From Marxists Internet Archive
Theories of Surplus-Value
[Volume IV of Capital]
Written: 1863;
Source: Theories of Surplus Value, Progress
Publishers;
Past Work: Julio Huato
Scan: YongLee Goh
Mark-up: Hans G.
Ehrbar.
Table of Contents
Part I
Preface
by the Institute of Marxism-leninism, C.C. C.P.S.U.
Contents
of the Manuscript Theories of Surplus-Value.
General
Observation.
Chapter
I. Sir James Steuart. Distinction between “Profit upon
Alienation” and the Positive Increase of Wealth
Chapter
II. The Physiocrats
1
Transfer of the Inquiry into the Origin of Surplus-Value from the Sphere of
Circulation into the Sphere of Direct Production. Conception of Rent as
the Sole Form of Surplus-Value
2
Contradictions in the System of the Physiocrats: the Feudal Shell of the System
and Its Bourgeois Essence; the Twofold Treatment of Surplus-Value
3
Quesnay on the Three Classes in Society. Further Development of
Physiocratic Theory with Turgot: Elements of a Deeper Analysis of Capitalist
Relations
4
Confusion of Value with Material Substance (Paoletti)
5
Elements of Physiocratic Theory in Adam Smith
6
The Physiocrats as Partisans of Large-Scale Capitalist Agriculture
7
Contradictions in the Political Views of the Physiocrats. The Physiocrats
and the French Revolution
8
Vulgarisation of the Physiocratic Doctrine by the Prussian Reactionary Schmalz
9
An Early Critique of the Superstition of the Physiocrats in the Question of
Agriculture (Verri)
Chapter
III. Adam Smith
1.
Smith’s Two Different Definitions of Value; the Determination of Value by the
Quantity of Labour Expended Which Is Contained in a Commodity, and Its
Determination by the Quantity of Living Labour Which Can Be Bought in Exchange
for This Commodity
2.
Smith’s General Conception of Surplus-value. The Notion of Profit, Rent
and Interest as Deductions from the Product of the Worker’s Labour
3.
Adam Smith’s Extension of the idea of Surplus-Value to All Spheres of Social
Labour
4.
Smith’s Failure to Grasp the Specific Way in Which the Law of Value Operates
in the Exchange between Capital and Wage-Labour
5.
Smith’s Identification of Surplus-Value with Profit. The Vulgar Element
in Smith’s Theory
6.
Smith’s Erroneous View of Profit, Rent of Land and Wages as Sources of Value
7.
Smith’s Dual View of the Relationship between Value and Revenue. The
Vicious Circle of Smith’s Conception of “Natural Price” as the Sum of
Wages, Profit and Rent
8.
Smith’s Error in Resolving the Total Value of the Social Product into Revenue.
Contradictions in His Views on Gross and Net Revenue
9.
Say as Vulgariser of Smith’s Theory. Say’s Identification of the
Social Gross Product with the Social Revenue. Attempts to Draw a
Distinction between Them by Storch and Ramsay
10.
Inquiry into How It Is Possible for the Annual Profit and Wages to Buy the
Annual Commodities, Which Besides Profit and Wages Also Contain Constant Capital
(a)
Impossibility of the Replacement of the Constant Capital of the Producers of
Consumption Goods through Exchange between These Producers
(b)
Impossibility of Replacing the Whole Constant Capital of Society by Means of
Exchange between the Producers of Articles of Consumption and the Producers of
Means of Production
(c)
Exchange of Capital for Capital between the Producers of Means of Production,
Annual Product of Labour and the Product of Labour Newly Added Annually
11.
Additional Points: Smith’s Confusion on the Question of the Measure of Value.
General Character of the Contradictions in Smith
Chapter
IV. Theories of Productive and Unproductive Labour
1.
Productive Labour from the Standpoint of Capitalist Production: Labour Which
Produces Surplus-Value
2.
Views of the Physiocrats and Mercantilists on Productive Labour
3.
The Duality in Smith’s Conception of Productive Labour. His First
Explanation: the View of Productive Labour as Labour Exchanged for Capital
4.
Adam Smith’s Second Explanation: the View of Productive Labour as Labour Which
Is Realised in Commodity
5.
Vulgarisation of Bourgeois Political Economy in the Definition of Productive
Labour
6.
Advocates of Smith’s Views on Productive Labour. On the History of the
Subject
(a)
Advocates of the First View: Ricardo, Sismondi
(b)
Early Attempts to Distinguish between Productive and Unproductive Labour (D’Avenant,
Petty)
(c)
John Stuart Mill, an Adherent of Smith’s Second View of Productive Labour
7.
Germain Garnier. Vulgarisation of the Theories Put Forward by Smith and
the Physiocrats
(a)
Confusion of Labour Which Is Exchanged against Capital with Labour Exchanged
against Revenue. The False Conception that the Total Capital Is Replaced
through the Revenue of the Consumers
(b)
Replacement of the Constant Capital by Means of the Exchange of Capital against
Capital
(c)
Vulgar Assumptions of Garnier’s Polemics against Smith. Garnier’s
Relapse into Physiocratic Ideas. The View of the Unproductive Labourer’s
Consumption as the Source of Production— a Step Backwards as Compared with the
Physiocrats
8.
Charles Ganilh Mercantilist Conception of Exchange and Exchange-Value.
Inclusion of All Paid Labour in the Concept of Productive Labour
9.
Ganilh and Ricardo on Net Revenue. Ganilh as Advocate of a Diminution of
the Productive Population; Ricardo as Advocate of the Accumulation of Capital
and the Growth of Productive Forces
10.
Exchange of Revenue and Capital Replacement of the Total Amount of the Annual
Product: (a) Exchange of Revenue for Revenue; (b) Exchange of Revenue for
Capital; (c) Exchange of Capital for Capital
11.
Ferrier Protectionist Character of Ferrier’s Polemics against Smith’s Theory
of Productive Labour and the Accumulation of Capital. Smith’s Confusion
on the Question of Accumulation. The Vulgar Element in Smith’s View of
“Productive Labourers”
12.
Earl of Lauderdale Apologetic Conception of the Ruling Classes as
Representatives of the Most Important Kinds of Productive Labour
13.
Say’s Conception of “Immaterial Products”. Vindication of an
Unrestrained Growth of Unproductive Labour
14.
Count Destutt de Tracy Vulgar Conception of the Origin of Profit.
Proclamation of the “Industrial Capitalist” as the Sole Productive Labourer
15.
General Nature of the Polemics Against Smith’s Distinction between Productive
and Unproductive Labour. Apologetic Conception of Unproductive Consumption
as a Necessary Spur to Production
16.
Henri Storch Unhistorical Approach to the Problems of the Interaction between
Material and Spiritual Production. Conception of “Immaterial Labour”
Performed by the Ruling Class
17.
Nassau Senior Proclamation of All Functions Useful to the Bourgeoisie as
Productive. Toadyism to the Bourgeoisie and the Bourgeois State
18.
Pellegrino Rossi Disregard of the Social Form of Economic Phenomena.
Vulgar Conception of “Labour-Saving” by Unproductive Labourers
19.
Apologia for the Prodigality of the Rich by the Malthusian Chalmers
20.
Concluding Observations on Adam Smith and His Views on Productive and
Unproductive Labour
[Chapter
V] Necker [Attempt to Present the Antagonism of Classes in Capitalism
as the Antithesis between Poverty and Wealth]
[Chapter
VI] Quesnay’s Tableau Economique (Digression)
1.
Quesnay’s Attempt to Show the Process of Reproduction and Circulation of the
Total Capital
2.
Circulation between Farmers and Landowners. The Return Circuit of Money to
the Farmers, Which Does Not Express Reproduction
3.
On the Circulation of Money between Capitalist and Labourer
(a)
The Absurdity of Speaking of Wages as an Advance by the Capitalist to the
Labourer. Bourgeois Conception of Profit as Reward for Risk
(b)
Commodities Which the Labourer Buys from the Capitalist. A Return Flow of
the Money Which Does Not Indicate Reproduction
4.
Circulation between Farmer and Manufacturer According to the Tableau Economique
5.
Circulation of Commodities and Circulation of Money in the Tableau Economique.
Different Cases in Which the Money Flows Back to Its Starting-Point
6.
Significance of the Tableau Economique in the History of Political Economy
[Chapter
VII] Linguet. [Early Critique of the Bourgeois-Liberal View of
the “Freedom” of the Labourer]
Addenda
to Part 1 of Theories of Surplus-Value
1.
Hobbes on Labour, on Value and on the Economic Role of Science
2.
Historical: Petty Negative Attitude to Unproductive Occupations. Germs of
the Labour Theory of Value. Attempt to Explain Wages, Rent of Land, the
Price of Land and Interest on the Basis of the Theory of Value
3.
Petty, Sir Dudley North, Locke
4.
Locke Treatment of Rent and Interest from the Standpoint of the Bourgeois Theory
of Natural Law
5.
North Money as Capital. The Growth of Trade as the Cause of the Fall in
the Rate of Interest
6.
Berkeley on Industry as the Source of Wealth
7.
Hume and Massie
(a)
Massie and Hume on Interest
(b)
Hume. Fall of Profit and Interest Dependent on the Growth of Trade and
Industry
(c)
Massie. Interest as Part of Profit. The Level of Interest Explained
by the Rate of Profit
(d)
Conclusion
8.
Addendum to the Chapters on the Physiocrats
(a)
Supplementary Note on the Tableau Economique. Quesnay’s False
Assumptions
(b)
Partial Reversion of Individual Physiocrats to Mercantilist Ideas. Demand
of the Physiocrats for Freedom of Competition
(c)
Original Formulation of Why It Is Impossible to Increase Value in Exchange
9.
Glorification of the Landed Aristocracy by Buat, an Epigone of the Physiocrats
10.
Polemics against the Landed Aristocracy from the Standpoint of the Physiocrats
(an Anonymous English Author)
11.
Apologist Conception of the Productivity of All Professions
12.
Productivity of Capital. Productive and Unproductive Labour
(a)
Productivity of Capital as the Capitalist Expression of the Productive Power of
Social Labour
(b)
Productive Labour in the System of Capitalist Production
(c)
Two Essentially Different Phases in the Exchange between Capital and Labour
(d)
The Specific Use-Value of Productive Labour for Capital
(e)
Unproductive Labour as Labour Which Performs Services; Purchase of Services
under Conditions of Capitalism. Vulgar Conception of the Relation between
Capital and Labour as an Exchange of Services
(f)
The Labour of Handicraftsmen and Peasants in Capitalist Society
(g)
Supplementary Definition of Productive Labour as Labour Which Is Realised in
Material Wealth
(h)
Manifestations of Capitalism in the Sphere of Immaterial Production
(i)
The Problem of Productive Labour from the Standpoint of the Total Process of
Material Production
(j)
The Transport Industry as a Branch of Material Production. Productive
Labour in the Transport Industry
13.
Draft Plans for Parts I and III of Capital
(a)
Plan for Part I or Section I of Capital
(b)
Plan for Part III or Section III of Capital
(c)
Plan for Chapter II of Part III of Capital
Part II
Chapter
VIII. Herr Rodbertus. New Theory of Rent.
(Digression)
1.
Excess Surplus-Value in Agriculture. Agriculture Develops Slower Than
Industry under Conditions of Capitalism
2.
The Relationship of the Rate of Profit to the Rate of Surplus-Value, The Value
of Agricultural Raw Material as an Element of Constant Capital in Agriculture
3.
Value and Average Price in Agriculture. Absolute Rent
(a)
Equalisation of the Rate of Profit in Industry
(b)
Formulation of the Problem of Rent
(c)
Private Ownership of the Land as a Necessary Condition for the Existence of
Absolute Rent. Surplus-Value in Agriculture Resolves into Profit and Rent
4.
Rodbertus’s Thesis that in Agriculture Raw Materials Lack Value Is Fallacious
5.
Wrong Assumptions in Rodbertus’s Theory of Rent
6.
Rodbertus’s Lack of Understanding of the Relationship Between Average Price
and Value in Industry and Agriculture. The Law of Average Prices
7.
Rodbertus’s Erroneous Views Regarding the Factors Which Determine the Rate of
Profit and the Rate of Rent
(a)
Rodbertus’s First Thesis
(b)
Rodbertus’s Second Thesis
(c)
Rodbertus’s Third Thesis
8.
The Kernel of Truth in the Law Distorted by Rodbertus
9.
Differential Rent and Absolute Rent in Their Reciprocal Relationship. Rent
as an Historical Category. Smith’s and Ricardo’s Method of Research)
10.
Rate of Rent and Rate of Profit. Relation Between Productivity in
Agriculture and in Industry in the Different Stages of Historical Development
Chapter
IX. Notes on the History of the Discovery of the So-Called Ricardian
Law of Rent. Supplementary Notes on Rodbertus (Digression)
1.
The Discovery of the Law of Differential Rent by Anderson. Distortion of
Anderson’s Views by His Plagiarist: Malthus, in the Interests of the
Landowners
2.
Ricardo’s Fundamental Principle in Assessing Economic Phenomena Is the
Development of the Productive Forces. Malthus Defends the Most Reactionary
Elements of the Ruling Classes. Virtual Refutation of Malthus’s Theory
of Population by Darwin
3.
Roscher’s Falsification of the History of Views on Ground-Rent. Examples
of Ricardo’s Scientific Impartiality, Rent from Capital Investment in Land and
Rent from the Exploitation of Other Elements of Nature. The Twofold
Influence of Competition
4.
Rodbertus’s Error Regarding the Relation Between Value and Surplus-Value When
the Costs of Production Rise)
5.
Ricardo’s Denial of Absolute Rent—a Result of His Error in the Theory of
Value
6.
Ricardo’s Thesis on the Constant Rise in Corn Prices. Table of Annual
Average Prices of Corn from 1641 to 1859
7.
Hopkins’s Conjecture about the Difference Between Absolute Rent and
Differential Rent; Explanation of Rent by the Private Ownership of Land
8.
The Costs of Bringing Land into Cultivation. Periods of Rising and Periods
of Falling Corn Prices (1641-1859)
9.
Anderson versus Malthus. Anderson’s Definition of Rent. His Thesis
of the Rising Productivity of Agriculture and Its Influence on Differential Rent
10.
The Untenability of the Rodbertian Critique of Ricardo’s Theory of Rent.
Rodbertus’s Lack of Understanding of the Peculiarities of Capitalist
Agriculture
Chapter
X. Ricardo’s and Adam Smith’s Theory of Cost-Price (Refutation)
A.
Ricardo’s Theory of Cost-Price
1.
Collapse of the Theory of the Physiocrats and the Further Development of the
Theories of Rent
2.
The Determination of Value by Labour-Time — the Basis of Ricardo’s Theory.
Despite Certain Deficiencies the Ricardian Mode of Investigation Is a Necessary
Stage in the Development of Political Economy
3.
Ricardo’s Confusion about the Question of “Absolute” and “Relative”
Value. His Lack of Understanding of the Forms of Value
4.
Ricardo’s Description of Profit, Rate of Profit, Average Prices etc.
(a)
Ricardo’s Confusion of Constant Capital with Fixed Capital and of Variable
Capital with Circulating Capital. Erroneous Formulation of the Question of
Variations in “Relative Values” and Their Causative Factors
(b)
Ricardo’s Confusion of Cost-Prices with Value and the Contradictions in His
Theory of Value Arising Therefrom. His Lack of Understanding of the
Process of Equalisation of the Rate of Profit and of the Transformation of
Va1ues into Cost-Prices
5.
Average or Cost-Prices and Market-Prices
(a)
Introductory Remarks: Individual Value and Market-Value; Market-Value and
Market-Price
(b)
Ricardo Confuses the Process of the Formation of Market-Value and the Formation
of Cost-Prices
(c)
Ricardo’s Two Different Definitions of “Natural Price”. Changes in
Cost-Price Caused by Changes in the Productivity of Labour
B.
Adam Smith’s Theory of Cost-Price
1.
Smith’s False Assumptions in the Theory of Cost-Prices. Ricardo’s
Inconsistency Owing to His Retention of the Smithian Identification of Value and
Cost-Price
2.
Adam Smith’s Theory of the “Natural Rate” of Wages, Profit and Rent
Chapter
XI. Ricardo’s Theory of Rent
1.
Historical Conditions for the Development of the Theory of Rent by Anderson and
Ricardo
2.
The Connection Between Ricardo’s Theory of Rent and His Explanation of
Cost-Prices
3.
The Inadequacy of the Ricardian Definition of Rent
Chapter
XII. Tables of Differential Rent and Comment
1.
Changes in the Amount and Rate of Rent
2.
Various Combinations of Differential and Absolute Rent. Tables A, B, C, D,
E
3.
Analysis of the Tables
(a)
Table A. The Relation Between Market-Value and Individual Value in the
Various Classes
(b)
The Connection Between Ricardo’s Theory of Rent and the Conception of Falling
Productivity in Agriculture. Changes in the Rate of Absolute Rent and
Their Relation to the Changes in the Rate of Profit
(c)
Observations on the Influence of the Change in the Value of the Means of
Subsistence and of Raw Material (Hence also the Value of Machinery) on the
Organic Composition of Capital
(d)
Changes in the Total Rent, Dependent on Changes in the Market-Value
Chapter
XIII. Ricardo’s Theory Of Rent (Conclusion)
1.
Ricardo’s Assumption of the Non-Existence of Landed Property. Transition
to New Land Is Contingent on Its Situation and Fertility
2.
The Ricardian Assertion that Rent Cannot Possibly Influence the Price of Corn.
Absolute Rent Causes the Prices of Agricultural Products to Rise
3.
Smith’s and Ricardo’s Conception of the “Natural Price” of the
Agricultural Product
4.
Ricardo’s Views on Improvements in Agriculture. His Failure to
Understand the Economic Consequences of Changes in the Organic Composition of
Agricultural Capital
5.
Ricardo’s Criticism of Adam Smith’s and Malthus’s Views on Rent
Chapter
XIV. Adam Smith’s Theory of Rent
1.
Contradictions in Smith’s Formulation of the Problem of Rent
2.
Adam Smith’s Hypothesis Regarding the Special Character of the Demand for
Agricultural Produce. Physiocratic Elements in Smith’s Theory of Rent
3.
Adam Smith’s Explanation of How the Relation Between Supply and Demand Affects
the Various Types of Products from the Land. Smith’s Conclusions
Regarding the Theory of Rent
4.
Adam Smith’s Analysis of the Variations in the Prices of Products of the Land
5.
Adam Smith’s Views on the Movements of Rent and His Estimation of the
Interests of the Various Social Classes
Chapter
XV. Ricardo’s Theory of Surplus-Value.
A. The Connection Between Ricardo’s Conception of
Surplus-Value and His Views on Profit and Rent
1. Ricardo’s Confusion of the Laws of Surplus-Value with
the Laws of Profit
2. Changes in the Rate of Profit Caused by Various Factors
3. The Value of Constant Capital Decreases While That of
Variable Capital Increases and Vice Versa, and the Effect of These Changes on
the Rate of Profit
4. Confusion of Cost-Prices with Value in the Ricardian
Theory of Profit
5. The General Rate of Profit and the Rate of Absolute Rent
in Their Relation to Each Other. The Influence on Cost-Prices of a
Reduction in Wages
6. Ricardo on the Problem of Surplus-Value
1. Quantity of Labour and Value of Labour. (As
Presented by Ricardo the Problem of the Exchange of Labour for Capital Cannot Be
Solved
2. Value of Labour-Power. Value of Labour.
(Ricardo’s Confusion of Labour with Labour-Power. Concept of the
“Natural Price of Labour”
3. Surplus-Value. An Analysis of the Source of
Surplus-Value Is Lacking in Ricardo’s Work. His Concept of Working-Day
as a Fixed Magnitude
4. Relative Surplus-Value. The Analysis of Relative
Wages Is One of Ricardo’s Scientific Achievements
Chapter
XVI. Ricardo’s Theory of Profit
1.
Individual Instances in Which Ricardo Distinguishes Between Surplus-Value and
Profit
2.
Formation of the General Rate of Profit (Average Profit or “Usual Profit”)
a)
The Starting-Point of the Ricardian Theory of Profit Is the Antecedent
Predetermined Average Rate of Profit
b)
Ricardo’s Mistakes Regarding the Influence of Colonial Trade, and Foreign
Trade in General, on the Rate of Profit
3.
Law of the Diminishing Rate of Profit
a)
Wrong Presuppositions in the Ricardian Conception of the Diminishing Rate of
Profit
b)
Analysis of Ricardo’s Thesis that the Increasing Rent Gradually Absorbs the
Profit
c)
Transformation of a Part of Profit and a Part of Capital into Rent. The
Magnitude of Rent Varies in Accordance with the Amount of Labour Employed in
Agriculture
d)
Historical Illustration of the Rise in the Rate of Profit with a Simultaneous
Rise in the Prices of Agricultural Products. The Possibility of an
Increasing Productivity of Labour in Agriculture
e)
Ricardo’s Explanation for the Fall in the Rate of Profit and Its Connection
with His Theory of Rent
Chapter
XVII. Ricardo’s Theory of Accumulation and a Critique of it.
(The Very Nature of Capital Leads to Crises)
1. Adam Smith’s and Ricardo’s Error in Failing to Take
into Consideration Constant Capital. Reproduction of the Different Parts
of Constant Capital
2. Value of the Constant Capital and Value of the Product
3. Necessary Conditions for the Accumulation of Capital.
Amortisation of Fixed Capital and Its Role in the Process of Accumulation
4. The Connection Between Different Branches of Production
in the Process of Accumulation. The Direct Transformation of a Part of
Surplus-Value into Constant Capital—a Characteristic Peculiar to Accumulation
in Agriculture and the Machine-building Industry
5. The Transformation of Capitalised Surplus-Value into
Constant and Variable Capital
6. Crises (Introductory Remarks)
7. Absurd Denial of the Over-production of Commodities,
Accompanied by a Recognition of the Over-abundance of Capital
8. Ricardo’s Denial of General Over-production.
Possibility of a Crisis Inherent in the Inner Contradictions of Commodity and
Money
9. Ricardo’s Wrong Conception of the Relation Between
Production and Consumption under the Conditions of Capitalism
10. Crisis, Which Was a Contingency, Becomes a Certainty.
The Crisis as the Manifestation of All the Contradictions of Bourgeois Economy
11. On the Forms of Crisis
12. Contradictions Between Production and Consumption under
Conditions of Capitalism. Over-production of the Principal Consumer Goods
Becomes General Over-production
13. The Expansion of the Market Does Not Keep in Step with
the Expansion of Production. The Ricardian Conception That an Unlimited
Expansion of Consumption and of the Internal Market Is Possible
14. The Contradiction Between the Impetuous Development of
the Productive Powers and the Limitations of Consumption Leads to
Overproduction. The Theory of the Impossibility of General Over-production
Is Essentially Apologetic in Tendency
15. Ricardo’s Views on the Different Types of
Accumulation of Capital and on the Economic Consequences of Accumulation
Chapter
XVIII. Ricardo’s Miscellanea. John Barton
A.
Gross and Net Income
B.
Machinery Ricardo and Barton on the Influence of Machines on the Conditions of
the Working Class
1.
Ricardo’s Views
(a)
Ricardo’s Original Surmise Regarding the Displacement of Sections of the
Workers by Machines
(b)
Ricardo on the Influence of Improvements in Production on the Value of
Commodities. False Theory of the Availability of the Wages Fund for the
Workers Who Have Been Dismissed
(c)
Ricardo’s Scientific Honesty, Which Led Him to Revise His Views on the
Question of Machinery. Certain False Assumptions Are Retained in
Ricardo’s New Formulation of the Question
(d)
Ricardo’s Correct Determination of Some of the Consequences of the
Introduction of Machines for the Working Class. Apologetic Notions in the
Ricardian Explanation of the Problem
2.
Barton’s Views
(a)
Barton’s Thesis that Accumulation of Capital Causes a Relative Decrease in the
Demand for Labour. Barton’s and Ricardo’s Lack of Understanding of the
Inner Connection Between This Phenomenon and the Domination of Capital over
Labour
(b)
Barton’s Views on the Movement of Wages and the Growth of Population
Addenda.
1. Early Formulation of the Thesis That the Supply of
Agricultural Products Always Corresponds to Demand. Rodbertus and the
Practicians among the Economists of the Eighteenth Century
2. Nathaniel Forster on the Hostility Between Landowners
and Traders
3. Hopkins’s Views on the Relationship Between Rent and
Profit
4. Carey, Malthus and James Deacon Hume on Improvements in
Agriculture
5. Hodgskin and Anderson on the Growth of Productivity in
Agricultural Labour
6. Decrease in the Rate of Profit
Part III
Chapter
XIX. Thomas Robert Malthus
1. Malthus’s Confusion of the Categories Commodity and
Capital
2. Malthus’s Vulgarised View of Surplus-Value
3. The Row Between the Supporters of Malthus and Ricardo in
the Twenties of the 19th Century. Common Features in Their Attitude to the
Working Class
4. Malthus’s One-sided Interpretation of Smith’s Theory
of Value. His Use of Smith’s Mistaken Theses in His Polemic Against
Ricardo
5. Smith’s Thesis of the Invariable Value of Labour as
Interpreted by Malthus
6. Malthus’s Use of the Ricardian Theses of the
Modification of the Law of Value in His Struggle Against the Labour Theory of
Value
7. Malthus’s Vulgarised Definition of Value. His
View of Profit as Something Added to the Price. His Polemic Against
Ricardo’s Conception of the Relative Wages of Labour
8. Malthus on Productive Labour and Accumulation
(a) Productive and Unproductive Labour
(b) Accumulation
9. Constant and Variable Capital According to Malthus
10. Malthus’s Theory of Value Supplementary Remarks
11. Over-Production, “Unproductive Consumers”, etc
12. The Social Essence of Malthus’s Polemic Against
Ricardo. Malthus’s Distortion of Sismondi’s Views on the
Contradictions in Bourgeois Production
13. Critique of Malthus’s Conception of “Unproductive
Consumers” by Supporters of Ricardo
14. The Reactionary Role of Malthus’s Writings and Their
Plagiaristic Character. Malthus’s Apologia for the Existence of
“Upper” and “Lower” Classes
15. Malthus’s Principles Expounded in the Anonymous
Outlines 0f Political Economy
Chapter
XX. Disintegration of the Ricardian School
1. Robert Torrens
(a) Smith and Ricardo on the Relation Between the Average
Rate of Profit and the Law of Value
(b) Torrens’s Confusion in Defining the Value of Labour
and the Sources of Profit
(c) Torrens and the Conception of Production Costs
2. James Mill Futile Attempts to Resolve the Contradictions
of the Ricardian System
(a) Confusion of Surplus-Value with Profit
(b) Mill’s Vain Efforts to Bring the Exchange Between
Capital and Labour into Harmony with the Law of Value
(c) Mill’s Lack of Understanding of the Regulating Role
of Industrial Profit
(d) Demand, Supply, Over-Production
(e) Prévost Rejection of Some of the Conclusions of
Ricardo and James Mill. Attempts to Prove That a Constant Decrease of
Profit Is Not Inevitable
3. Polemical Writings
(a) Observations on Certain Verbal Disputes.
Scepticism in Political Economy
(b) An Inquiry into those Principles … The Lack of
Understanding of the Contradictions of the Capitalist Mode of Production Which
Cause Crises
(c) Thomas De Quincey Failure to Overcome the Real Flaws in
the Ricardian Standpoint
(d) Samuel Bailey
(a) Superficial Relativism on the Part of the Author of Observations on Certain
Verbal Disputes and on the Part of Bailey in Treating the Category of Value.
The Problem of the Equivalent. Rejection of the Labour Theory of Value as
the Foundation of Political Economy
(b) Confusion with Regard to Profit and the Value of Labour
(c) Confusion of Value and Price. Bailey’s Subjective Standpoint
4. McCulloch
(a) Vulgarisation and Complete Decline of the Ricardian
System under the Guise of Its Logical Completion. Cynical Apologia for
Capitalist Production. Unprincipled Eclecticism
(b) Distortion of the Concept of Labour Through Its
Extension to Processes of Nature. Confusion of Exchange-Value and
Use-Value
5. Wakefield Some Objections to Ricardo’s Theory
Regarding the “Value of Labour” and Rent
6. Stirling Vulgarised Explanation of Profit by the
Interrelation of Supply and Demand
7. John Stuart Mill Unsuccessful Attempts to Deduce the
Ricardian Theory of the Inverse Proportionality Between the Rate of Profit and
the Level of Wages Directly from the Law of Value
(a) Confusion of the Rate of Surplus-Value with the Rate of
Profit. Elements of the Conception of “Profit upon Alienation”.
Confused Conception of the “Profits Advanced” by the Capitalist
(b) Apparent Variation in the Rate of Profit Where the
Production of Constant Capital Is Combined with Its Working Up by a Single
Capitalist
(c) On the Influence a Change in the Value of Constant
Capital Exerts on Surplus-Value, Profit and Wages
8. Conclusion
Chapter
XXI Opposition to the Economists (Based on the Ricardian Theory)
1. The Pamphlet The Source and Remedy of the National
Difficulties
(a) Profit, Rent and Interest Regarded as Surplus Labour of
the Workers. The Interrelation Between the Accumulation of Capital and the
So-called “Labour Fund”
(b) On the Exchange Between Capital and Revenue in the Case
of Simple Reproduction and of the Accumulation of Capital
(c) The Merits of the Author of the Pamphlet and the
Theoretical Confusion of His Views. The Importance of the Questions He
Raises about the Role of Foreign Trade in Capitalist Society and of “Free
Time” as Real Wealth
2. Ravenstone. The View of Capital as the Surplus
Product of the Worker. Confusion of the Antagonistic Form of Capitalist
Development with Its Content. This Leads to a Negative Attitude Towards
the Results of the Capitalist Development of the Productive Forces
3. Hodgskin
(a) The Thesis of the Unproductiveness of Capital as a
Necessary Conclusion from Ricardo’s Theory
(b) Polemic Against the Ricardian Definition of Capital as
Accumulated Labour. The Concept of Coexisting Labour.
Underestimation of the Importance of Materialised Past Labour. Available
Wealth in Relation to the Movement of Production
(c) So-called Accumulation as a Mere Phenomenon of
Circulation. (Stock, etc.—Circulation Reservoirs)
(d) Hodgskin’s Polemic Against the Conception that the
Capitalists “Store Up” Means of Subsistence for the Workers. His
Failure to Understand the Real Causes of the Fetishism of Capital
(e) Compound Interest: Fall in the Rate of Profit Based on
This
(f) Hodgskin on the Social Character of Labour and on the
Relation of Capital to Labour
(g) Hodgskin’s Basic Propositions as Formulated in His
Book —Popular Political Economy
(h) Hodgskin on the Power of Capital and on the Upheaval in
the Right of Property
4. Bray as an Opponent of the Economists
Chapter
XXII. Ramsay
1. The Attempt to Distinguish Between Constant and Variable
Capital. The View that Capital Is Not an Essential Social Form
2. Ramsay’s Views on Surplus-Value and on Value.
Reduction of Surplus-Value to Profit. The Influence Which Changes in the
Value of Constant and Variable Capital Exert on the Rate and Amount of Profit
3. Ramsay on the Division of “Gross Profit” into “Net
Profit” (Interest) and “Profit of Enterprise”. Apologetic Elements
in His Views on the “Labour of Superintendence”, “Insurance Covering the
Risk Involved” and “Excess Profit”
Chapter
XXIII. Cherbuliez
1. Distinction Between Two Parts of Capital — the Part
Consisting of Machinery and Raw Materials and the Part Consisting of “Means of
Subsistence “ for the Workers
2. On the Progressive Decline in the Number of Workers in
Relation to the Amount of Constant Capital
3. Cherbuliez’s Inkling that the Organic Composition of
Capital Is Decisive for the Rate of Profit. His Confusion on This
Question. Cherbuliez on the “Law of Appropriation” in Capitalist
Economy
4. On Accumulation as Extended Reproduction
5. Elements of Sismondism in Cherhuliez. On the
Organic Composition of Capital. Fixed and Circulating Capital
6. Cherbuliez Eclectically Combines Mutually Exclusive
Propositions of Ricardo and Sismondi
Chapter
XXIV. Richard Jones
1. Reverend Richard Jones, An Essay on the Distribution of
Wealth, and on the Sources of Taxation, London, 1831, Part I, Rent Elements of a
Historical Interpretation of Rent. Jones’s Superiority over Ricardo in
Particular Questions of the Theory of Rent and His Mistakes in This Field
2. Richard Jones, An Introductory Lecture on Political
Economy etc. The Concept of the “Economical Structure of Nations”.
Jones’s Confusion with regard to the “Labor Fund”
3. Richard Jones, Textbook of Lectures on the Political
Economy of Nations, Hertford, 1852
(a) Jones’s Views on Capital and the Problem of
Productive and Unproductive Labour
(b) Jones on the Influence Which the Capitalist Mode of
Production Exerts on the Development of the Productive Forces. Concerning
the Conditions for the Applicability of Additional Fixed Capital
(c) Jones on Accumulation and Rate of Profit. On the
Source of Surplus-Value
Addenda.
Revenue and its Sources. Vulgar Political Economy
1. The Development of Interest-Bearing Capital on the Basis
of Capitalist Production Transformation of the Relations of the Capitalist Mode
of Production into a Fetish. Interest-Bearing Capital as the Clearest
Expression of This Fetish. The Vulgar Economists and the Vulgar Socialists
Regarding Interest on Capital
2. Interest-Bearing Capital and Commercial Capital in
Relation to Industrial Capital. Older Forms. Derived Forms
3. The Separation of Individual Parts of Surplus-Value in
the Form of Different Revenues. The Relation of Interest to Industrial
Profit. The Irrationality of the Fetishised Forms of Revenue
4. The Process of Ossification of the Converted Forms of
Surplus-Value and Their Ever Greater Separation from Their Inner
Substance—Surplus Labour. Industrial Profit as “Wages for the
Capitalist”
5. Essential Difference Between Classical and Vulgar
Economy. Interest and Rent as Constituent Elements of the Market Price of
Commodities. Vulgar Economists Attempt to Give the Irrational Forms of
Interest and Rent a Semblance of Rationality
6. The Struggle of Vulgar Socialism Against Interest (Proudhon).
Failure to Understand the Inner Connection Between Interest and the System of
Wage-Labour
7. Historical Background to the Problem of Interest.
Luther’s Polemic Against Interest Is Superior to That of Proudhon. The
Concept of Interest Changes as a Result of the Evolution of Capitalist Relations
Post-Ricardian
Social Criticism (Excerpt)
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