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

54
V. I. LENIN
Narodnik economists and to enable us to draw certain
theoretical conclusions regarding the home market.*
On the problem of interest to us, that of the home market,
the main conclusion from Marx’s theory of realisation is
the following: capitalist production, and, consequently, the
home market, grow not so much on account of articles of
consumption as on account of means of production. In other
words, the increase in means of production outstrips the
increase in articles of consumption. Indeed, we have seen
that constant capital in articles of consumption (Department
II) is exchanged for variable capital # surplus-value
in means of production (Department I). According, however,
to the general law of capitalist production, constant capital
grows faster than variable capital. Hence, constant capital
in articles of consumption has to increase faster than vari-
able capital and surplus-value in articles of consumption,
while constant capital in means of production has to increase
fastest of all, outstripping both the increase of variable
capital ( # surplus-value) in means of production and the
increase of constant capital in articles of consumption. The
department of social production which produces means of
production has, consequently, to grow faster than that
producing articles of consumption. For capitalism, therefore,
the growth of the home market is to a certain extent
“independent” of the growth of personal consumption, and
takes place mostly on account of productive consumption.
But it would be a mistake to understand this “independence”
as meaning that productive consumption is entirely divorced
from personal consumption: the former can and must increase
* See Das Kapital, II. Band, III. Abschn., 26 where a detailed
investigation is made of accumulation, the division of articles of
consumption into necessities and luxuries, the circulation of money,
the wear and tear of fixed capital, etc. Readers who are unable to
familiarise themselves with Volume II of Capital are recommended
to read the exposition of Marx’s theory of realisation contained in
Mr. S. Bulgakov’s book quoted above. Mr. Bulgakov’s exposition is
more satisfactory than that of Mr. M. Tugan-Baranovsky (Industrial
Crises, pp. 407-438), who in building up his schemes has made some
very ill-judged departures from Marx and has inadequately explained
Marx’s theory; it is also more satisfactory than the exposition given
by Mr. A. Skvortsov (Fundamentals of Political Economy, St. Petersburg,
1898, pp 281-295), who holds wrong views on the very important
questions of profit and rent.