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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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616<br />

V. I. LENIN<br />

production and capitalist circulation; <strong>Marx</strong> is polemising<br />

in this passage (S. 92. II. B.) 173 against the economists<br />

who contrasted natural economy, money economy and credit<br />

economy as three characteristic economic forms <strong>of</strong> movement<br />

in social production; <strong>Marx</strong> says that that is wrong, because<br />

money and credit economy are merely modes <strong>of</strong> circulation<br />

peculiar <strong>to</strong> different stages in the development <strong>of</strong> capitalist<br />

production, and he concludes with a remark about the “bourgeois<br />

horizon” <strong>of</strong> these economists. Mr Skvortsov thinks that<br />

“genuine” <strong>Marx</strong>ism consists in clutching at the last word <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Marx</strong> and repeating it, even against an opponent who did<br />

not dream <strong>of</strong> discussing the relation between natural, money<br />

and credit economy. We leave it <strong>to</strong> the reader <strong>to</strong> determine<br />

which party displays “failure <strong>to</strong> understand,” and among<br />

what sort <strong>of</strong> literature such tricks are classified. Behind the<br />

clamour <strong>of</strong> his stern rebukes Mr. Skvortsov not only resorted<br />

<strong>to</strong> the “point <strong>of</strong> replacing” but also completely evaded the<br />

problem <strong>of</strong> the relation between capitalist production and<br />

commodity circulation. That is a very important problem, <strong>to</strong><br />

which I revert many times in my book, emphasising the<br />

his<strong>to</strong>rical role <strong>of</strong> merchant’s capital as the predecessor <strong>of</strong><br />

capitalist production. Mr. Skvortsov would seem <strong>to</strong> have no<br />

objection <strong>to</strong> this (judging by the fact that he says nothing<br />

about it). That being the case, what sense is there in the<br />

noise he makes about my statement that capitalism is a<br />

result <strong>of</strong> commodity circulation? Does not merchant’s capital<br />

express the development <strong>of</strong> commerce, i.e., commodity<br />

circulation without capitalist production? These questions<br />

<strong>to</strong>o, once again, remain the secret <strong>of</strong> the wrathful Jove.<br />

To finish with the “criticism” Mr. Skvortsov directs against<br />

the theoretical part <strong>of</strong> my book, I have <strong>to</strong> examine a few<br />

more <strong>of</strong> the stern rebukes and gross errors which abound<br />

in the article “Commodity Fetishism.”<br />

In my book I say: “The need for a capitalist country <strong>to</strong><br />

have a foreign market is . . . determined . . . by the fact that<br />

capitalism makes its appearance only as a result <strong>of</strong> widely<br />

developed commodity circulation, which transcends the<br />

limits <strong>of</strong> the state. It is therefore impossible <strong>to</strong> conceive a<br />

capitalist nation without foreign trade, nor is there any such<br />

nation. As the reader sees, this reason is <strong>of</strong> a his<strong>to</strong>rical<br />

order” (65). The stern Jove “criticises”: “I, as a reader, do not

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