Even in England, then, there are large numbers of 'third persons', and it is they who, by their consumption, help to realise the surplus value in so far as it is not consumed by the capitalists. Struve leaves it open whether these 'third persons' consume enough to realise all surplus value--however that may be, 'the contrary would have to be proved'.[296] This cannot be done, he claims, for Russia, that vast country with an immense population. She, in fact, is in the fortunate position to be able to dispense with foreign markets. In this--and here Struve dips into the intellectual treasures of Professors Wagner, Schaeffle, and Schmoller--she enjoys the same privileges as the United States of America. 'If the example of the N. American Union stands for anything, it is proof of the fact that under certain circumstances capitalist industry can attain a very high level of development almost entirely on the basis of the home market.'[297] The negligible amount of industrial exports from the U.S.A. in 1882 is mentioned in support of this statement which Struve formulates as a general doctrine: 'The vaster the territory, and the larger the population of a country, the less does that country require foreign markets for its capitalist development.' He infers from this, in direct opposition to the 'populists', 'a more brilliant future (for Russia) than for the other countries'. On the basis of commodity production, the progressive development of agriculture is bound to create a market wide enough to support the development of Russian industrial capitalism. This market would be capable of unlimited expansion, in step with the economic and cultural progress of the country, and together with the substitution of a monetary for a natural economy. 'In this respect, capitalism enjoys more favourable conditions in Russia than in other countries.'[298] Struve paints a detailed and highly coloured picture of the new markets which, thanks to the Trans-Siberian Railway, are opening up in Siberia, Central Asia, Asia Minor, Persia and the Balkans. But his prophetic zeal blinds him to the fact that he is no longer talking about the 'indefinitely expanding' home market but about specific foreign markets. In later years, he was to throw in his lot, in politics too, with this optimistic Russian capitalism and its liberal programme of imperialist expansion, for which he had laid the theoretical foundations when still a 'Marxist'.