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

426
V. I. LENIN
a fraction of capitalist manufacture. The Directory for
1879 counted in Tula Gubernia 53 samovar “factories” (all
hand-operated) with 1,479 workers and an output totalling
836,000 rubles. The Directory for 1890 gives 162 factories,
2,175 workers, and an output of 1.1 million rubles; the list
of firms, however, contains only 50 factories (1 steamoperated),
with 1,326 workers and an output totalling 698,000
rubles. Evidently, some hundred small establishments were
in this case classed as “factories.” Lastly, the List gives the
following for 1894-95: 25 factories (4 steam-operated), 1,202
workers (# 607 outside), and an output totalling 1,613,000
rubles. In these data neither the number of factories nor the
number of workers are comparable (for the reason given above,
and also because of the lumping together in previous years
of workers on the premises and outside). The only thing
beyond doubt is that manufacture is being steadily displaced
by large-scale machine industry: in 1879, there
were 2 factories with 100 and more workers; in 1890 there
were 2 (one steam-operated) and in 1894-95 there were 4
(three steam-operated).*
The accordion industry, which is at a lower stage of
economic development, is organised in precisely the same
way.** “In the making of accordions there are over ten
separate trades” (Transactions of the Handicraft Commission,
IX, 236); the making of the different parts of an
accordion or the performance of some of the operations
constitute separate, quasi-independent “handicraft” industries.
“When things are quiet all the handicraftsmen work
* Evidently there are analogous features in the organisation of
the mechanical trades in Tula and its environs. Mr. Borisov in 1882
estimated that the number of workers employed in these industries
was from 2,000 to 3,000, producing wares to a value of nearly 22 million
rubles. These “handicraftsmen” are very much under the heel of
merchant’s capital. The hardware “factories” in Tula Gubernia
sometimes also have outside workers (cf. List, pp. 393-395).
** The development of accordion-making is also interesting as a
process of the elimination of primitive folk instruments and of the
creation of a wide, national market; without this market there could
have been no division of labour by processes, and without division
of labour the finished article could not have been produced cheaply:
“Owing to their cheapness . . . the accordions have nearly everywhere
displaced the primitive string folk instrument, the balalaika” (Transactions
of the Handicraft Commission, Vol. IX, p. 2276).