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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
351
industrialists—just as among the small agriculturists—the
growing employment of wage-labour runs parallel to the increase
in the number of family workers. In the majority of industries
we see that the employment of wage-labour increases as
we pass from the bottom grade to the top, notwithstanding
the fact that the number of family workers per establishment
also increases. The employment of wage-labour does
not smooth out differences in the size of the “handicraftsmen’s”
families, but accentuates them. The chart very clearly
shows this common feature of the small industries:
the top grade employs the bulk of the wage-workers,
despite the fact that it is best provided with family workers.
“Family co-operation” is thus the basis of capitalist co-operation.*
It goes without saying, of course, that this “law”
applies only to the smallest commodity-producers, only
to the rudiments of capitalism; this law proves that the tendency
of the peasantry is to turn into petty bourgeois. As
soon as workshops with a fairly large number of wageworkers
arise, the significance of “family co-operation” must
inevitably decline. And we see, indeed, from our data that
this law does not apply to the biggest grades of the top categories.
When the “handicraftsman” turns into a real capitalist
employing from 15 to 30 wage-workers, the part played
by family labour in his workshops declines and becomes
quite insignificant (for example, in the top grade of the top
category, family workers constitute only 7% of the total
number of workers). In other words, to the extent that the
“handicraft” industries are so small that “family cooperation”
predominates in them, this family co-operation is
the surest guarantee of the development of capitalist
co-operation. Here, consequently, stand out in full relief the
dialectics of commodity production, which transform “working
with our own hands” into working with others’ hands,
into exploitation.
Let us pass to the data on productivity of labour. The
data on total output per worker in each grade show that
with the increase in the size of the establishment labour productivity
improves. This is to be observed in the overwhelm-
* The same conclusion follows from the data regarding the Perm
“handicraftsmen”, see our Studies, pp. 126-128. (See present edition,
Vol. 2, The Handicraft Census of 1894-95 in Perm Gubernia.—Ed.)