Weproceedupontheassumptionthatspinningissimple，unskilledlabour，theaveragelabourofagivenstateofsociety。Hereafterweshallseethatthecontraryassumptionwouldmakenodifference。
Whilethelabourerisatwork，hislabourconstantlyundergoesatransformation:
frombeingmotion，itbecomesanobjectwithoutmotion;frombeingthelabourerworking，itbecomesthethingproduced。Attheendofonehour’sspinning，thatactisrepresentedbyadefinitequantityofyarn;inotherwords，adefinitequantityoflabour，namelythatofonehour，hasbecomeembodiedinthecotton。Wesaylabour，i。e。，theexpenditureofhisvitalforcebythespinner，andnotspinninglabour，becausethespecialworkofspinningcountshere，onlysofarasitistheexpenditureoflabour—poweringeneral，andnotinsofarasitisthespecificworkofthespinner。
Intheprocesswearenowconsideringitisofextremeimportance，thatnomoretimebeconsumedintheworkoftransformingthecottonintoyarnthanisnecessaryunderthegivensocialconditions。Ifundernormal，i。e。，averagesocialconditionsofproduction，apoundsofcottonoughttobemadeintobpoundsofyarnbyonehour’slabour，thenaday’slabourdoesnotcountas12hours’labourunless12apoundsofcottonhavebeenmadeinto12bpoundsofyarn;forinthecreationofvalue，thetimethatissociallynecessaryalonecounts。
Notonlythelabour，butalsotherawmaterialandtheproductnowappearinquiteanewlight，verydifferentfromthatinwhichweviewedtheminthelabour—processpureandsimple。Therawmaterialservesnowmerelyasanabsorbentofadefinitequantityoflabour。Bythisabsorptionitisinfactchangedintoyarn，becauseitisspun，becauselabour—powerintheformofspinningisaddedtoit;buttheproduct，theyarn，isnownothingmorethanameasureofthelabourabsorbedbythecotton。Ifinonehour12/3lbs。ofcottoncanbespuninto12/3lbs。ofyarn，then10lbs。ofyarnindicatetheabsorptionof6hours’labour。Definitequantitiesofproduct，thesequantitiesbeingdeterminedbyexperience，nowrepresentnothingbutdefinitequantitiesoflabour，definitemassesofcrystallisedlabour—time。Theyarenothingmorethanthematerialisationofsomanyhoursorsomanydaysofsociallabour。