How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph) or (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
If the Règlement organique of the Danubian Principalities was a positive expression of the appetite for surplus labour which every paragraph legalized, the English Factory Acts are the negative expression of the same appetite. These laws curb capital's drive towards a limitless draining away of labour-power by forcibly limiting the working day on the authority of the state, but a state ruled by capitalist and landlord. Apart from the daily more threatening advance of the working-class movement, the limiting of factory labour was dictated by the same necessity as forced the manuring of English fields with guano. The same blind desire for profit that in the one case exhausted the soil had in the other case seized hold of the vital force of the nation at its roots. Periodical epidemics speak as clearly on this point as the diminishing military standard of height in France and Germany. (10.2.6)
The Factory Acts in England in the 19th century regulated the length of the working day. The working class was able to pressure the government to pass them for justice, in part because limiting the working day was actually in the interest of business (a rested worker is more productive) and in part because landowners allied with the workers to oppose their common enemy, the industrialists.
Quote #2
These 'small thefts' of capital from the workers' meal-times and recreation times are also described by the factory inspectors as 'petty pilferings of minutes', 'snatching a few minutes' or, in the technical language of the workers, 'nibbling and cribbling at meal-times'. (10.2.14)
Basic elements of workers' lives were being interfered with, and when the foundations of people's lives are disrupted, they're less willing to be complacent. That's a problem for all involved.
Quote #3
Moments are the elements of profit. (10.2.15)
This was the organizing principle behind the injustice that the working class fought against in seeking passage of laws limiting the length of the working day. The industrialists sought to control every moment of workers' lives in order to maximize their profit.