Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
The capitalists of Department II, however, get poor reward for this
Christian virtue. In spite of their abstinence, they are not only unable
to expand their reproduction, but they are no longer even in the
position to resume their production on its former scale. Even if the
corresponding 'commodity value' is transferred from II_g_ to II_c_, it
is not only the value but its actual and concrete form which matters. As
the new part of the product of I now consists of money which cannot be
used as a means of production, Department II, in spite of its
abstinence, cannot renew its constant material capital on the old scale.
As our diagram presupposes simple reproduction, its condition are thus
violated in two directions: surplus value is being hoarded, and the
constant capital shows a deficit. Marx's own results, then, prove that
the production of gold cannot possibly find a place in either of the two
departments of his diagram; the whole diagram is upset as soon as the
first act of exchange between Departments I and II has been completed.
As Engels remarks in his footnote, 'the analysis of the exchange of
newly produced gold within the constant capital of Department I is not
contained in the MS.'[94] Besides, the inconsistency would then only
have been greater. The point of view we advocate is confirmed by Marx
himself when he gives an exhaustive answer to the question, as striking
as it is brief: 'Money in itself is not an element of actual
reproduction.'[95]
There is another important reason why we should put the production of
money in a third and separate department of social production as a
whole: Marx's diagram of simple reproduction is valid as the
starting-point and foundation of the reproductive process not only for
capitalism but also, _mutatis mutandis_, for every regulated and planned
economic order, for instance a socialist one. However, the production of
money, just like the commodity-form of the products, becomes obsolete
when private ownership of the means of production is abolished. It
constitutes the 'illegitimate' liabilities, the _faux frais_ of the
anarchic economy under capitalism, a peculiar burden for a society based
upon private enterprise, which implies the annual expenditure of a
considerable amount of labour on the manufacture of products which are
neither means of production nor yet consumer goods. This peculiar
expenditure of labour by a society producing under capitalism will
vanish in a socially planned economy. It is most adequately demonstrated
by means of a separate department within the process of reproducing
social capital. It is quite immaterial in this connection whether we
picture a country which produces its own gold or a country which imports
gold from abroad. The same expenditure of social labour which in the
first case is necessary for the direct production of gold, is required
in the second case to effect the exchange transactions.
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