Nevertheless, in spite of the mass of hands actually displaced
 and 423virtually replaced by machinery, we can understand how the
 factory operatives, through the building of more mills and the extension
 of old ones in a given industry, may become more numerous than the manufacturing
 workmen and handicraftsman that have been displaced. Suppose, for example,
 that in the old mode of production, a capital of £500 is employed
 weekly, two-fifths being constant and three-fifths variable capital, i.e.,
 £200 being laid out in means of production, and £300, say £1
 per man, in labour-power. On the introduction of machinery the composition
 of this capital becomes altered. We will suppose it to consist of four-fifths
 constant and one-fifth variable, which means that only £100 is now
 laid out in labour-power. Consequently, two-thirds of the workmen are discharged.
 If now the business extends, and the total capital employed grows to £1,500
 under unchanged conditions, the number of operatives employed will increase
 to 300, just as many as before the introduction of the machinery. If the
 capital further grows to £2,000, 400 men will be employed, or one-third
 more than under the old system. Their numbers have, in point of fact, increased
 by 100, but relatively, i.e., in proportion to the total capital advanced,
 they have diminished by 800, for the £2,000 capital would, in the
 old state of things, have employed 1,200 instead of 400 men. Hence, a relative
 decrease in the number of hands is consistent with an actual increase.
 We assumed above that while the total capital increases, its composition
 remains the same, because the conditions of production remain constant.
 But we have already seen that, with every advance in the use of machinery,
 the constant component of capital, that part which consists of machinery,
 raw material, &c., increases, while the variable component, the part
 laid out in labour-power, decreases. We also know that in no other system
 of production is improvement so continuous, and the composition of the
 capital employed so constantly changing as in the factory system. These
 changes are, however, continually interrupted by periods of rest, during
 which there is a mere quantitative extension of the factories on the existing
 technical basis. During such periods the operatives increase in number.
 Thus, in 1835, the total number of operatives in the cotton, woollen, worsted,
 flax, and silk factories of the United Kingdom was only 354,684; while
 in 1861 the number of the power-loom weavers alone (of both sexes and of
 all ages, from eight years upwards), amounted to 230,654. Certainly, this
 growth appears less important when we consider that in 1838 the hand-loom
 weavers with their families still numbered 800,000, [150] not to mention 424those thrown out of work in Asia, and on the Continent of Europe.