本社会权力的分析，不是纯粹就资本权力本身来论述资本权力，而是建立在“物”的或经济关系的逻辑上，即资本社会权力是以“物”为媒介的建立在人对物的支配权力基础上的人对人的支配权力，是资产阶级社会生产关系的直接产物。而资产阶级学者把资本仅仅理解为“物的关系”,“把资本真正归结为纯粹的交换，从而使资本作为权力消失”。马克思正是找到了资本社会权力的“最隐蔽的秘密”和“隐藏着的基础”,才使得资本社会权力理论有了深厚的基础。

3. The Developmental Trend of Capital’s Social Power — The Historical and Transitory Nature of Capital’s Social Power

3.资本社会权力的发展趋势——资本社会权力的历史性和暂时性

Capital’s social power, which takes the pursuit of surplus value as its purpose, abolished feudal hierarchical privilege and, in a highly socialized form, exercised powers of domination such as ownership, supervision, and command, thereby promoting the development of the productive forces. However, capital’s social power replacing feudal privilege is in essence the replacement of one kind of privilege with another. This privilege determines that capital’s social power is not eternal; it possesses historical transitoriness.

以追求剩余价值为目的的资本社会权力消灭了封建等级特权，以高度社会化的形式履行所有权、监督权、指挥权等支配权，促进了生产力的发展。然而，资本社会权力代替封建特权，实质上是以一种特权代替另一种特权。这种特权决定了资本社会权力不是永恒的，它具有历史的暂时性。

First, the contradiction between capital as a universal social power and the proletariat is irreconcilable. The capitalist, as personified capital, possesses all the attributes and powers of capital, but capital is not created by the capitalist; it is created by the worker. Not only is variable capital created by the worker, but the whole of capital is capitalized surplus value. The worker creates for the capitalist the property that exploits wage labor. The exploitation of surplus labor is not the privilege of a single capitalist but the privilege of the entire capitalist class. Under capitalist conditions, the proletariat has only one power — the power to continuously sell its labor power. As long as the capitalist system is not abolished, the status of the worker as employed and exploited will not change. With the concentration and monopolization of capital and the deepening of the socialization of production, the separation of the conditions of social production from the worker also intensifies. The worker not only completely loses the means of production but also becomes increasingly dependent on the capitalist. The inevitable result is that on one pole is the accumulation of wealth, and on the other pole is the accumulation of poverty. The contradiction between this universal social power of capital and the proletariat is fundamentally irreconcilable; the capitalist integument must inevitably be “burst asunder,” and the expropriators are inevitably expropriated.

首先，资本作为普遍的社会权力与无产阶级之间的矛盾不可调和。资本家作为人格化的资本，他具有资本的一切属性和权力，但是资本不是资本家创造的，而是劳动者创造的；不仅可变资本是工人创造的，而且整个资本都是资本化了的剩余价值。工人为资本家创造了剥削雇佣劳动的财产。剥削剩余劳动不是一个资本家的特权，而是整个资本家的特权。无产阶级在资本主义条件下只有一种权力——不断出卖劳动力的权力。只要资本主义制度不消灭，工人受雇佣、受剥削的地位就不会改变。随着资本的集中和垄断、生产社会化程度的加深，社会生产条件与工人的分离也不断加剧，工人不仅完全丧失生产资料，而且越来越依附于资本家，其结果必然是一极是财富的积累，另一极是贫困的积累。资本的这种普遍的社会权力与无产阶级之间的矛盾从根本上不可调和，资本主义的外壳必然要被“炸毁”,剥夺者必然被剥夺。

Second, the general social power of capital contradicts the private power of the capitalist. The general social power of capital is determined by the nature of capitalist private property, while capitalist private property, when realized in property rights, gives the ownership of the conditions of production a private character. The private power that the capitalist possesses in the actual production process, driven by the pursuit of surplus value, inevitably produces a contradiction between the organized character of production in the individual enterprise and the anarchy of production in society as a whole. With the growth of capital accumulation, the degree of socialization of production increasingly rises, and the conditions of production increasingly become public, social conditions. “Capital increasingly manifests itself as a social power, whose executor is the capitalist, and which no longer stands in any possible relation to what the labor of a single individual can create; but capital manifests itself as an alienated, independent social power, which, as a thing, as the power that the capitalist obtains through this thing, stands opposed to society. The contradiction between the general social power formed by capital and the private power of the individual capitalist over these social conditions of production develops ever more sharply.” This contradiction “contains the dissolution of this relation, because it simultaneously contains the transformation of the conditions of production into general, common, social conditions of production.” [3]3 This appears to be a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or policy document, criticizing the lack of regulation in platform and digital economies.294 The public social power commonly owned and controlled by the associated producers will inevitably gestate and mature in the womb of capitalist society and will ultimately replace the social power of capital piled up by extracting the surplus labor of the workers. This is precisely the dialectic of the unlimited expansion and self-sublation of capital’s power.

其次，资本的一般社会权力与资本家的私人权力相矛盾。资本的一般社会权力是资本主义私有制性质所决定的，而资本主义私有制落实到产权上使生产条件的所有权具有私人的性质。资本家在实际生产过程中所拥有的私人权力受追求剩余价值的驱使，必然产生个别企业生产的有组织性与整个社会生产的无政府状态之间的矛盾。随着资本积累的增长，生产社会化程度日益提高，生产条件日益成为公共的、社会的条件，“资本越来越表现为社会权力，这种权力的执行者是资本家，它和单个人的劳动所能创造的东西不再发生任何可能的关系；但是资本表现为异化的、独立化了的社会权力，这种权力作为物，作为资本家通过这种物取得的权力，与社会相对立。由资本形成的一般的社会权力和资本家个人对这些社会生产条件拥有的私人权力之间的矛盾，越来越尖锐地发展起来”这一矛盾“包含着这种关系的解体，因为它同时包含着把生产条件改造成为一般的、公共的、社会的生产条件”。[3]294劳动者共同拥有和支配的公共社会权力必然在资本主义社会的胎胞里孕育、成熟，并终将代替由榨取劳动者剩余劳动堆砌而成的资本的社会权力，这正是资本权力无限扩张与自我扬弃的辩证法。

IV. The Contemporary Value of Marx’s Theory of Capital’s Social Power

四、马克思资本社会权力理论的当代价值

Although Marx analyzed the problem of capital’s social power under the conditions of capitalist private property, the analytical method of historical materialism it contains, as well as the forms of manifestation, logic of generation, internal contradictions, and developmental trends of capital’s social power, all have important guiding significance for our country’s current regulation and guidance of the healthy development of capital.

虽然马克思分析的是资本主义私有制条件下的资本社会权力问题，但是其中蕴含的唯物史观的分析方法和资本社会权力的表现形式、生成逻辑、内在矛盾和发展趋势等，对我国当前规范和引导资本健康发展，具有重要的指导意义。

1. The Primary Stage of Socialism Still Faces the Historical Task of Preventing the Unrestrained Expansion of Capital

1.社会主义初级阶段依然面临着防止资本无序扩张的历史任务

The replacement of capital’s social power by the public social power of the associated producers is a long process; it first depends on the highly developed productive forces. However, at the present stage, the level of development of the productive forces in our country still lags far behind the socialism scientifically inferred by the classical Marxist writers. Utilizing capital to develop the productive forces, in order to prepare the conditions for ultimately abolishing capital and realizing communism, thus becomes an inevitable choice for the primary stage of socialism.

联合起来的劳动者的公共社会权力取代资本的社会权力是一个漫长的过程，它首先依赖于生产力的高度发展。然而，现阶段我国生产力发展水平与马克思主义经典作家所科学推论的社会主义还有很大差距。利用资本发展生产力，为最终消灭资本、实现共产主义准备条件就成为社会主义初级阶段的必然选择。

Through the reform of the socialist market economy system, the existence of capital has become an objective fact of economic life and plays an important role in the process of economic development. The logic of the generation of capital’s social power shows that as long as a commodity economy, especially a socialized commodity economy, is developed, the social power of commodities and then the social power of money will inevitably transform into the social power of capital. Corresponding to the basic economic system with public ownership as the mainstay and diverse forms of ownership developing together, “at the present stage, our country has various forms of capital such as state-owned capital, collective capital, private capital, foreign capital, and mixed capital, and these exhibit obvious characteristics such as a significant increase in scale, more diversified subjects, accelerated speed of operation, and a large influx of international capital.” [18]18 This is a quotation from an official Chinese document or policy statement on the current forms of capital in China’s socialist market economy. Whether it is public capital or private capital, both possess the power attribute of capital, and the expansion of capital’s power inevitably exists. The complexity of the composition of capital in the primary stage of socialism requires us to be “people-centered” rather than “capital-centered,” and we should even more regard “preventing the unrestrained expansion of capital” as an inescapable historical task of the primary stage of socialism.

经过社会主义市场经济体制改革，资本的存在已经成为经济生活的客观事实，并且在经济发展过程中发挥着重要作用。资本社会权力的生成逻辑表明，只要发展商品经济尤其是社会化的商品经济，商品的社会权力进而货币的社会权力必然转化为资本的社会权力。与以公有制为主体多种所有制经济共同发展的基本经济制度相适应，“现阶段，我国存在国有资本、集体资本、民营资本、外国资本、混合资本等各种形态资本，并呈现出规模显著增加、主体更加多元、运行速度加快、国际资本大量进入等明显特征”。不管是公有资本还是私有资本都具有资本的权力属性，必然存在资本的权力扩张。社会主义初级阶段资本构成的复杂性，要求我们要“以人民为中心”而不是“以资本为中心”,更应当把“防止资本无序扩张”作为社会主义初级阶段责无旁贷的历史任务。

2. Give Full Play to the Advantages of the Socialist System to Harness the Power of Capital

2.发挥社会主义制度优势，驾驭资本权力

Under the capitalist system, capital is the power that rules everything. However, “we are developing a market economy under the general premise of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system; at no time can we forget the attribute of ‘socialism’.” [19]19 This is a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or document, emphasizing the socialist character of China’s market economy. Under the conditions of the socialist market economy, the power of capital must be confined within a certain scope; “capital’s power” must not be allowed to rise to become “a social power.” Capital must play its role within the scope of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and being a qualified builder of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

在资本主义制度下，资本是统治一切的权力。但是，“我们是在中国共产党领导和社会主义制度的大前提下发展市场经济，什么时候都不能忘了‘社会主义’这个定语”。[19]社会主义市场经济条件下，必须把资本权力限定在一定范围内，不能让“资本权力”上升为“一种社会权力”。资本发挥作用必须在拥护中国共产党的领导、做中国特色社会主义合格建设者的范围内发挥作用。

Adhering to the basic socialist economic system is the fundamental institutional guarantee for harnessing the power of capital; adhering to the “Two Unswervinglies” [20]20 The “Two Unswervinglies” (两个毫不动摇) refer to the policy of unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector of the economy and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector. is the fundamental principle for handling the relationship between public capital and non-public capital; adhering to the “Two Immovables” [21]21 The “Two Immovables” (两个不能动摇) refer to the principle that the dominant position of public ownership and the leading role of the state-owned economy cannot be shaken. — “the dominant position of public ownership cannot be moved, and the leading role of the state-owned economy cannot be moved” — is the institutional bottom line for harnessing the power of capital. Only by adhering to the dominant position of public ownership can the expansion of capital’s power be generally controllable. It is necessary to give play to the leading role of state-owned capital, to give play to the role of public capital as the “universal light,” [22]22 The “universal light” (普照的光) is a metaphor used by Marx to describe how a dominant mode of production modifies and colors all other modes of production within a social formation. and to guide the healthy development of non-public capital.

坚持社会主义基本经济制度是驾驭资本权力的根本制度保障，坚持“两个毫不动摇”是处理好公有资本和非公有资本之间关系的根本遵循，坚持“两个不能动摇”即“公有制主体地位不能动摇，国有经济主导作用不能动摇”是驾驭资本权力的制度底线。只有坚持公有制的主体地位，资本权力扩张才能在总体上可控。要发挥国有资本的主导作用，发挥公有资本“普照的光”的作用，引导非公有资本健康发展。

Upholding the leadership of the Party is the political guarantee for harnessing the power of capital. The Communist Party of China represents the fundamental interests of the broadest majority of the people. Only by upholding the leadership of the Party can it be ensured that capital serves socialist modernization along the socialist direction.

坚持党的领导，是驾驭资本权力的政治保证。中国共产党代表最广大人民的根本利益，只有坚持党的领导，才能确保资本沿着社会主义方向为社会主义现代化建设服务。

Setting up “traffic lights” for capital is the legal guarantee for harnessing the power of capital. It is necessary to study the laws of the expansion of the power of various types of capital, formulate forward-looking laws, leave no legal and institutional loopholes for the expansion of capital’s power, strengthen the supervision of various types of capital according to law, and ensure that there are laws to abide by, that laws are strictly enforced, and that violations are prosecuted.

给资本设置“红绿灯”是驾驭资本权力的法律保证。要研究各类资本权力扩张的规律，制定具有前瞻性的法律，不给资本权力扩张留下法律和制度漏洞，依法加强对各类资本的监管，做到有法可依、执法必严。

3. Preventing the Unrestrained Expansion of Capital Requires Both Harnessing Capital and Checking Power

3.防止资本无序扩张既要驾驭资本，也要制衡权力

The analysis of capital’s social power shows that the disorderly expansion of capital is in essence the expansion of capital’s power, and the expansion of capital’s power is mainly realized through two intertwined pathways: “the capitalization of power” and “the empowerment of capital.” Since the reform of the socialist market economy system, there was a period when we emphasized the positive role of utilizing capital to develop productive forces but neglected the negative effects of the expansion of capital’s power. This led to some Party members and cadres capitalizing public power, colluding with private entrepreneurs, engaging in rent-seeking and other frequent corrupt practices; some capital tycoons mixed into political circles to seek policy benefits; some private entrepreneurs, in pursuit of profit, bribed officials and encircled Party cadres. The empowerment of capital is a result of the alienation of capital, and the capitalization of power is a result of the alienation of power. In capitalist society, both the empowerment of capital and the capitalization of power conform to the logic of private capital. However, under the conditions of the socialist market economy, the empowerment of capital violates the original intention of using capital to develop productive forces under socialism; while the capitalization of power violates the principle of “serving the people wholeheartedly.” Therefore, to prevent the disorderly expansion of capital, it is necessary not only to harness capital but also to check power: on the one hand, we must set up “traffic lights” for capital; on the other hand, we must “confine power to the cage of institutional regulations,” sever the linkage between power and capital, and build a “pro-clean” government-business relationship between capital and power. [1]1 “Pro-clean” (亲清) is a term used in Chinese political discourse to describe a government-business relationship that is close (亲) but clean (清), meaning supportive and cooperative without corruption or improper collusion.

对资本社会权力的分析表明，资本无序扩张实质上是资本权力扩张，而资本权力扩张主要通过“资本权力化”和“权力资本化”两种相互交织的途径来实现。社会主义市场经济体制改革以来，有一个时期我们重视了利用资本发展生产力的积极作用，却忽视了资本权力扩张的消极作用，导致一些党员干部把公权资本化，与私营企业主勾连、寻租等腐败行为频发；有的资本大鳄混迹政界谋取政策利益；有的私营企业主为了寻利贿赂官员、围猎党的干部。资本权力化是资本异化的结果，权力资本化是权力异化的结果。在资本主义社会，不管是资本权力化还是权力资本化都是符合私有资本逻辑的。但是在社会主义市场经济条件下，资本权力化违背了社会主义利用资本发展生产力的初衷；而权力资本化违背了“全心全意为人民服务”的宗旨。因此，防止资本无序扩张，不仅要驾驭资本，而且要制衡权力：一方面要给资本设置“红绿灯”;另一方面要“把权力关进制度的笼子里”,斩断权力与资本的勾连，构建资本和权力的“亲清”政商关系。

4. Distinguish and grasp the different natures and behavioral characteristics of various types of capital, and harness capital power by category

4.区分并把握各类资本的不同性质和行为特征，分类驾驭资本权力

The various types of capital currently in existence can be divided into two major categories based on the nature of ownership: public capital and non-public capital (private capital). Both share the common characteristics of capital, namely, the attribute of being a factor of production and the inherent drive to seek valorization, as well as the internal impetus for power expansion. However, their fundamental natures differ, and consequently, the risks of capital power they pose also differ.

目前存在的各种资本按照所有制性质可以分为公有资本和非公有资本(私有资本)两大类。它们都有资本的共性，即生产要素属性和追求价值增殖的本性,以及权力扩张的内在驱动。但是二者的根本性质不同，其所存在的资本权力风险也不同。

Public capital is the capital form of publicly owned means of production, including state-owned capital and collectively-owned capital. The relationship between public capital and workers is not one of wage labor; the profit target is the most important but not the only objective, and it must also take into account social public interests. Since reform and opening up, the principal-agent relationship formed by the intertwining of administrative agency and economic agency under the property rights of state-owned capital inherently contains the possibility of adverse selection and moral hazard, laying the groundwork for the “empowerment of public capital.” For example, phenomena such as using power for personal gain, the loss of state assets, and the neglect of workers’ rights and interests that have emerged in the reform of state-owned enterprises are precisely manifestations of the empowerment of public capital. Embedding Party leadership into the governance structure of state-owned enterprises, strengthening the fight against corruption, and building an effective regulatory system are urgent tasks for regulating the power of state-owned capital. Currently, most rural areas lack awareness of collective capital management and lack talent for collective capital operation, failing to leverage the leading role of collective capital in rural revitalization. It is necessary to strengthen the role of collective capital by expanding the rural collective economy.

公有资本是公有生产资料的资本形式，包括国有资本、集体资本。公有资本与劳动者之间不是雇佣劳动关系，利润目标只是其中最主要的但不是唯一的目标，还要兼顾社会公共利益。改革开放以来，国有资本产权所形成的行政代理和经济代理相互交织的委托代理关系，本身就存在逆向选择和道德风险的可能性，为“公有资本权力化”埋下了伏笔。比如，国有企业改革中出现的以权谋私、国有资产流失、忽视职工权益等现象正是公有资本权力化的表现。把党的领导嵌入国有企业治理结构、加强反腐败斗争和构建有效的监管体系是规范国有资本权力的当务之急。目前，大多数农村缺乏集体资本经营意识，缺少集体资本经营人才，没有发挥出集体资本对乡村振兴的引领作用，需要通过壮大农村集体经济来发挥集体资本的作用。

Non-public capital, or private capital, includes private domestic capital and foreign capital. Its operational objective is profit maximization, and the relationship between labor and capital is one of wage labor. However, among non-public capital and individuals in the non-public sector, there are entrepreneurs with a sense of national and familial responsibility, such as Zhang Jian, the patriotic entrepreneur who sought to save the nation through industry in the late Qing and early Republican periods; modern patriotic entrepreneurs like Henry Fok and banker Zhuang Shiping; and contemporary figures like Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, who takes it as his mission to strengthen the nation through technology. They are exemplars of non-public capital. Yet, some non-public capital deviates from national policy objectives, deliberately evades regulation, uses platform advantages for unfair competition, or willingly acts as a comprador for foreign capital. Disorderly expansion behaviors in the financial sector, such as illegal capital contributions, related-party transactions, high leverage, and collusion with foreign capital, pose significant risks to national economic security, political security, and ideological security, and are key targets for prevention. Of course, at present, most private domestic capital and foreign capital operate in compliance with laws and regulations, and this type of non-public capital continues to be an object of encouragement, support, and guidance.

非公有资本或私有资本包括民营资本和外国资本，其经营目标是利润最大化，劳资之间是雇佣劳动关系。但是，非公有资本和非公经济人士中不乏家国情怀的企业家，比如清末民初实业救国的爱国企业家张謇，近代爱国企业家霍英东和银行家庄世平，当代以科技强国为己任的华为创始人任正非等，他们是非公有资本的典范。但也有一些非公有资本偏离国家政策目标、刻意逃避监管，有的利用平台优势搞不正当竞争，有的甘愿充当外国买办资本，金融领域出现的违规出资、关联交易、高杠杆、与境外资本勾连等无序扩张行为对国家经济安全、政治安全和意识形态安全带来了巨大风险，是需要重点防范的对象。当然，目前大多数民营资本和外国资本是守法规范经营的，这类非公有资本是需要继续鼓励、支持和引导的对象。

Currently, special vigilance is needed to prevent the impact of the brutal expansion of international financial monopoly capital on the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The formation of international financial monopoly capital marks the entry of imperialism into a new imperialist stage. [25]25 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15. The tentacles of its power have penetrated various fields including international politics, economy, culture, and military affairs; the social power of capital has seemingly evolved into the world power of capital. Since reform and opening up, Western countries, represented by the United States, have economically engaged in malicious acquisitions of our national enterprises, monopolized our competitive industries, and launched trade wars and financial wars to disrupt our economic order; politically and culturally, they have continuously imported Western constitutional democracy, universal values, and neoliberalism, creating historical nihilism; [2]2 Historical nihilism (历史虚无主义) is a term in Chinese political discourse referring to the denial or distortion of established historical narratives, particularly those concerning the CPC’s revolutionary history and the socialist system. militarily, they have frequently provoked incidents and stirred up disputes around our borders. To this end, we must build security barriers in various fields including national politics, economy, military, and culture, to prevent the interference of the expansion of international financial monopoly capital’s power in our socialist modernization drive.

当前要特别警惕和防止国际金融垄断资本的野蛮扩张对中国特色社会主义事业的影响。国际金融垄断资本的形成标志着帝国主义已经进入新帝国主义阶段，[25]其权力的触角已经渗透到国际政治、经济、文化、军事等各个领域，资本的社会权力俨然已经演变为资本的世界权力。自改革开放以来，以美国为代表的西方国家在经济上恶意收购我国民族企业、垄断我国竞争性产业，发动贸易战、金融战等扰乱我国经济秩序；在政治和文化上不断输入西方宪政民主、普世价值观和新自由主义，制造历史虚无主义；在军事上频频在我国周边寻衅滋事、挑起争端。为此，我们要构建国家政治、经济、军事、文化等各个领域的安全屏障，防止国际金融垄断资本权力扩张对我国社会主义现代化事业的干扰。

5. Harness the power of digital capital and seize the initiative in the development of the digital economy

5.驾驭数字资本权力，掌握数字经济发展主动权

With the development of digital technology, the marriage of financial capital and digital technology has given rise to a new form of capital—digital capital. Digital capital is capital invested in digital technology and its application fields. It is a form of capital that exploits wage laborers through the monopoly of digital technology and data, leveraging digital platforms. The development of the digital economy is still based on financial capital; it is financial capital that has driven the rise and prosperity of the digital economy. Therefore, the gene of digital capital is capital; it is essentially still financial capital, a variant of financial capital under the conditions of the digital economy.

随着数字技术的发展，金融资本与数字技术的联姻形成了新的资本形态——数字资本。数字资本是投放在数字技术及其应用领域的资本，它是通过对数字技术和数据的垄断，借助数字平台对雇佣劳动者进行剥削的一种资本形式。数字经济的发展仍以金融资本为基础，是金融资本推动了数字经济的兴起和繁荣。因此，数字资本的基因是资本，实质上依然是金融资本，是数字经济条件下金融资本的变种。

Digital capital inherits the attribute of capital’s power expansion. By utilizing networking and intelligent technologies, its capacity and speed of expansion far exceed any previous form of capital. Its controlling power is not limited to the production sphere; social lifestyles, management methods, and ideology are all imprinted with the mark of digital capital. On the one hand, digital capital exacerbates unemployment; on the other hand, it multiplies the labor intensity of workers. Its platform-based, de-employer employment model becomes a new invention for capital to shirk responsibility for workers’ welfare. The monopoly of digital capital creates a global digital divide, exacerbating polarization. Digital capital exercises digital hegemony in the global economic, political, cultural, and military spheres. Cyber warfare, information warfare, and public opinion warfare are all new modes of warfare dominated by digital capital. Even modern direct military conflicts involve the manipulation of digital capital power.

数字资本继承了资本的权力扩张属性，借助网络化和智能化技术，其扩张能力和速度远超过以往任何一种资本形式，其控制力不仅限于生产领域，而且社会生活方式、管理方式、意识形态无不打上数字资本的烙印。数字资本一方面加剧失业，另一方面使从业者劳动强度成倍上升；其平台化、去雇主化的就业模式，成为资本推卸工人福利责任的一种新发明；数字资本垄断造成全球范围内的数字鸿沟，加剧两极分化；数字资本在全球经济、政治、文化、军事等领域行使数字霸权，网络战、信息战、舆论战都是数字资本主导的新型战争模式，甚至现代直接的军事冲突中都有数字资本权力的操纵。

With the rapid development of the digital economy in our country, “some platform economies and digital economies have grown wildly, lacking regulation, bringing many problems.” [3]3 This appears to be a quotation from a Chinese official source, likely a speech or policy document, criticizing the lack of regulation in platform and digital economies. Therefore, only by placing the dominant power of digital capital in the hands of the state, ensuring that public digital capital occupies the dominant position, can we promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and prevent the negative impacts arising from the expansion of Western digital monopoly capital and the disorderly expansion of private digital capital.

随着数字经济在我国的快速发展，“一些平台经济、数字经济野蛮生长、缺乏监管，带来了很多问题”。为此，只有将数字资本主导权掌握在国家手中，使公有数字资本占主体地位，才能促进数字经济和实体经济深度融合，才能防止西方数字垄断资本扩张和私人数字资本的无序扩张所产生的消极影响。

Web Editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗