W O R K E R S O F A L L C O U N T R I E S, U N I T E! *(vL u(vX THEO9IE% of %U9™©U%-V(©UE V o l u m e IV o f C a p i t a l PART III A PROGRESS PUBLISHERS Moscow 1971 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JACK COHEN AND S. W. RYAZANSKAYA EDITED BY S. W. RYAZANSKAYA AND RICHARD DIXON К. MAPKC TEOPИИ ПPИБABOЧHOЙ CTOИMOCTИ (IV том «Капzтала») Чacть III Ha ahgjuvckom rflke From Marx to Mao M L Digital Reprints 2016 www.marx2mao.com First printing 1971 Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics PUBLISHER’S NOTE This translation has been made from Karl Marx, Theorien über den Mehr- wert, Teil 3, Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 1962. The arrangement of the material and the notes correspond on the whole to the Russian edition of Marx- Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 26, Part III, Moscow, 1964, prepared by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow, where the manuscript of the work is kept. We have attempted to keep the translation as closely as possible to the original. When, for the sake of clarity, it has been found necessary to insert a few words these are enclosed in square brackets. In order to avoid confu- sion, the square brackets occasionally used by Marx in the manuscript have been replaced either by pointed brackets < > or, when the passages en- closed were longer, by braces ! ∃. Quotations from French, German and Italian authors are given in En- glish in the text and are reproduced in the original language in the Appen- dix. In the case of British writers cited by Marx from a French source, the original English version appears in the text and the French translation used by Marx in the Appendix. Where an omission in a passage quoted has not been indicated by Marx, the ellipsis is enclosed in square brackets. Other discrepancies between the quotations as recorded by Marx and as they appear in the original source, are mentioned in footnotes. Words underlined by Marx, both in his own writing and in the extracts quoted by him, are set in italics, as are also titles of publications and for- eign words customarily italicised (words underscored by two lines are set in spaced italics). Chapter and section headings correspond in general to those of the Rus- sian edition. Headings set in square brackets have been provided by the In- stitute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow on the basis of formulations used by Marx in the chapter or section in question. The numbers of Marx's notebooks are indicated by Roman numerals, those of the manuscript pages by Arabic numerals, which are separated from the text by vertical lines. As a rule these numbers are printed only at the beginning of the relevant portion of the manuscript, but where passages have been transposed the number of the manuscript page (and, when there is a change to another notebook, also the number of the notebook) is shown both at the beginning of the passage and at the end. C O N T E N T S [CHAPTER XIX ] THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS ........ 13 [1. Malthus’s Confusion of the Categories Commodity and Capital] 13 [2. Malthus’s Vulgarised View of Surplus-Value] ........ 18 [3. The Row Between the Supporters of Malthus and Ricardo in the Twenties of the 19th Century. Common Features in Their Attitude to the Working Class]. .................... 22 [4. Malthus’s One-sided Interpretation of Smith’s Theory of Value. His Use of Smith’s Mistaken Theses in His Polemic Against Ricardo] 23 [5. Smith’s Thesis of the Invariable Value of Labour as Interpreted by Malthus]. .................... 26 [6. Malthus’s Use of the Ricardian Theses of the Modification of the Law of Value in His Struggle Against the Labour Theory of Value] 29 [7. Malthus’s Vulgarised Definition of Value. His View of Profit as Something Added to the Price. His Polemic Against Ricardo’s Con- ception of the Relative Wages of Labour] . ........ 31 [8. Malthus on Productive Labour and Accumulation] . .... 34 [a)] Productive and Unproductive Labour . ........ 34 [b)] Accumulation .................... 35 [9.] Constant and Variable Capital [According to Malthus] . 36 [10.] Malthus’s Theory of Value [Supplementary Remarks] . 39 [11.] Over-Production, “Unproductive Consumers”, etc. .... 40 [12. The Social Essence of Malthus’s Polemic Against Ricardo. Malthus’s Distortion of Sismondi’s Views on the Contradictions in Bourgeois Production] . ................ 51 [13. Critique of Malthus’s Conception of “Unproductive Consumers” by Supporters of Ricardo] . ................ 59 [14. The Reactionary Role of Malthus’s Writings and Their Plagiaris- tic Character. Malthus’s Apologia for the Existence of “Upper” and “Lower” Classes] . .................... 61 [15. Malthus’s Principles Expounded in the Anonymous Outlines of Political Economy]................... 63 8 CONTENTS [CHAPTER XX] DISINTEGRATION OF THE RICARDIAN SCHOOL . ....................... 69 1. [Robert Torrens] . ................... 69 [a) Smith and Ricardo on the Relation Between the Average Rate of Profit and the Law of Value] . ........... 69 [b) Torrens’s Confusion in Defining the Value of Labour and the Sources of Profit] . ................... 71 [c) Torrens and the Conception of Production Costs] . 79 2. James Mill [Futile Attempts to Resolve the Contradictions of the Ricardian System] ................... 84 [a) Confusion of Surplus-Value with Profit] . ....... 85 [b) Mill’s Vain Efforts to Bring the Exchange Between Capital and Labour into Harmony with the Law of Value]....... 88 [c) Mill’s Lack of Understanding of the Regulating Role of In- dustrial Profit] . ................... 99 [d)] Demand, Supply, Over-Production ........... 100 [e)] Prévost [Rejection of Some of the Conclusions of Ricardo and James Mill. Attempts to Prove That a Constant Decrease of Profit Is Not Inevitable] . ............... 104 3. Polemical Writings ................... 109 a) [Observations on Certain Verbal Disputes. Scepticism in Polit- ical Economy] . ................... 110 b) An Inquiry into those Principles. [The Lack of Understand- ing of the Contradictions of the Capitalist Mode of Production Which Cause Crises] ................... 117 c) Thomas De Quincey Failure to Overcome the Real Flaws in the Ricardian Standpoint] . ............... 123 d) Samuel Bailey. ................... 124 [α) Superficial Relativism on the Part of the Author of Obser- vations on Certain Verbal Disputes and on the Part of Bailey in Treating the Category of Value. The Problem of the Equiv- alent. Rejection of the Labour Theory of Value as the Foun- dation of Political Economy] . ........... 124 [β) Confusion with Regard to Profit and the Value of Labour] 148 [γ) Confusion of Value and Price. Bailey’s Subjective Stand- point] . ....................... 159 4. McCulloch ....................... 168 a) [Vulgarisation and Complete Decline of the Ricardian System under the Guise of Its Logical Completion. Cynical Apologia for Capitalist Production. Unprincipled Eclecticism] . 168 b) Distortion of the Concept of Labour Through Its Extension to Processes of Nature. Confusion of Exchange-Value and Use- Value] . ....................... 176 5. Wakefield [Some Objections to Ricardo’s Theory Regarding the “Value of Labour” and Rent] . ............... 187 6. Stirling [Vulgarised Explanation of Profit by the Interrelation of Supply and Demand] . ................... 188 CONTENTS 9 7. John Stuart Mill [Unsuccessful Attempts to Deduce the Ricar- dian Theory of the Inverse Proportionality Between the Rate of Profit and the Level of Wages Directly from the Law of Value] . 190 [a) Confusion of the Rate of Surplus-Value with the Rate of Profit. Elements of the Conception of “Profit upon Alienation”. Con- fused Conception of the “Profits Advanced” by the Capitalist] . 190 [b) Apparent Variation in the Rate of Profit Where the Production of Constant Capital Is Combined with Its Working Up by a Single Capitalist] . .................... 213 [c) On the Influence a Change in the Value of Constant Capital Exerts on Surplus-Value, Profit and Wages] . ........ 217 [8. Conclusion] . .................... 237 [CHAPTER XXI] OPPOSITION TO THE ECONOMISTS (BASED ON THE RICARDIAN THEORY) . ............ 238 1. [The Pamphlet] The Source and Remedy of the National Difficul- ties ........................... 238 [a) Profit, Rent and Interest Regarded as Surplus Labour of the Workers. The Interrelation Between the Accumulation of Capital and the So-called “Labour Fund”] . ............ 238 [b) On the Exchange Between Capital and Revenue in the Case of Simple Reproduction and of the Accumulation of Capital] . 246 [c) The Merits of the Author of the Pamphlet and the Theoretical Confusion of His Views. The Importance of the Questions He Raises about the Role of Foreign Trade in Capitalist Society and of “Free Time” as Real Wealth] . ............ 252 2. Ravenstone. [The View of Capital as the Surplus Product of the Worker. Confusion of the Antagonistic Form of Capitalist Develop- ment with Its Content. This Leads to a Negative Attitude Towards the Results of the Capitalist Development of the Productive Forces] . ........................ 257 3. Hodgskin . .................... 263 [a) The Thesis of the Unproductiveness of Capital as a Necessary Conclusion from Ricardo’s Theory] . ............ 263 [b) Polemic Against the Ricardian Definition of Capital as Ac- cumulated Labour. The Concept of Coexisting Labour. Underes- timation of the Importance of Materialised Past Labour. Available Wealth in Relation to the Movement of Production] . .... 266 [c)] So-called Accumulation as a Mere Phenomenon of Circula- tion. (Stock, etc.—Circulation Reservoirs) . ........ 280 [d) Hodgskin’s Polemic Against the Conception that the Capital- ists “Store Up” Means of Subsistence for the Workers. His Failure to Understand the Real Causes of the Fetishism of Capital] . 290 [e)] Compound Interest: Fall in the Rate of Profit Based on This 298 [f) Hodgskin on the Social Character of Labour and on the Rela- tion of Capital to Labour] . ................ 313 [g) Hodgskin’s Basic Propositions as Formulated in His Book — Popular Political Economy]................ 315 10 CONTENTS [h) Hodgskin on the Power of Capital and on the Upheaval in the Right of Property] . ............... 319 [4.] Bray as an Opponent of the Economists .