'Since the master will see to it that part of the slave labour is employed in maintaining or even improving the fields, herds, agricultural and manufacturing tools, there will be "capital replacement", to use a modern term, in which part of the national economic product is immediately used for the upkeep of the estate, without any mediation by exchange or even by exchange value.'[263] And, passing on to capitalist reproduction, he continues: 'Now, in terms of value, one portion of the labour product, is used or set aside for the maintenance of the estate, for "capital replacement", another, for the workers' subsistence as their money wage; and the owners of the land, of capital, and of the labour product retain the last as their revenue or rent.'[264] This, then, is an explicit expression of the triple division into constant capital, variable capital, and surplus value. Again, in this third _Letter_, he formulates the peculiarity of his 'new' theory with equal precision: 'On this theory, then, and under conditions of adequate labour productivity, the portion of the product which remains for wages after the replacement of capital, will be distributed among workers and owners as wages and rent, on the basis of the ownership in land and capital.'[265] It does seem now as if Rodbertus' analysis of the value of the aggregate product represents a distinct advance over the classical school. Even Adam Smith's 'dogma' is openly criticised a little further on, and it is really surprising that Rodbertus' learned admirers, Messrs. Wagner, Dietzel, Diehl & Co. failed to claim their white-headed boy's 'priority' over Marx on such an important point of economic theory. As a matter of fact, in this respect no less than in the general theory of value, Rodbertus' priority is of a somewhat dubious character. If he seems on occasion to gain true insight, it immediately turns out to be a misunderstanding, or at best a wrong approach. His criticism of Adam Smith's dogma affords a supreme example of his failure to cope with the triple division of the national product towards which he had groped his way. He says literally: