Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 3 - From Marx to Mao

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
183
gration and mainly the extreme groups who are remaining
at home. Thus, migration is accelerating the differentiation
of the peasantry in the areas of emigration and is carrying
the elements of differentiation to the new places (the agricultural
wage-labour of settlers in Siberia in the first period
of their new life.* This connection between migration and
the differentiation of the peasantry is fully proved by
I. Hourwich in his superb research work, Peasant Migration
to Siberia (Moscow, 1888). We strongly recommend to the
reader this book which our Narodnik press has strenuously
tried to hush up.**
9) A tremendous part, as is known, is played in our rural
districts by merchant’s and usurer’s capital. We consider
it superfluous to cite numerous facts and indicate sources
relating to this phenomenon: the facts are well known and
do not directly concern our theme. The only question of
interest to us is the following: What relation has merchant’s
and usurer’s capital in our countryside to the differentiation
of the peasantry? Is there any connection between
the relations among the various groups of peasants
described above and the relations between peasant creditors
and peasant debtors? Is usury a factor and a motive force
of differentiation, or does it retard this differentiation?
Let us first indicate how theory presents this question.
In the analysis of capitalist production given by the author
of Capital very great significance was attached, as we
know, to merchant’s and usurer’s capital. The main points
of Marx’s views on this subject are the following: 1) merchant’s
and usurer’s capital, on the one hand, and
industrial capital [i.e., capital invested in production,
whether agricultural or industrial], on the other, represent a
single type of economic phenomenon, which is covered by
the general formula: the buying of commodities in order
to sell at a profit (Das Kapital, I, 2. Abschnitt, Chapter
IV, especially pp. 148-149 of the second German edition 73 ).
2) Merchant’s and usurer’s capital always historically precede
* Restriction of migration thus has an enormously retarding
effect upon the differentiation of the peasantry.
** See also Mr. Preemak’s Material in Figures for a Study of
Migration to Siberia. (Note to 2nd edition.)