The hash of Ricardo, Marx, Sismondi and Rodbertus thus is topped with the discovery that capitalist production could be radically cured of over-production, that it could 'prosper and flourish' in all eternity, if the capitalists would refrain from capitalising their surplus value and would make a free gift to the working class of the corresponding part of the surplus value. Meanwhile the capitalists, until they have become sensible enough to accept Vorontsov's good advice, employ other means for the annual destruction of a part of their surplus value. Modern militarism, amongst others, is one of these appropriate measures--and this precisely to the extent to which the bills of militarism are footed by the capitalists' income--for Vorontsov can be counted upon to turn things upside down--and not by the working masses. A primary remedy for capitalism, however, is foreign trade which again is a sore spot in Russian capitalism. As the last to arrive at the table of the world market, Russian capitalism fares worst in the competition with older capitalist countries and thus lacks both prospects as to foreign markets and the most vital conditions of existence. Russia remains the 'country of peasants', a country of 'populist' production. 'If all this is correct,' Vorontsov concludes his essay on 'The Commodity Surplus in the Supply of the Market', 'then capitalism can play only a limited part in Russia. It must resign from the direction of agriculture, and its development in the industrial sphere must not inflict too many injuries upon the domestic industries which under our economic conditions are indispensable to the welfare of the majority of the population. If the reader would comment that capitalism might not accept such a compromise, our answer will be: so much the worse for capitalism.' Thus Vorontsov ultimately washes his hands of the whole thing, declining for his part all responsibility for the further fortunes of economic development in Russia. FOOTNOTES: [277] An essay in _Patriotic Memoirs_, May 1883. [278] An essay in the review _Russian Thought_, September 1889. [279] A book published in 1893. [280] A book published in 1895. [281] _Patriotic Memoirs_, vol. v: 'A Contemporary Survey', p. 4. [282] Ibid., p. 10. [283] _Patriotic Memoirs_, vol. v: 'A Contemporary Survey', p. 14. [284] _Outlines of Economic Theory_ (St. Petersburg, 1895), pp. 157 ff. [285] 'Militarism and Capitalism' in _Russian Thought_ (1889), vol. ix, p. 78. [286] 'Militarism and Capitalism' in _Russian Thought_ (1889), vol. ix, p. 80. [287] Ibid., p. 83. Cf. _Outlines_, p. 196. _CHAPTER XX_ NIKOLAYON