Hobson is refuted and the matter settled because 'in the diagram' no surplus product comes into being. Admittedly, Tugan Baranovski knows quite well that in hard fact things do not work out so smoothly. There are continual fluctuations in the exchange relations and periodical crises. But these crises happen only because in the expansion of production the proper proportions are not maintained, because, that is to say, the proportions of 'diagram No. 2' are not observed in the first place. If they were, there would be no crisis, and capitalist production could get along as nicely as it does on paper, in every detail. Tugan Baranovski is committed to the view that we can ignore the crises if we consider the reproductive process as a continuous process. Although the 'proportion' may be upset at any moment, yet on average it will always be re-established by different deviations, by price-fluctuations from day to day, and in the long run by periodical crises. That on the whole this 'proportion' is more or less maintained is proved by the fact that capitalist economy is still going strong--otherwise it would long ago have ended in chaos and collapse. In the long run, then, Tugan Baranovski's 'proportion' is observed by and large, and we must conclude that reality obeys 'diagram No. 2'. And since this diagram can be indefinitely extended, it follows that capitalist accumulation can also proceed _ad infinitum_. What is striking in all this is not Tugan Baranovski's conclusion that the diagram corresponds to the actual course of events--as we have seen, Bulgakov also shared this belief; the really startling fact is that Tugan Baranovski sees no necessity for as much as _inquiring_ whether the diagram is correct, that, instead of proving the diagram, he considers this, the arithmetical exercise on paper, as proof of the actual state of affairs. Bulgakov honestly tried to project Marx's diagram on the real concrete relations of capitalist economy and of capitalist exchange; he endeavoured to overcome the difficulties resulting from it, though without success, it is true, remaining to the last involved with Marx's analysis, which he himself recognised to be incomplete and fragmentary. But Tugan Baranovski does not need any proof, he does not greatly exercise his brains: since the arithmetical sums come out satisfactorily, and may be continued _ad lib._, this is to him proof that capitalist accumulation can also proceed without let or hindrance--provided the said 'proportion' obtains, which it will have to do by hook or by crook, as he himself would not dream of denying.