After the breakdown of all conceivable attempts at explaining accumulation, therefore, after chasing from pillar to post, from A I to B I, and from B I to A II, we are made to fall back in the end on the very gold producer, recourse to whom Marx had at the outset of his analysis branded as 'absurd'. The analysis of the reproductive process, and the second volume of _Capital_ finally comes to a close without having provided the long sought-for solution to our difficulty. FOOTNOTES: [113] _Capital_, vol. ii, p. 571. [114] Ibid., p. 572. [115] Ibid., pp. 573-4. [116] _Capital_, vol. ii, p. 375. [117] Ibid., pp. 575-6. [118] _Capital_, vol. ii, pp. 579-81. [119] Ibid., p. 581. [120] _Capital_, vol. ii, pp. 583-4. [121] Ibid., p. 584. [122] _Capital_, vol. ii, p. 585. [123] Ibid., pp. 586-7. [124] Ibid., pp. 588-9. [125] _Capital_, vol. ii, pp. 590-1. [126] Ibid., p. 593. [127] _Capital_, vol. ii, p. 594. [128] Ibid., p. 595. [129] Ibid., p. 595. [130] Ibid., p. 596. [131] Ibid., p. 601. [132] _Capital_, vol. ii, p. 610. _CHAPTER IX_ THE DIFFICULTY VIEWED FROM THE ANGLE OF THE PROCESS OF CIRCULATION The flaw in Marx's analysis is, in our opinion, the misguided formulation of the problem as a mere question of 'the sources of money', whereas the real issue is the effective demand, the use made of goods, not the source of the money which is paid for them. As to money as a means of circulation: when considering the reproductive process as a whole, we must assume that capitalist society must always dispose of money, or a substitute, in just that quantity that is needed for its process of circulation. What has to be explained is the great social transaction of exchange, caused by real economic needs. While it is important to remember that capitalist surplus value must invariably pass through the money stage before it can be accumulated, we must nevertheless try to track down the economic demand for the surplus product, quite apart from the puzzle where the money comes from. As Marx himself says in another passage: 'The money on one side in that case calls forth expanded reproduction on the other, because the possibility for it exists without the money. For money in itself is not an element of actual reproduction.'[133] And in a different context, Marx actually shows the question about the 'sources of money' to be a completely barren formulation of the problem of accumulation. In fact, he had come up against this difficulty once before when examining the process of circulation. Still dealing with simple reproduction, he had asked, in connection with the circulation of the surplus value: 'But the commodity capital must be monetised before its conversion into productive capital, or before the surplus-value contained in it can be spent. Where does the money for this purpose come from? This question seems difficult at the first glance, and neither Tooke nor anyone else has answered it so far.'[134]