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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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THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA<br />

and <strong>Marx</strong>, they all repeated Adam Smith’s error* and for<br />

that reason did not advance one step. Of the confusion that<br />

consequently reigns in the theories <strong>of</strong> revenue we shall<br />

speak later. In the controversy as <strong>to</strong> the possibility <strong>of</strong> a<br />

general overproduction <strong>of</strong> commodities that was waged by<br />

Ricardo, Say, Mill and others, on the one hand, and by<br />

Malthus, Sismondi, Chalmers, Kirchmann and others, on<br />

the other, both sides adhered <strong>to</strong> Smith’s erroneous theory,<br />

and consequently, as Mr. S. Bulgakov justly remarks, “in<br />

view <strong>of</strong> the false premises and the wrong formulation <strong>of</strong><br />

the problem itself, these controversies could only lead <strong>to</strong><br />

empty and scholastic wordspinning” (loc. cit., p. 21. See<br />

an account <strong>of</strong> this wordspinning in Tugan-Baranovsky’s<br />

Industrial Crises, etc., St. Petersburg, 1894, pp. 377-404).<br />

VI. MARX’S THEORY OF REALISATION<br />

It follows au<strong>to</strong>matically from what has been said that<br />

the fundamental premises on which <strong>Marx</strong>’s theory is based<br />

are the following two propositions. The first is that the <strong>to</strong>tal<br />

product <strong>of</strong> a capitalist country, like the individual product,<br />

consists <strong>of</strong> the following three parts: 1) constant capital,<br />

2) variable capital, and 3) surplus-value. To those who are<br />

familiar with the analysis <strong>of</strong> the process <strong>of</strong> production <strong>of</strong><br />

capital given in <strong>Vol</strong>. I <strong>of</strong> <strong>Marx</strong>’s Capital this proposition<br />

is self-evident. The second proposition is that two major<br />

departments <strong>of</strong> capitalist production must be distinguished,<br />

namely (Department I), the production <strong>of</strong> means <strong>of</strong> production—<strong>of</strong><br />

articles which serve for productive consumption,<br />

i.e., are <strong>to</strong> be put back in<strong>to</strong> production, articles which are<br />

consumed, not by people, but by capital; and (Department<br />

II) the production <strong>of</strong> articles <strong>of</strong> consumption, i.e., <strong>of</strong> articles<br />

used for personal consumption. “There is more theoretical<br />

meaning in this division alone than in all the preceding<br />

* For example, Ricardo asserted that “the whole produce <strong>of</strong> the<br />

land and labour <strong>of</strong> every country is divided in<strong>to</strong> three portions: <strong>of</strong><br />

these, one portion is devoted <strong>to</strong> wages another <strong>to</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>its, and the<br />

other <strong>to</strong> rent” (<strong>Works</strong>, Sieber’s translation, St. Petersburg, 1882,<br />

p. 221.<br />

51

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