Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
'The market which thus comes into being, the demand for the products of
different countries resulting from such a division of labour among the
nations, has intrinsically nothing in common with the market required by
the capitalist mode of production.... The products of capitalist
industry come on the market for another purpose; the question whether
all the needs of the country are satisfied is irrelevant to them, and
the entrepreneur does not necessarily receive in their stead another
material product which may be consumed. Their main purpose is to realise
the surplus value they contain. What, then, is this surplus value that
it should interest the capitalist for its own sake? From our point of
view, it is the surplus of production over consumption inside the
country. Every worker produces more than he himself can consume, and all
these surplus items accumulate in a few hands; their owners themselves
consume them, exchanging them for the purpose against the most
variegated kinds of necessities and luxuries. Yet eat, drink and dance
as much as they like--they will not be able to squander the whole of the
surplus value: a considerable remnant will be left over, of which they
have to dispose somehow even though they cannot exchange it for other
products. They must convert it into money, since it would otherwise just
go bad. Since there is no one inside the country on whom the capitalists
could foist this remnant, it must be exported abroad, and that is why
foreign markets are indispensable to countries embarking on the
capitalist venture.'[283]
The above is a literal translation, showing all the peculiarities of
Vorontsov's diction, so that the reader may have a taste of this
brilliant Russian theorist with whom one can spend moments of sheer
delight.
Later, in 1895, Vorontsov summarised the same views in his book
_Outlines of Economic Theory_ now claiming our attention. Here he takes
a stand against the views of Say and Ricardo, and in particular also
against John Stuart Mill who denied the possibility of general
over-production. In the course of his argument he discovers something no
one had known before: he has laid bare the source of all errors the
classical school made about the problem of crises. This mistake lies in
a fallacious theory of the costs of production to which bourgeois
economists are addicted. No doubt, from the aspect of the costs of
production (which according to Vorontsov's equally unheard-of assumption
do not comprise profits), both profit and crises are unthinkable and
inexplicable. But we can only appreciate this original thought to the
full in the author's own words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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