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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
217
of labour increased following the change from bonded
to hired labour (from half a pood per night to a whole pood)
and the earnings of the women increased to 30-50 kopeks per
day (“unprecedented in our parts”). The local textile merchant
was full of praise for Engelhardt: “Your flax has
given a great fillip to trade” (219).
Applied at first to the cultivation of the commercial crop,
hired labour gradually began to embrace other agricultural
operations. One of the first operations to be withdrawn
by capital from the labour-service system was threshing.
It is well known that on all farms run by private
landowners this work is mostly performed on capitalist
lines. “Part of the land,” wrote Engelhardt, “I lease to peasants
for cultivation in cycles, for otherwise I would find it
hard to cope with the reaping of the rye” (211). Thus, labourservice
functions as a direct transition to capitalism, by
ensuring the farmer a supply of day labourers in the busiest
season. At first cycle-cultivation included threshing, but
here, too, the poor quality of the work done compelled
the farmer to resort to hired labour. Land began to be leased
for cycle-cultivation without threshing, which latter was
done partly by farm labourers and partly, through the medium
of a contractor, by a team of wage-workers, at piece rates.
Here, too, the results of replacing labour-service by the capitalist
system were: 1) an increase in the productivity of
labour: formerly 16 people threshed 900 sheaves per day,
now 8 did 1,100 sheaves; 2) an increase in the yield;
3) a reduction in threshing time; 4) an increase in the worker’s
earnings; 5) an increase in the farmer’s profits (212).
Further, the capitalist system also embraced tillage operations.
Iron ploughs were introduced in place of the old wooden
ones, and the work passed from the bound peasant to
the farm labourer. Engelhardt triumphantly reports the
success of his innovation, the diligence of the labourers,
and quite justly shows that the customary accusations flung
at the labourer of being lazy and dishonest are due to the
“brand of serfdom” and to bonded labour “for the lord,” and
that the new organisation of farming also demands something
of the farmer: a display of enterprise, a knowledge of people
and ability to handle them, a knowledge of the job and
its scope, acquaintance with the technical and commercial