Karl Marx made a contribution of lasting service to the theory of
economics when he drew attention to the problem of the reproduction of
the entire social capital. It is significant that in the history of
economics we find only two attempts at an exact exposition of this
problem: one by Quesnay, the father of the Physiocrats, at its very
inception; and in its final stage this attempt by Marx. In the interim,
the problem was ever with bourgeois economics. Yet bourgeois economists
have never been fully aware of this problem in its pure aspects,
detached from related and intersecting minor problems; they have never
been able to formulate it precisely, let alone solve it. Seeing that the
problem is of paramount importance, their attempts may all the same help
us to some understanding of the trend of scientific economics.
What is it precisely that constitutes this problem of the reproduction
of total capital? The literal meaning of the word 'reproduction' is
repetition, renewal of the process of production. At first sight it may
be difficult to see in what respect the idea of reproduction differs
from that of repetition which we can all understand--why such a new and
unfamiliar term should be required. But in the sort of repetition which
we shall consider, in the continual recurrence of the process of
production, there are certain distinctive features. First, the regular
repetition of reproduction is the general _sine qua non_ of regular
consumption which in its turn has been the precondition of human
civilisation in every one of its historical forms. The concept of
reproduction, viewed in this way, reflects an aspect of the history of
civilisation. Production can never be resumed, there can be no
reproduction, unless certain prerequisites such as tools, raw materials
and labour have been established during the preceding period of
production. However, at the most primitive level of man's civilisation,
at the initial stage of man's power over nature; this possibility to
re-engage in production depended more or less on chance. So long as
hunting and fishing were the main foundations of social existence,
frequent periods of general starvation interrupted the regular
repetition of production. Some primitive peoples recognised at a very
early stage that for reproduction as a regularly recurring process
certain measures were essential; these they incorporated into ceremonies
of a religious nature; and in this way they accepted such measures as
traditional social commitments. Thus, as the thorough researches of
Spencer and Gillen have taught us, the totem cult of the Australian
negroes is fundamentally nothing but certain measures taken by social
groups for the purpose of securing and preserving their animal and
vegetable foodstuffs; these precautions had been taken year by year
since time immemorial and thus they became fossilised into religious
ceremonials. Yet the circle of consumption and production which forms
the essence of reproduction became possible only with the invention of
tillage with the hoe, with the taming of domestic animals, and with
cattle-raising for the purpose of consumption. Reproduction is something
more than mere repetition in so far as it presupposes a certain level of
society's supremacy over nature, or, in economic terms, a certain
standard of labour productivity.
On the other hand, at all stages of social development, the process of
production is based on the continuation of two different, though closely
connected factors, the technical and social conditions--on the precise
relationship between man and nature and that between men and men.
Reproduction depends to the same degree on both these conditions. We
have just seen how reproduction is bound up with the conditions of human
working techniques, how far it is indeed solely the result of a certain
level of labour productivity; but the social forms of production
prevailing in each case are no less decisive. In a primitive communist
agrarian community, reproduction as well as the whole plan of economic
life is determined by the community of all workers and their democratic
organs. The decision to re-engage in labour--the organisation of
labour--the provision of raw materials, tools, and man-power as the
essential preliminaries of labour--the arrangement of reproduction and
the determination of its volume are all results of a planned
co-operation in which everybody within the boundaries of the community
takes his part. In an economic system based on slave labour or _corvée_,
reproduction is enforced and regulated in all details by personal
relations of domination. Here the volume of reproduction is determined
by the right of disposal held by the ruling _élites_ over smaller or
larger circles of other people's labour. In a society producing by
capitalist methods, reproduction assumes a peculiar form, as a mere
glance at certain striking phenomena will show us. In every other
society known to history, reproduction recurs in a regular sequence as
far as its preconditions, the existing means of production and labour
power, make this possible. As a rule, only external influences such as a
devastating war or a great pestilence, depopulating vast areas of former
cultural life, and consequently destroying masses of labour power and of
accumulated means of production, can result in a complete interruption
of reproduction or in its contraction to any considerable extent for
longer or shorter periods. A despotic organisation of the plan of
production may on occasion lead to similar phenomena. When in ancient
Egypt Pharaoh's will chained thousands of fellaheen for decades to the
building of the pyramids; when in modern Egypt Ismail Pasha ordered
20,000 fellaheen to forced labour on the Suez Canal; or when, about two
hundred years before Christ, the Emperor Shi Hoang Ti, founder of the
Chin dynasty, allowed 400,000 people to perish of hunger and exhaustion
and thus sacrificed a whole generation to his purpose of consolidating
the Great Wall at China's northern frontier, the result was always that
vast stretches of arable land were left fallow and that regular economic
life was interrupted for long periods. In all these cases the causes of
these interruptions of reproduction obviously lay in the one-sided
determination of the plan of reproduction by those in power.
Societies which produce according to capitalist methods present a
different picture. We observe that in certain periods all the
ingredients of reproduction may be available, both labour and means of
production, and yet some vital needs of society for consumer goods may
be left unfulfilled. We find that in spite of these resources
reproduction may in part be completely suspended and in part curtailed.
Here it is no despotic interference with the economic plan that is
responsible for the difficulties in the process of production. Quite
apart from all technical conditions, reproduction here depends on purely
social considerations: only those goods are produced which can with
certainty be expected to sell, and not merely to sell, but to sell at
the customary profit. Thus profit becomes an end in itself, the decisive
factor which determines not only production but also reproduction. Not
only does it decide in each case what work is to be undertaken, how it
is to be carried out, and how the products are to be distributed; what
is more, profit decides, also, at the end of every working period,
whether the labour process is to be resumed, and, if so, to what extent
and in what direction it should be made to operate.[58]
In capitalist society, therefore, the process of reproduction as a
whole, constitutes a peculiar and most complicated problem, in
consequence of these purely historical and social factors. There is, as
we shall see, an external characteristic which shows clearly this
specific historical peculiarity of the capitalist process of
reproduction. Comprising not only production but also circulation (the
process of exchange), it unites these two elements. Capitalist
production is primarily production by innumerable private producers
without any planned regulation. The only social link between these
producers is the act of exchange. In taking account of social
requirements reproduction has no clue to go on other than the
experiences of the preceding labour period. These experiences, however,
remain the private experiences of individual producers and are not
integrated into a comprehensive and social form. Moreover, they do not
always refer positively and directly to the needs of society. They are
often rather indirect and negative, for it is only on the basis of price
fluctuations that they indicate whether the aggregate of produced
commodities falls short of the effective demand or exceeds it. Yet the
individual private producers make recurrent use of these experiences of
the preceding labour period when they re-engage in reproduction, so that
glut or shortage are bound to occur again in the following period.
Individual branches of production may develop independently, so that
there may be a surplus in one branch and a deficiency in another. But as
nearly all individual branches of production are interdependent
technically, glut or shortage in some of the larger branches of
production lead to the same phenomenon in most of the others. Thus the
general supply of products may alternate periodically between shortage
and surplus relative to the social demand.
Herein lies the peculiar character of reproduction in a capitalist
society, which differs from all other known forms of production. In the
first place, every branch of production develops independently within
certain limits, in a way that leads to periodical interruptions of
production of shorter or longer duration. Secondly, the individual
branches of reproduction show deviations from social requirements
amounting to all-round disparity and thus resulting in a general
interruption of reproduction. These features of capitalist reproduction
are quite characteristic. In all other economic systems, reproduction
runs its uninterrupted and regular course, apart from external
disturbance by violence. Capitalist reproduction, however, to quote
Sismondi's well-known dictum, can only be represented as a continuous
sequence of individual spirals. Every such spiral starts with small
loops which become increasingly larger and eventually very large indeed.
Then they contract, and a new spiral starts again with small loops,
repeating the figure up to the point of interruption. This periodical
fluctuation between the largest volume of reproduction and its
contraction to partial suspension, this cycle of slump, boom, and
crisis, as it has been called, is the most striking peculiarity of
capitalist reproduction.
It is very important, however, to establish quite firmly and from the
very outset that this cyclical movement of boom, slump, and crisis, does
not represent the whole problem of capitalist reproduction, although it
is an essential element of it. Periodical cycles and crises are specific
phases of reproduction in a capitalist system of economy, but not the
whole of this process. In order to demonstrate the pure implications of
capitalist reproduction we must rather consider it quite apart from the
periodical cycles and crises. Strange as this may appear, the method is
quite rational; it is indeed the only method of inquiry that is
scientifically tenable. In order to demonstrate and to solve the problem
of pure value we must leave price fluctuations out of consideration. The
approach of vulgar economics always attempts to solve the problem of
value by reference to fluctuations in demand and supply. Classical
economists, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx, attack the problem in the
opposite way, pointing out that fluctuations in the mutual relation
between demand and supply can explain only disparities between price and
value, not value itself. In order to find the value of a commodity, we
must start by assuming that demand and supply are in a state of
equilibrium, that the price of a commodity and its value closely
correspond to one another. Thus the scientific problem of value begins
at the very point where the effect of demand and supply ceases to
operate.
In consequence of periodical cycles and crises capitalist reproduction
fluctuates as a rule around the level of the effective total demand of
society, sometimes rising above and sometimes falling below this level,
contracting occasionally even to the point of almost complete
interruption of reproduction. However, if we consider a longer period, a
whole cycle with its alternating phases of prosperity and depression, of
boom and slump, that is if we consider reproduction at its highest and
lowest volume, including the stage of suspension, we can set off boom
against slump and work out an average, a mean volume of reproduction for
the whole cycle. This average is not only a theoretical figment of
thought, it is also a real objective fact. For in spite of the sharp
rises and falls in the course of a cycle, in spite of crises, the needs
of society are always satisfied more or less, reproduction continues on
its complicated course, and productive capacities develop progressively.
How can this take place, leaving cycles and crises out of consideration?
Here the real question begins. The attempt to solve the problem of
reproduction in terms of the periodical character of crises is
fundamentally a device of vulgar economics, just like the attempt to
solve the problem of value in terms of fluctuations in demand and
supply. Nevertheless, we shall see in the course of our observations
that as soon as economic theory gets an inkling of the problem of
reproduction, as soon as it has at least started guessing at the
problem, it reveals a persistent tendency suddenly to transform the
problem of reproduction into the problem of crises, thus barring its own
way to the solution of the question. When we speak of capitalist
reproduction in the following exposition, we shall always understand by
this term a mean volume of productivity which is an average taken over
the various phases of a cycle.
Now, the total of capitalist reproduction is created by an unlimited and
constantly changing number of private producers. They produce
independently of one another; apart from the observation of price
fluctuations there is no social control--no social link exists between
the individual producers other than the exchange of commodities. The
question arises how these innumerable disconnected operations can lead
to the actual total of production. This general aspect of our problem
indeed strikes us immediately as one of prime importance. But if we put
it this way, we overlook the fact that such private producers are not
simply producers of commodities but are essentially capitalist
producers, that the total production of society is not simply production
for the sake of satisfying social requirements, and equally not merely
production of commodities, but essentially capitalist production.
Let us examine our problem anew in the light of this fact. A producer
who produces not only commodities but capital must above all create
surplus value. The capitalist producer's final goal, his main incentive,
is the production of surplus value. The proceeds from the commodities he
has manufactured must not only recompense him for all his outlay, but in
addition they must yield him a value which does not correspond with any
expense on his part, and is pure gain. If we consider the process of
production from the point of view of the creation of surplus value, we
see that the capital advanced by the capitalist is divided into two
parts: the first part represents his expenses on means of production
such as premises, raw material, partly finished goods and machinery. The
second part is spent on wages. This holds good, even if the capitalist
producer does not know it himself, and in spite of the pious stuff about
fixed and circulating capital with which he may delude himself and the
world. Marx called this first part constant capital. Its value is not
changed by its utilisation in the labour process--it is transferred _in
toto_ to the finished product. The second part Marx calls the variable
capital. This gives rise to an additional value, which materialises when
the results of unpaid labour are appropriated. The various components
which make up the value of every commodity produced by capitalist
methods may be expressed by the formula: _c + v + s_. In this formula
_c_ stands for the value of the constant capital laid out in inanimate
means of production and transferred to the commodity, _v_ stands for the
value of the variable capital advanced in form of wages, and _s_ stands
for the surplus value, the additional value of the unpaid part of wage
labour. Every type of goods shows these three components of value,
whether we consider an individual commodity or the aggregate of
commodities as a whole, whether we consider cotton textiles or ballet
performances, cast-iron tubes or liberal newspapers. Thus for the
capitalist producer the manufacture of commodities is not an end in
itself, it is only a means to the appropriation of surplus value. This
surplus value, however, can be of no use to the capitalist so long as it
remains hidden in the commodity form of the product. Once the commodity
has been produced, it must be realised, it must be converted into a form
of pure value; that is, into money. All capital expenses incorporated in
the commodity must shed their commodity-form and revert to the
capitalist as money to make this conversion possible so that he can
appropriate the surplus value in cash. The purpose of production is
fulfilled only when this conversion has been successful, only when the
aggregate of commodities has been sold according to its value. The
proceeds of this sale of commodities, the money that has been received
for them, contains the same components of value as the former aggregate
of commodities and can be expressed by the same formula _c + v + s_.
Part _c_ recompenses the capitalist for his advances on means of
production that have been used up, part _v_ recompenses him for his
advances on wages, and the last part, _s_, represents the expected
surplus, the capitalist's clear profit in cash.[59]
This conversion of capital from its original form, from the starting
point of all capitalist production, into means of production, dead and
living, such as raw materials, instruments, and labour; its further
conversion into commodities by a living labour process; and its final
reconversion into money, a greater amount of money indeed than at the
initial stage--this transformation of capital is, however, required for
more than the production and appropriation of surplus value. The aim and
incentive of capitalist production is not a surplus value pure and
simple, to be appropriated in any desired quantity, but a surplus value
ever growing into larger quantities, surplus value _ad infinitum_. But
to achieve this aim, the same magic means must be used over and over
again, the means of capitalist production--the ever repeated
appropriation of the proceeds of unpaid wage labour in the process of
commodity manufacture, and the subsequent realisation of the commodities
so produced.
Thus quite a new incentive is given to constantly renewed production, to
the process of reproduction as a regular phenomenon in capitalist
society, an incentive unknown to any other system of production. In
every other economic system known to history, reproduction is determined
by the unceasing need of society for consumer goods, whether they are
the needs of all the workers determined in a democratic manner as in an
agrarian and communist market community, or the despotically determined
needs of an antagonistic class society, as in an economy of slave labour
or _corvée_ and the like. But in a capitalist system of production, it
is not consideration of social needs which actuates the individual
private producer who alone matters in this connection. His production is
determined entirely by the effective demand, and even this is to him a
mere means for the realisation of surplus value which for him is
indispensable. Appropriation of surplus value is his real incentive, and
production of consumer goods for the satisfaction of the effective
demand is only a detour when we look to the real motive, that of
appropriation of surplus value, although for the individual capitalist
it is also a rule of necessity. This motive, to appropriate surplus
value, also urges him to re-engage in reproduction over and over again.
It is the production of surplus value which turns reproduction of social
necessities into a _perpetuum mobile_. Reproduction, for its part, can
obviously be only resumed when the products of the previous period, the
commodities, have been realised; that is, converted into money; for
capital in the form of money, in the form of pure value, must always be
the starting point of reproduction in a capitalist system. The first
condition of reproduction for the capitalist producer is thus seen to be
a successful realisation of the commodities produced during the
preceding period of production.
Now we come to a second important point. Under a system of private
economy, it is the individual producer who determines the volume of
reproduction at his discretion. His main incentive is appropriation of
surplus value, indeed an appropriation increasing as rapidly as
possible. An accelerated appropriation of surplus value, however,
necessitates an increased production of capital to generate this surplus
value. Here a large-scale enterprise enjoys advantages over a small one
in every respect. In fine, the capitalist method of production furnishes
not only a permanent incentive to reproduction in general, but also a
motive for its expansion, for reproduction on an ever larger scale.
Nor is that all. Capitalist methods of production do more than awaken in
the capitalist this thirst for surplus value whereby he is impelled to
ceaseless expansion of reproduction. Expansion becomes in truth a
coercive law, an economic condition of existence for the individual
capitalist. Under the rule of competition, cheapness of commodities is
the most important weapon of the individual capitalist in his struggle
for a place in the market. Now all methods of reducing the cost of
commodity production permanently amount in the end to an expansion of
production; excepting those only which aim at a specific increase of the
rate of surplus value by measures such as wage-cutting or lengthening
the hours of work. As for these latter devices, they are as such likely
to encounter many obstacles. In this respect, a large enterprise
invariably enjoys advantages of every kind over a small or medium
concern. They may range from a saving in premises or instruments, in the
application of more efficient means of production, in extensive
replacement of manual labour by machinery, down to a speedy exploitation
of a favourable turn of the market so as to acquire raw materials
cheaply. Within very wide limits, these advantages increase in direct
proportion to the expansion of the enterprise. Thus, as soon as a few
capitalist enterprises have been enlarged, competition itself forces all
others to expand likewise. Expansion becomes a condition of existence. A
growing tendency towards reproduction at a progressively increasing
scale thus ensues, which spreads automatically like a tidal wave over
ever larger surfaces of reproduction.
Expanding reproduction is not a new discovery of capital. On the
contrary, it had been the rule since time immemorial in every form of
society that displayed economic and cultural progress. It is true, of
course, that simple reproduction as a mere continuous repetition of the
process of production on the same scale as before can be observed over
long periods of social history. In the ancient agrarian and communist
village communities, for instance, increase in population did not lead
to a gradual expansion of production, but rather to the new generation
being expelled and the subsequent founding of equally small and
self-sufficient colonies. The old small handicraft units of India and
China provide similar instances of a traditional repetition of
production in the same forms and on the same scale, handed down from
generation to generation. But simple reproduction is in all these cases
the source and unmistakable sign of a general economic and cultural
stagnation. No important forward step in production, no memorial of
civilisation, such as the great waterworks of the East, the pyramids of
Egypt, the military roads of Rome, the Arts and Sciences of Greece, or
the development of craftsmanship and towns in the Middle Ages would have
been possible without expanding reproduction; for the basis and also the
social incentive for a decisive advancement of civilisation lies solely
in the gradual expansion of production beyond immediate requirements,
and in a continual growth of the population itself as well as of its
demands.
Exchange in particular, which brought about a class society, and its
historical development into the capitalist form of economy, would have
been unthinkable without expanding reproduction. In a capitalist
society, moreover, expanding reproduction acquires certain
characteristics. As we have already mentioned, it becomes right away a
coercive law to the individual capitalist. Capitalist methods of
production do not exclude simple or even retrogressive reproduction;
indeed, this is responsible for the periodical phenomenon of crises
following phases, likewise periodical, of overstrained expansion of
reproduction in times of boom. But ignoring periodical fluctuations, the
general trend of reproduction is ever towards expansion. For the
individual capitalist, failure to keep abreast of this expansion means
quitting the competitive struggle, economic death.
Moreover, there are certain other aspects to be considered. The concept
of expanding reproduction applies only to the quantity of products, to
the aggregate of manufactured objects. So long as production rests
solely or mainly upon a natural economy, consumption determines the
extent and character of the individual labour process, as well as that
of reproduction in general, as an end in itself: this applies to the
agrarian and communist village communities of India, to the Roman
_villa_ with its economy of slave labour, and to the medieval feudal
farm based on _corvée_. But the picture is different in a capitalist
economic system. Capitalist production is not production for the purpose
of consumption, it is production for the purpose of creating value. The
whole process of production as well as of reproduction is ruled by value
relationships. Capitalist production is not the production of consumer
goods, nor is it merely the production of commodities: it is
pre-eminently the production of surplus value. Expanding reproduction,
from a capitalist point of view, is expanding production of surplus
value, though it takes place in the forms of commodity production and is
thus in the last instance the production of consumer goods. Changes in
the productivity of labour during the course of reproduction cause
continual discrepancies between these two aspects. If productivity
increases, the same amount of capital and surplus value may represent a
progressively larger amount of consumer goods. Expanding production,
understood as the creation of a greater amount of surplus value, need
not therefore necessarily imply expanding reproduction in the capitalist
meaning of the term. Conversely, capital may, within limits, yield a
greater surplus value in consequence of a higher degree of exploitation
such as is brought about by wage-cutting and the like, without actually
producing a greater amount of goods. But in both cases the surplus value
has a twofold aspect: it is a quantity of value as well as an aggregate
of material products, and from a capitalist point of view, its elements
in both instances are thus the same.
As a rule, an increased production of surplus value results from an
increase of capital brought about by addition of part of the
appropriated surplus value to the original capital, no matter whether
this capitalist surplus value is used for the expansion of an old
enterprise or for founding a new one, an independent offshoot.
Capitalist expanding reproduction thus acquires the specific
characteristics of an increase in capital by means of a progressive
capitalisation of surplus value, or, as Marx has put it, by the
accumulation of capital.
The general formula for enlarged reproduction under the rule of capital
thus runs as follows: _c + v + s/x + s´_. Here _s/x_ stands for the
capitalised part of the surplus value appropriated in an earlier period
of production; _s´_ stands for the new surplus value created by the
increased capital. Part of this new surplus value is capitalised again,
and expanding reproduction is thus, from the capitalist point of view, a
constantly flowing process of alternate appropriation and capitalisation
of surplus value.
So far, however, we have only arrived at a general and abstract formula
for reproduction. Let us now consider more closely the concrete
conditions which are necessary to apply this formula.
The surplus value which has been appropriated, after it has successfully
cast off its commodity-form in the market, appears as a given amount of
money. This money-form is the form of its absolute value, the beginning
of its career as capital. But as it is impossible to create surplus
value with money, it cannot, in this form, advance beyond the threshold
of its career. Capital must assume commodity-form, so that the
particular portion of it which is earmarked for accumulation can be
capitalised. For only in this form can it become productive capital;
that is, capital begetting new surplus value. Therefore, like the
original capital, it must again be divided into two parts; a constant
part, comprising the inanimate means of production, and a variable part,
the wages. Only then will our formula _c + v + s_ apply to it in the
same way as it applied to the old capital.
But the good intent of the capitalist to accumulate, his thrift and
abstinence which make him use the greater part of his surplus value for
production instead of squandering it on personal luxuries, is not
sufficient for this purpose. On the contrary, it is essential that he
should find on the commodity market the concrete forms which he intends
to give his new surplus value. In the first place, he must secure the
material means of production such as raw materials, machines etc.
required for the branch of production he has chosen and planned, so that
the particular part of the surplus value which corresponds to his
constant capital may assume a productive form. Secondly, the other,
variable part of his surplus value must also be convertible, and two
essentials are necessary for this conversion: of first importance, the
labour market must offer a sufficient quantity of additional labour, and
secondly, as the workers cannot live on money alone, the commodity
market, too, must offer an additional amount of provisions, which the
workers newly to be employed may exchange against the variable part of
the surplus value they will get from the capitalist.
All these prerequisites found, the capitalist can set his capitalised
surplus value to work and make it, as operating capital, beget new
surplus value. But still his task is not completely done. Both the new
capital and the surplus value produced still exist for the time being in
the shape of an additional quantity of some commodity or other. In this
form the new capital is but advanced, and the new surplus value created
by it is still in a form in which it is of no use to the capitalist. The
new capital as well as the surplus value which it has created must cast
off their commodity-form, re-assume the form of pure value, and thus
revert to the capitalist as money. Unless this process is successfully
concluded, the new capital and surplus value will be wholly or partly
lost, the capitalisation of surplus value will have miscarried, and
there will have been no accumulation. It is absolutely essential to the
accumulation of capital that a sufficient quantity of commodities
created by the new capital should win a place for itself on the market
and be realised.
Thus we see that expanding reproduction as accumulation of capital in a
capitalist system is bound up with a whole series of special conditions.
Let us look at these more closely. The first condition is that
production should create surplus value, for surplus value is the
elementary form in which alone increased production is possible under
capitalist conditions. The entire process of production must abide by
this condition when determining the relations between capitalist and
worker in the production of commodities. Once this first condition is
given, the second is that surplus value must be realised, converted into
the form of money, so that it can be appropriated for the purposes of
expanding reproduction. This second condition thus leads us to the
commodity market. Here, the hazards of exchange decide the further fate
of the surplus value, and thus the future of reproduction. The third
condition is as follows: provided that part of the realised surplus
value has been added to capital for the purpose of accumulation, this
new capital must first assume its productive form of labour and
inanimate means of production. Moreover, that part of it which had been
exchanged for labour must be converted into provisions for the workers.
Thus we are led again to the markets of labour and commodities. If all
these requirements have been met and enlarged reproduction of
commodities has taken place, a fourth condition must be added: the
additional quantity of commodities representing the new capital plus
surplus value will have to be realised, that is, reconverted into money.
Only if this conversion has been successful, can it be said that
expanding capitalist reproduction has actually taken place. This last
condition leads us back to the commodity market.
Thus capitalist production and reproduction imply a constant shifting
between the place of production and the commodity market, a shuttle
movement from the private office and the factory where unauthorised
persons are strictly excluded, where the sovereign will of the
individual capitalist is the highest law, to the commodity market where
nobody sets up any laws and where neither will nor reason assert
themselves. But it is this very licence and anarchy of the commodity
market which brings home to the individual capitalist that he is
dependent upon society, upon the entirety of its producing and consuming
members. The individual capitalist may need additional means of
production, additional labour and provisions for these workers in order
to expand reproduction, but whether he can get what he needs depends
upon factors and events beyond his control, materialising, as it were,
behind his back. In order to realise his increased aggregate of
products, the individual capitalist requires a larger market for his
goods, but he has no control whatever over the actual increase of demand
in general, or of the particular demand for his special kind of good.
The conditions we have enumerated here, which all give expression to the
inherent contradiction between consumption and private production and
their social interconnection, are nothing new, and it is not only at
the stage of reproduction that they become apparent. These conditions
express the general contradiction inherent in capitalist production.
They involve, however, particular difficulties as regards the process of
reproduction for the following reasons. With regard to reproduction,
especially expanding reproduction, the capitalist method of production
not only reveals its general fundamental character, but, what is more,
it shows, in the various periods of production, a definite rhythm within
a continuous progression--the characteristic interplay of individual
wills. From this point of view, we must inquire in a general way how it
is possible for every individual capitalist to find on the market the
means of production and the labour he requires for the purpose of
realising the commodities he has produced, although there exists no
social control whatever, no plan to harmonize production and demand.
This question may be answered by saying that the capitalist's greed for
surplus value, enhanced by competition, and the automatic effects of
capitalist exploitation, lead to the production of every kind of
commodity, including means of production, and also that a growing class
of proletarianised workers becomes generally available for the purposes
of capital. On the other hand, the lack of a plan in this respect shows
itself in the fact that the balance between demand and supply in all
spheres can be achieved only by continuous deviations, by hourly
fluctuations of prices, and by periodical crises and changes of the
market situation.
From the point of view of reproduction the question is a different one.
How is it possible that the unplanned supply in the market for labour
and means of production, and the unplanned and incalculable changes in
demand nevertheless provide adequate quantities and qualities of means
of production, labour and opportunities for selling which the individual
capitalist needs in order to make a sale? How can it be assured that
every one of these factors increases in the right proportion? Let us put
the problem more precisely. According to our well-known formula, let the
composition of the individual capitalist's production be expressed by
the proportion _40c + 10v + 10s_. His constant capital is consequently
four times as much as his variable capital, and the rate of exploitation
is 100 per cent. The aggregate of commodities is thus represented by a
value of 60. Let us now assume that the capitalist is in a position to
capitalise and to add to the old capital of this given composition half
of his surplus value. In this case, the formula _44c + 11v + 11s = 66_
would apply to the next period of production.
Let us assume now that the capitalist can continue the annual
capitalisation of half his surplus value for a number of years. For this
purpose it is not sufficient that means of production, labour and
markets in general should be forthcoming, but he must find these factors
in a proportion that is strictly in keeping with his progress in
accumulation.