Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
Society as Quesnay sees it consists of three classes: the productive
class of agriculturists; the sterile class containing all those who are
active outside the sphere of agriculture--industry, commerce, and the
liberal professions; and lastly the class of landowners, including the
Sovereign and the collectors of tithes. The national aggregate product
materialises in the hands of the productive class as an aggregate of
provisions and raw materials to the value of some 5,000 million livres.
Of this sum, 2,000 millions represent the annual working capital of
agriculture, 1,000 millions represent the annual wear and tear of fixed
capital, and 2,000 millions are the net revenue accruing to the
landowners. Apart from this total produce, the agriculturists, here
conceived quite in capitalist terms as tenant farmers, have 2,000
million livres cash in hand. Circulation now takes place in such a way
that the tenant class pay the landowners 2,000 millions cash as rent (as
the cost of the previous period of production). For this money the
landowning class buy provisions from the tenants for 1,000 millions and
industrial products from the sterile class for the remaining 1,000
millions. The tenants in their turn buy industrial products for the
1,000 millions handed back to them, whereupon the sterile class buy
agricultural products for the 2,000 millions they have in hand: for
1,000 millions raw materials etc., to replace their annual working
capital, and provisions for the remaining 1,000 millions. Thus the money
has in the end returned to its starting point, the tenant class; the
product is distributed among all classes so that consumption is ensured
for everyone; at the same time the means of production of the sterile as
well as of the productive class have been renewed and the landowning
class has received its revenue. The prerequisites of reproduction are
all present, the conditions of circulation have all been fulfilled, and
reproduction can start again on its regular course.[61]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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