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

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN RUSSIA
but with the social relations of men in production, with the
social system of production. Once these social relations have
been ascertained and thoroughly analysed, the place in production
of every class, and, consequently, the share they get
of the national consumption, are thereby defined. And the
solution of the problem which brought classical political
economy to a halt, and which has not been advanced a
hair’s breadth by all sorts of experts on “distribution” and
“consumption,” is provided by the theory which comes
directly after those of the classical economists and which
completes the analysis of the production of capital, individual
and social.
The problem of “national income” and of “national
FROM MARX
TO MAO
consumption,” which is absolutely insoluble when examined
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independently, and has engendered nothing but scholastic
speculations, definitions and classifications, proves to be
solved in its entirety when the process of the production of
the total social capital has been analysed. Furthermore, it
ceases to exist as a separate problem when the relation of
national consumption to the national product and the
realisation of each separate part of this product have been
ascertained. All that remains is to give names to these separate
parts.
“In order to avoid NOT unnecessary FOR difficulty, one should
distinguish gross output (Rohertrag) and net output from
gross income and net income.
“The gross output, COMMERCIAL
or gross product, is the total reproduced
product. . . .
“The gross DISTRIBUTION
income is that portion of value and that portion
of the gross product” (Bruttoprodukts oder Rohprodukts)
measured by it which remains after deducting that portion
of value and that portion of the product of total production
measured by it which replaces the constant capital advanced
and consumed in production. The gross income, then, is
equal to wages (or the portion of the product destined to
again become the income of the labourer)+ profit+ rent.
The net income, on the other hand, is the surplus-value,
and thus the surplus-product, which remains after deducting
wages, and which, in fact, thus represents the surplusvalue
realised by capital and to be divided with the landlord,
and the surplus-product measured by it.
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