Production Technique, Constant Technique and Variable Technique

Abstract

Let us now examine the actual technique of production a little more closely. The technical conditions for the processes of production are constantly developing, and new inventions are opening up new fields for technical production. At any moment, however, the technical conditions applicable to any production process are given. There is a definite socially given technique, a certain system of technical inventions available to the factory owner or manager. But the individual factory technique is not only dependent on the socially given technique. Just what technical alternatives at any moment are to be exploited in any particular factory depends on a great many factors — the size of the market, the availability of capital, etc. At times social, national, and/or military considerations also apply.