tiny. For him history was "a messy, multiple-sided process of conflict on many fronts" and he rejected theorists' attempts to force their systems "on the complexities of historical reality" (Collins, p. 85).
In economic terms, Marx's work was based on the classical labor theory of value which held that all value derives from "the transformation of the natural world made by application of human labor" (Collins, 1994, p. 53). Conflict is, of course, inherent in this conception since the worker who does not receive the full value of her/his work can be considered to be exploited by those who, by owning the means of production, own the only means by which the worker can survive. Thus property, the ownership of land and of capital (i.e., the means of production), is also of primary importance. The theory rested on Marx's conception of the source of profit. In a pure market system the exchange of goods and services is theoretically for goods and services of equal value. But this trade-off begged the question of how profit was derived. In Marx's vie
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