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

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

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360<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

there; it is necessary <strong>to</strong> take the data for some area which<br />

has been thoroughly investigated, and <strong>to</strong> examine the<br />

relative incidence and significance <strong>of</strong> the various forms <strong>of</strong><br />

co-operation. Such, for example, are the data <strong>of</strong> the Perm<br />

“handicrafts” census <strong>of</strong> 1894-95; and we have shown<br />

elsewhere (Studies, pp. 182-187*) what an amazing dispersion<br />

<strong>of</strong> small industrialists was revealed by the census,<br />

and what importance attaches <strong>to</strong> the very few big establishments.<br />

The conclusion we have drawn as <strong>to</strong> the role<br />

<strong>of</strong> capitalist co-operation is based not on isolated examples,<br />

but on the precise data <strong>of</strong> the house-<strong>to</strong>-house censuses, which<br />

embrace scores <strong>of</strong> the most diverse industries in different<br />

localities.<br />

FROM MARX<br />

TO MAO<br />

VI. MERCHANT’S<br />

�⋆<br />

CAPITAL IN THE SMALL INDUSTRIES<br />

As we know, the small peasant industries in many cases<br />

give rise <strong>to</strong> special buyers-up, who are particularly engaged<br />

in the commercial operations <strong>of</strong> marketing products and<br />

purchasing raw materials, and who usually in one way or<br />

another subject the small tradesmen <strong>to</strong> themselves. Let us see<br />

what connection this phenomenon has with the general system<br />

<strong>of</strong> small peasant industries and what its significance is.<br />

The principal economic operation <strong>of</strong> the buyer-up is <strong>to</strong><br />

buy goods (finished products or raw materials) in order <strong>to</strong><br />

resell them. In other words, the buyer-up is a representative<br />

<strong>of</strong> merchant’s capital. The starting-point <strong>of</strong> all capital<br />

NOT FOR<br />

COMMERCIAL<br />

DISTRIBUTION<br />

—both industrial and merchant’s—is the accumulation <strong>of</strong><br />

free money in the hands <strong>of</strong> individuals (by free money we<br />

mean that money which is not needed for personal consumption,<br />

etc.). How this property differentiation takes place<br />

in our rural districts has been shown in detail above by the<br />

data on the differentiation <strong>of</strong> the agricultural and the<br />

industrial peasantry. These data revealed one <strong>of</strong> the conditions<br />

giving rise <strong>to</strong> the appearance <strong>of</strong> the buyer-up, namely: the<br />

scattered nature, the isolation <strong>of</strong> the small producers, the<br />

existence <strong>of</strong> economic conflict and strife among them.<br />

* See present edition, <strong>Vol</strong>. 2, The Handicraft Census <strong>of</strong> 1894-95<br />

in Perm Gubernia.—Ed.

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