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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
399
of labour as to wares is to be observed in the building of
town carriages: some villages specialise in sleighs, others
in wheeled vehicles, etc. “The town carriages, completely
assembled in the villages (but without the metalwork,
wheels or shafts), are sent to Kazan merchant customers,
who in turn send them to blacksmiths for the metalwork.
The carriages are then sent back again to the shops
and workshops in the town, where they are finished
off, i.e., are upholstered and painted. . . . Kazan, where
town carriages were formerly iron-mounted, gradually
passed this work on to handicraftsmen, who work at home
for a smaller payment than do the town craftsmen. . . .”*
Hence, capital prefers to distribute work to home workers
because this reduces the cost of labour-power. The organisation
of the carriage industry, as is evident from the data
quoted, constitutes, in the majority of cases, a system of
handicraftsmen making parts, who are under the sway of
capital.
The large industrial village of Vorontsovka, Pavlovsk
Uyezd, Voronezh Gubernia (9,541 inhabitants in 1897),
constitutes, as it were, a single manufactory of wooden
articles (Transactions of the Handicraft Commission, etc., Vol.
IX, article by Rev. M. Popov). Over 800 houses are engaged
in the industry (as well as some households in the suburb of
Alexandrovka, which has over 5,000 inhabitants). They
make carts, tarantasses, wheels, chests, etc., to a total of
about 267,000 rubles. Less than one-third are independent
masters; hired workers in masters’ workshops are rare.**
The majority work to order for peasant merchants at piece
rates. The workers are in debt to the proprietors and are
worn out by arduous toil: the people are growing feebler.
The inhabitants of the suburb are industrial, not of the
rural type, and scarcely engage in agriculture at all
(except to work vegetable plots), since their allotments are
miserably small. The industry has been long in existence,
* Reports and Investigations, III.
** There are 14 big timber merchants. These have timber-seasoning
rooms (costing about 300 rubles), of which there are 24 in the village,
each employing 6 workers. These merchants also give out materials
to workers, whom they get into their grip by advancing them
money.