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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
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first used for the simplest operations and their spread to the
more complicated processes is very gradual. For example,
in weaving, the power-loom has long predominated in the
production of plain fabrics, whereas silk weaving continues
to be carried on mainly by hand; in the engineering trade
the machine is applied first of all to one of the simplest
operations—grinding, etc. But this splitting of production
into the simplest operations, while being a necessary preparatory
step to the introduction of large-scale machine
production, leads at the same time to a growth of small
industries. The surrounding population is enabled to perform
such detailed operations in its homes, either to order of
the manufactory owners, using their materials (bristlesetting
in brush manufacture, sewing sheepskins, sheepskin
coats, mittens, boots, etc., in the leather trade, horntrimming
in comb manufacture, samovar “tubing,” etc.),
or even “independently” buying the materials, making
certain parts of the product and selling them to the manufacturers
(in the hat, carriage, accordion and other industries,
etc.). It seems paradoxical that the growth of small
(sometimes even “independent”) industries should be an
expression of the growth of capitalist manufacture: nevertheless
it is a fact. The “independence” of such “handicraftsmen”
is quite fictitious. Their work could not be done,
and their product would on occasion even have no use-value,
if there were no connection with other detailed operations,
with other parts of the product. And only big capital,
ruling (in one form or another) over a mass of workers
performing separate operations was able* to and did create
this connection. One of the main errors of Narodnik economics
is that it ignores or obscures the fact that the “handicraftsman”
performing a single operation is a constituent
part of the capitalist manufactory.
The second circumstance that must particularly be
stressed is that manufacture trains skilled workers. Largescale
machine industry could not have developed so quickly
* Why is it that only capital was able to create this connection?
Because, as we have seen, commodity production gives rise to the
scattered condition of the small producers and to their complete
differentiation, and because the small industries bequeathed to
manufacture a heritage of capitalist workshops and merchant’s capital.