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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
421
16,000 to 17,000 rubles. If we add to this that division
of labour is very widely practised here,* it will be clear
that what we have is capitalist manufacture.** “The small
industrial units, which are an anomaly under the existing
conditions of technique and division of labour, can only
hold out alongside the big workshops by lengthening
the working day to the utmost” (Isayev, loc. cit., p. 33)—
among the tray-makers, for example, for as long as 19
hours. The ordinary working day here is from 13 to 15
hours; with the small proprietors it is from 16 to 17 hours. Payment
in goods is widely practised (both in 1876 and in
1890).*** Let us add that the lengthy existence of this
industry (it arose at the beginning of the 19th century, at the
latest) and extensive specialisation have, in this case too,
produced highly skilled workers; the Zagarians are famed for
their craftsmanship. Specialities have also sprung up in
the industry which need no preliminary training and are
within the grasp of even under-age workers. “This very
possibility,” Mr. Isayev rightly observes, “of becoming an
under-age worker at once and acquiring a trade, as it were,
without having to study, indicates that the handicraft
spirit, which demands the training of labour-power, is
disappearing; the simplicity of many of the detailed
operations is a symptom of the transition of handicraft to
manufacture” (loc. cit., 34). Let us only observe that to a
certain degree the “handicraft spirit” always remains in
manufacture, for its basis is the same hand production.
* A copper-smith’s workshop needs five operatives to do the
different jobs; a tray-maker’s at least 3, while a “normal workshop”
needs 9 workers. “In the large establishments” a “fine division” (of
labour) is practised “with the object of increasing productivity”
(Isayev, loc. cit., 27 and 31).
** The Directory for 1890 gives for the district of Zagarye 14
factories employing 184 workers, with an output totalling 37,000
rubles. A comparison of these figures with the above-quoted Zemstvo
statistics shows that in this case too the factory statistics covered only
the upper strata of widely developed capitalist manufacture.
*** Cf. Handicraft Industries of Bogorodsk Uyezd.