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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
335
development of commodity production is expressed in the
expansion of commerce in the appearance of specialistmerchants,
buyers-up; the market for wares is not the
small village bazaar or the district fair,* but the whole
region, then the whole country, and sometimes even other
countries. The production of industrial wares in the shape
of commodities is the first step to the separation of industry
from agriculture, and to mutual exchange between them.
Mr. N. —on, with his characteristically stereotyped and
abstract way of understanding things, limits himself to
declaring that the “separation of industry from agriculture”
is a quality of “capitalism” in general, without taking the
trouble to examine either the different forms of this separation
or the different stages of capitalism. It is important
to note, therefore, that commodity production on the smallest
scale in the peasant industries already begins to separate
industry from agriculture, although at that stage of
development the industrialist does not, in the majority
of cases, separate from the agriculturist. Later on we shall
show how the more developed stages of capitalism lead to the
separation of industrial from agricultural enterprises, to
the separation of industrial workers from agriculturists.
In the rudimentary forms of commodity production, competition
among the “handicraftsmen” is still very slight, but
as the market expands and embraces wide areas, this competition
grows steadily stronger and disturbs the small
industrialist’s patriarchal prosperity, the basis of which
is his virtually monopolist position. The small commodityproducer
feels that his interests, as opposed to the interests
of the rest of society, demand the preservation of this monopolist
position, and he therefore fears competition. He exerts
every effort, individually and with others, to check competition,
“not to let” rivals into his district, and to consolidate
his assured position as a small master possessing a
* An investigation of one of these country fairs showed that 31%
of the total turnover (about 15,000 rubles out of 50,000 rubles) was
accounted for by “handicraft” goods. See Transactions of the Handicraft
Commission, I, 38. How restricted the market is at first for
the small commodity-producers is seen, for example, from the fact
that the Poltava boot-makers sell their wares within a radius of some
60 vorsts from their village, Reports and Investigations, I, 287.