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

334
V. I. LENIN
labour does not appear in the market, hardly ever leaving
the sphere of peasant natural economy.* It is natural, therefore,
that artisan production is characterised by the same
routine, fragmentation and narrowness as small patriarchal
agriculture. The only element of development native
to this form of industry is the migration of artisans to other
areas in search of employment. Such migration was fairly
widely developed, particularly in the old days, in our
rural districts; usually it led to the organisation of independent
artisan establishments in the areas of attraction.
II. SMALL COMMODITY-PRODUCERS IN INDUSTRY.
THE CRAFT SPIRIT IN THE SMALL INDUSTRIES
We have seen that the artisan appears on the market,
although not with the wares he produces. Naturally,
once he comes into contact with the market, he begins in
time to produce for the market, i.e., becomes a commodityproducer.
This transition takes place gradually, at first
as an experiment: goods are sold which are left on his hands
by chance, or are produced in his spare time. The gradualness
of the transition is heightened by the fact that the market
for wares is at first extremely restricted, so that the distance
between the producer and the consumer increases very
slightly, and the product passes as hitherto directly from the
producer to the consumer, its sale sometimes being preceded
by its exchange for agricultural produce.** The further
* The closeness of artisan production to the natural economy of
the peasants sometimes leads to attempts on their part to organise
such production for the whole village, the peasants providing the
artisan with his keep, he undertaking to work for all the inhabitants
of the village concerned. Nowadays this system of industry is to be
met with only by way of exception, or in the most remote border
regions (for example, the blacksmith’s trade is organised on these
lines in some of the villages in Transcaucasia. See Reports and
Investigations of Handicraft Industry in Russia, Vol. II, p. 321).
** E.g., the exchange of earthenware utensils for grain, etc.
When grain was cheap the equivalent of a pot was sometimes considered
to be the amount of grain the pot would hold. Cf. Reports and
Investigations, I, 340.—Industries of Vladimir Gubernia, V, 140.—
Transactions of the Handicraft Commission, I, 61.