Let us now consider the formula _c + v + s_ as the expression of the
social product as a whole. Is it only a theoretical abstraction, or does
it convey any real meaning when applied to social life--has the formula
any objective existence in relation to society as a whole? It was left
to Marx to establish the fundamental importance of _c_, the constant
capital, in economic theory. Yet Adam Smith before him, working
exclusively with the categories of fixed and circulating capital, in
effect transformed this fixed capital into constant capital, though he
was not aware of having achieved this result. This constant capital
comprises not only those means of production which wear out in the
course of years, but also those which are completely absorbed by
production in any one year. His very dogma that the total value is
resolved into _v + s_ and his arguments on this point lead Smith to
distinguish between the two categories of production--living labour and
inanimate means of production. On the other hand, when he tries to
construe the social process of reproduction on the basis of the capitals
and incomes of individuals, the fixed capital he conceives of as
existing apart from these, is, in fact, constant capital.
Every individual capitalist uses for the production of his commodities
certain material means of production such as premises, raw materials and
instruments. In order to produce the aggregate of commodities in a given
society, an aggregate of all material means of production used by the
individual capitalists is an obvious requisite. The existence of these
means of production within the society is a real fact, though they
themselves exist in the form of purely private individual capitals. This
is the universal absolute condition of social production in all its
historical forms.[84]
The specific capitalist form manifests itself in the fact that the
material means of production function as _c_, as constant capital, the
property of those who do not work; it is the opposite pole to
proletarianised labour power, the counterpart of wage labour. The
variable capital, _v_, is the aggregate of wages actually paid in the
society in the course of a year's production. This fact, too, has real
objective existence, although it manifests itself in an innumerable mass
of individual wages. In every society the amount of labour power
actually engaged in production and the annual maintenance of the workers
is a question of decisive importance. Where this factor takes the
specific capitalist form of _v_, the variable capital, it follows that
the means of subsistence first come to the workers in form of a wage
which is the price of the labour power they have sold to another person,
the owner of the material means of production who does not work himself;
under this aspect, it is the latter's capitalist property. Further, _v_
is an aggregate of money, that is to say it is the means of subsistence
for the workers in a form of pure value. This concept of _v_ implies
that the workers are free in a double sense--free in person and free of
all means of production. It also expresses the fact that in a given
society the universal form of production is commodity production.
Finally, _s_, the surplus value, stands for the total of all surplus
values gained by the individual capitalists. Every society performs
surplus labour, and even a socialist society will have to do the same.
It must perform surplus labour in a threefold sense: it has to provide a
quantity of labour for the maintenance of non-workers (those who are
unable to work, such as children, old people, invalids, and also civil
servants and the so-called liberal professions who do not take an
immediate part in the satisfaction of material[85] wants), it has to
provide a fund of social insurance against elementary disasters which
may threaten the annual produce, such as bad harvests, forest fires and
floods; and lastly it must provide a fund for the purpose of increasing
production, either because of an increase in the population, or because
higher standards of civilisation lead to additional wants. It is in two
respects that the capitalist character manifests itself: surplus labour
comes into being (1) as surplus value, i.e. in commodity-form,
realisable in cash, and (2) as the property of non-workers, of those who
own the means of production.
Similarly, if we consider _v + s_, these two amounts taken together, we
see that they represent objective quantities of universal validity: the
total of living labour that has been performed within a society in the
course of one year. Every human society, whatever its historical form,
must take note of this datum, with reference to both the results that
have been achieved, and the existing and available labour power. The
division into _v + s_ is a universal phenomenon, independent of the
society's particular historical form. In its capitalist form, this
division shows itself not only in the qualitative peculiarities of both
_v_ and _s_ as already outlined, but also in their quantitative
relationship: _v_ tends to become depressed to a minimum level, just
sufficient for the physiological and social existence of the worker, and
_s_ tends to increase continually at the cost of, and relative to, _v_.
The predominant feature of capitalist production is expressed in this
last circumstance: it is the fact that the creation and appropriation of
surplus value is the real purpose of, and the incentive to, production.
We have examined the relations upon which the capitalist formula of the
aggregate product is based, and have found them universally valid. In
every planned economy they are made the object of conscious regulation
on the part of society; in a communist society by the community of
workers and their democratic organs, and in a society based upon
class-rule by the nucleus of owners and their despotic power. In a
system of capitalist production there is no such planned regulation. The
aggregate of the society's capitals and the aggregate of its commodities
alike consist in reality of innumerable fragments of individual capitals
and individual items of merchandise, taken together.
Thus the question arises whether these sums themselves mean anything
more in a capitalist society than a mere statistical enumeration which
is, moreover, inexact and fluid. Applying the standards of society as a
whole, we perceive that the completely independent and sovereign
individual existence of private enterprises is only the historically
conditioned form, whereas it is social interconnections that provide the
foundation. Although individual capitals act in complete independence of
one another, and a social regulation is completely lacking, the movement
of capitals forms a homogeneous whole. This movement, too, appears in
specifically capitalist forms. In every planned system of production it
is, above all, the relation between all labour, past and present, and
the means of production (between _v + s_ and _c_, according to our
formula), or the relation between the aggregate of necessary consumer
goods (again, in the terms of our formula, _v + s_) and _c_ which are
subjected to regulation. Under capitalist conditions, on the other hand,
all social labour necessary for the maintenance of the inanimate means
of production and also of living labour power is treated as one entity,
as capital, in contrast with the surplus labour that has been performed,
i.e. with the surplus value _s_. The relation between these two
quantities _c_ and (_v + s_) is a palpably real, objective relationship
of capitalist society: it is the average rate of profit; every capital
is in fact treated only as part of a common whole, the whole of social
capital, and assigned the profit to which it is entitled, according to
its size, out of the surplus value wrested from society, regardless of
the quantity which this particular capital has actually created. Thus
social capital and its counterpart, the whole of social surplus value,
are not merely real quantities, having an objective existence, but, what
is more, the relation between them, the average profit, guides and
directs the whole process of exchange. This it does in three ways: (1)
by the mechanism of the law of value which establishes the quantitative
relations of exchange between the individual kinds of commodities
independently of their specific value relationship; (2) by the social
division of labour, the assignment of certain portions of capital and
labour to the individual spheres of production; (3) by the development
of labour productivity which on the one hand stimulates individual
capitals to engage in pioneering work for the purpose of securing a
higher profit than the average, and on the other hand extends the
progress that has been achieved by individuals over the whole field of
production. By means of the average rate of profit, in a word, the total
capital of society completely governs the seemingly independent motions
of individual capitals.
The formula _c + v + s_ thus applies to the aggregate of commodities
produced in a society under capitalism no less than to the value
composition of every individual commodity. It is, however, only the
value-composition for which this holds good--the analogy cannot be
carried further.
The formula is indeed perfectly exact if we regard the total product of
a capitalistically producing society as the output of one year's labour,
and wish to analyse it into its respective components. The quantity _c_
shows how much of the labour of former years has been taken over towards
the product of the present year in the form of means of production.
Quantities _v + s_ show the value components of the product created by
new labour during the last year only; the relation between _v_ and _s_
finally shows us how the annual labour programme of society is
apportioned to the two tasks of maintaining the workers and maintaining
those who do not work. This analysis remains valid and correct also with
regard to the reproduction of individual capital, no matter what may be
the material form of the product this capital has created. All three,
_c_, _v_, and _s_, appear alike to a capitalist of the machinery
industry in the form of machinery and its parts; to the owner of a music
hall they are represented by the charms of the dancers and the skill of
the acrobats. So long as the product is left undifferentiated, _c_, _v_,
and _s_ differ from one another only in so far as they are _aliquot_
components of value. This is quite sufficient for the reproduction of
individual capital, as such reproduction begins with the value-form of
capital, a certain amount of money that has been gained by the
realisation of the manufactured product. The formula _c + v + s_ then is
the given basis for the division of this amount of money; one part for
the purchase of the material means of production, a second part for the
purchase of labour power, and a third part--in the case of simple
reproduction assumed in the first instance--for the capitalist's
personal consumption. In the case of expanding reproduction part three
is further subdivided, only a fraction of it being devoted to the
capitalist's personal consumption, the remainder to increasing his
capital. In order to reproduce his capital actually, the capitalist
must, of course, turn again to the commodity market with the capital he
has divided in this manner, so that he can acquire the material
prerequisites of production such as raw materials, instruments, and so
on. It seems a matter of course to the individual capitalist as well as
to his scientific ideologist, the 'vulgar economist', that he should in
fact find there just those means of production and labour power he needs
for his business.
The position is different as regards the total production of a society.
From the point of view of society as a whole, the exchange of
commodities can only effect a shifting around, whereby the individual
parts of the total product change hands. The material composition of the
product, however, cannot be changed by this process. After this change
of places, as well as before it, there can be reproduction of total
capital, if, and only if, there is in the total product of the preceding
period: first, a sufficient quantity of means of production, secondly,
adequate provisions to maintain the same amount of labour as hitherto,
and, last but not least, the goods necessary to maintain the capitalist
class and its hangers-on in a manner suitable to their station. This
brings us to a new plane: we are now concerned with material points of
view instead of pure relations of value. It is the use-form of the total
social product that matters now. What the individual capitalist
considers nobody else's business becomes a matter of grave concern for
the totality of capitalists. Whereas it does not make the slightest
difference to the individual capitalist whether he produces machinery,
sugar, artificial manure or a progressive newspaper--provided only that
he can find a buyer for his commodity so that he can get back his
capital plus surplus value--it matters infinitely to the 'total
capitalist' that his total product should have a definite use-form. By
that we mean that it must provide three essentials: the means of
production to renew the labour process, simple provisions for the
maintenance of the workers, and provisions of higher quality and luxury
goods for the preservation of the 'total capitalist' himself. His desire
in this respect is not general and vague, but determined precisely and
quantitatively. If we ask what quantities of all three categories are
required by the 'total capitalist', the value-composition of last year's
total product gives us a definite estimate, as long, that is, as we
confine ourselves to simple reproduction, which we have taken for our
starting point. Hitherto we have conceived of the formula _c + v + s_
as a merely quantitative division of the total value, applicable alike
to total capital and to individual capital, and representing the
quantity of labour contained in the annual product of society. Now we
see that the formula is also the basis of the material composition of
the product. Obviously the 'total capitalist', if he is to take up
reproduction to the same extent as before, must find in his new total
product as many means of production as correspond to the size of _c_, as
many simple provisions for the workers as correspond to the sum of wages
_v_, and as many provisions of better quality for himself and his
hangers-on as correspond to _s_. In this way our analysis of the value
of the society's aggregate product is translated into a general recipe
for this product as follows: the total _c_ of society must be
re-embodied in an equal quantity of means of production, the _v_ in
provisions for the workers, and the _s_ in provisions for the
capitalists, in order that simple reproduction may take place.
Here we come up against palpable differences between the individual
capitalist and the total capitalist. The manner in which the former
always reproduces his constant and variable capital as well as his
surplus value is such that all three parts are contained in the same
material form within his homogeneous product, that this material form,
moreover, is completely irrelevant and may have different qualities in
the case of each individual capitalist. The 'total capitalist', for his
part, reproduces every component of the value of his annual product in a
different material form, _c_ as means of production, _v_ as provisions
for the workers, and _s_ as provisions for the capitalists. In the case
of the reproduction of individual capitals, there is no discrepancy
between relations of value and material points of view. Besides, it is
quite clear that individual capital may concentrate on aspects of value,
accepting material conditions as a law from heaven, as self-evident
phenomena of commodity-exchange, whereas the 'total capitalist' has to
reckon with material points of view. If the total _c_ of society were
not reproduced annually in the form of an equal amount of means of
production, every individual capitalist would be doomed to search the
commodity market in vain with his _c_ realised in cash, unable to find
the requisite materials for his individual reproduction. From the point
of view of reproducing the total capital, the formula _c + v + s_ is
inadequate. This again is proof of the fact that the concept of total
capital is something real and does not merely paraphrase the concept of
production. We must, however, make general distinctions in our
exposition of total capital: instead of showing it as a homogeneous
whole, we must demonstrate its three main categories; and we shall not
vitiate our theory if, for the sake of simplicity, we consider for the
present only two departments of total capital: the production of
producer goods, and that of consumer goods for workers and capitalists.
We have to examine each department separately, adhering to the
fundamental conditions of capitalist production in each case. At the
same time, we must also emphasise the mutual connections between these
two departments from the point of view of reproduction. For only if each
is regarded in connection with the other, do they make up the basis of
the social capital as a whole.
We made a start by investigating individual capital. But we must
approach the demonstration of total capital and its total product in a
somewhat different manner. Quantitatively, as a quantity of value, the
_c_ of society consists precisely in the total of individual constant
capitals, and the same applies to the other amounts, _v_ and _s_. But
the outward shape of each has changed--the _c_ of constant capitals
re-emerges from the process of production as an element of value with
infinitely varied facets, comprising a host of variegated objects for
use, but in the total product it appears, as it were, contracted into a
certain quantity of means of production. Similarly with _v_ and _s_,
which in the case of the individual capitalist re-emerge as items in a
most colourful jumble of commodities, being provisions in adequate
quantities for the workers and capitalists. Adam Smith came very close
to recognising this fact when he observed that the categories of fixed
and circulating capital and of revenue in relation to the individual
capitalist do not coincide with these categories in the case of society.
We have come to the following conclusions:
(1) The formula _c + v + s_ serves to express the production of society
viewed as a whole, as well as the production of individual capitalists.
(2) Social production is divided into two departments, engaged in the
production of producer and consumer goods respectively.
(3) Both departments work according to capitalist methods, that is to
say they both aim at the production of surplus value, and thus the
formula _c + v + s_ will apply to each of them.
(4) The two departments are interdependent, and are therefore bound to
display a certain quantitative relationship, namely the one department
must produce all means of production, the other all provisions for the
workers and capitalists of both departments.
Proceeding from this point of view, Marx devised the following diagram
of capitalist reproduction:
I. _4,000c + 1,000v + 1,000s = 6,000_ means of production
II. _2,000c + 500v + 500s = 3,000_ articles of consumption.[86]
The figures in this diagram express quantities of value, amounts of
money which are chosen arbitrarily, but their ratios are exact. Each
department is characterised by the use-form of the commodities produced.
Their mutual circulation takes place as follows: Department I supplies
the means of production for the entire productive process, for itself as
well as for Department II. From this alone it follows that for the
undisturbed continuance of reproduction--for we still presume simple
reproduction on the old scale--the total produce of Department I (I
6,000) must have the same value as the sum of constant capitals in both
departments: (I 4,000_c_ + II 2,000_c_). Similarly, Department II
supplies provisions for the whole of society, for its own workers and
capitalists as well as for the workers and capitalists of Department I.
Hence it follows that for the undisturbed course of consumption and
production and its renewal on the old scale it is necessary that the
total quantity of provisions supplied by Department II should equal in
value all the incomes of the employed workers and capitalists of society
[here II 3,000 = I(_1,000v + 1,000s_) + II(_500v + 500s_)].
Here we have indeed expressed relationships of value which are the
foundation not only of capitalist reproduction but of reproduction in
every society. In every producing society, whatever its social form, in
the primitive small village community of the Bakairi of Brazil, in the
_oikos_ of a Timon of Athens with its slaves, or in the imperial
_corvée_ farm of Charlemagne, the labour power available for society
must be distributed in such a way that means of production as well as
provisions are produced in adequate quantities. The former must suffice
for the immediate production of provisions as well as for the future
renewal of the means of production themselves, and the provisions in
their turn must suffice for the maintenance of the workers occupied in
the production alike of these same provisions and of the means of
production, and moreover for the maintenance of all those who do not
work.
In its broad outline, Marx's scheme corresponds with the universal and
absolute foundation of social reproduction, with only the following
specifications: socially necessary labour appears here as value, the
means of production as constant capital, the labour necessary for the
maintenance of the workers as variable capital and that necessary for
the maintenance of those who do not work as surplus value.
In capitalist society, however, the connections between these two great
departments depend upon exchange of commodities, on the exchange of
equivalents. The workers and capitalists of Department I can only obtain
as many provisions from Department II as they can deliver of their own
commodities, the means of production. The demand of Department II for
means of production, on the other hand, is determined by the size of its
constant capital. It follows therefore that the sum of the variable
capital and of the surplus value in the production of producer goods
[here I(_1,000v + 1,000s_)] must equal the constant capital in the
production of provisions [here II(2,000_c_)].
An important proviso remains to be added to the above scheme. The
constant capital which has been spent by the two departments is in
reality only part of the constant capital used by society. This constant
capital is divided into two parts; the first is fixed capital--premises,
tools, labouring cattle--which functions in a number of periods of
production, in every one of which, however, only part of its value is
absorbed by the product, according to the amount of its wear and tear.
The second is circulating capital such as raw materials, auxiliary
semi-finished products, fuel and lighting--its whole value is completely
absorbed by the new product in every period of production. Yet only that
part of the means of production is relevant for reproduction which is
actually absorbed by the production of value; without becoming less
correct, an exact exposition of social circulation may disregard the
remaining part of the fixed capital which has not been absorbed by the
product, though it should not completely forget it. This is easy to
prove.
Let us assume that the constant capital, 6,000_c_, in the two
departments, which is in fact absorbed by the annual product of these
departments, consists of 1,500_c_ fixed and 4,500_c_ circulating
capital, the 1,500_c_ of fixed capital representing here the annual wear
and tear of the premises, machinery and labouring cattle. This annual
wear and tear equals, say, 10 per cent of the total value of the fixed
capital employed. Then the total social capital would really consist of
_19,500c + 1,500v_, the constant capital in both departments being
1,500_c_ of fixed and 4,500_c_ of circulating capital. Since the term of
life of the aggregate fixed capital, with a 10 per cent wear and tear,
is ten years _ex hypothesi_, the fixed capital needs renewal only after
the lapse of ten years. Meanwhile one-tenth of its value enters into
social production in every year. If all the fixed capital of a society,
with the same rate of wear and tear, were of equal durability, it would,
on our assumption, need complete renewal once within ten years. This,
however, is not the case. Some of the various use-forms which are part
of the fixed capital may last longer and others shorter, wear and tear
and duration of life are quite different in the different kinds and
individual representations of fixed capital. In consequence, fixed
capital need not be renewed--reproduced in its concrete use-form--all at
once, but parts of it are continually renewed at various stages of
social production, while other parts still function in their older form.
Our assumption of a fixed capital of 15,000_c_ with a 10 per cent rate
of wear and tear does not mean that this must be renewed all at once
every ten years, but that an annual average renewal and replacement must
be effected of a part of the total fixed social capital corresponding to
one-tenth of its value; that is to say, Department I which has to
satisfy the needs of society for means of production must reproduce,
year by year not only all its raw and partly finished materials, etc.,
its circulating capital to the value of 4,500, but must also reproduce
the use-forms of its fixed capital--premises, machinery, and the
like--to the extent of 1,500, corresponding with the annual wear and
tear of fixed capital. If Department I continues in this manner to renew
one-tenth of the fixed capital in its use-form every year, the result
will be that every ten years the total fixed capital of society will
have been replaced throughout by new items; thus it follows that the
reproduction of those parts disregarded so far is also completely
accounted for in the above scheme.
In practice, the procedure is that every capitalist sets aside from his
annual production, from the realisation of his commodities, a certain
amount for the redemption of his fixed capital. These individual annual
deductions must amount to a certain quantity of capital, therefore the
capitalist has in fact renewed his fixed capital, that is, he has
replaced it by new and more efficient items. This alternating procedure
of building up annual reserves of money for the renewal of fixed capital
and of the periodical employment of the accumulated amounts for the
actual renewal of fixed capital varies with the individual capitalist,
so that some are accumulating reserves, while others have already
started their renewals. Thus every year part of the fixed capital is
actually renewed. The monetary procedure here only disguises the real
process which characterises the reproduction of fixed capital.
On closer observation we see that this is as it should be. The whole of
the fixed capital takes part in the process of production, for
physically the mass of usable objects, premises, machinery, labouring
cattle, are completely employed. It is their peculiarity as fixed
capital, on the other hand, that only part of the value is absorbed in
the production of value, since in the process of reproduction (again
postulating simple reproduction), all that matters is to replace in
their natural form the values which have been actually used up as means
of subsistence and production during a year's production. Therefore,
fixed capital need only be reproduced to the extent that it has in fact
been used up in the production of commodities. The remaining portion of
value, embodied in the total use-form of fixed capital, is of decisive
importance for production as a labour process, but does not exist for
the annual reproduction of society as a process of value-formation.
Besides, this process which is here expressed by relations of value
applies equally to every society, even to a community which does not
produce commodities. If once upon a time, for instance, say ten years'
labour of 1,000 fellaheen was required for the construction of the
famous Lake Moeris and the related Nile canals--that miraculous lake,
which Herodotus tells us was made by hand--and if for the maintenance of
this, the most magnificent drainage system of the world, the labour of a
further 100 fellaheen was annually required (the figures, of course, are
chosen at random), we might say that after every hundred years the
Moeris dam and the canals were reproduced anew, although in fact the
entire system was not constructed as a whole in every century. This is
manifestly true. When, amid the stormy incidents of political history
and alien conquests, the usual crude neglect of old monuments of culture
set in--as displayed, e.g. by the English in India when the
reproductional needs of ancient civilisations were understood no
longer--then in the course of time the whole Lake Moeris, its water,
dikes and canals, the two pyramids in its midst, the colossus upon it
and other marvellous erections, disappeared without a trace, as though
they had never been built. Only ten lines in Herodotus, a dot on
Ptolemy's map of the world, traces of old cultures, and of villages and
cities bear witness that at one time rich life sprang from this
magnificent irrigation system, where to-day there are only stretches of
arid desert in inner Lybia, and desolate swamps along the coast. There
is only one point where Marx's scheme of simple reproduction may appear
unsatisfactory or incomplete in relation to constant capital, and that
is when we go back to that period of production, when the total fixed
capital was first created. Indeed, society possesses transformed labour
amounting to more than those parts of fixed capital which are absorbed
into the value of the annual product and are in turn replaced by it. In
the figures of our example the total social capital does not consist of
_6,000c + 1,500v_, as in the diagram, but of _19,500c + 1,500v_. Though
1,500 of the fixed capital (which, on our assumption, amounts to 15,000)
are annually reproduced in the form of appropriate means of production,
an equal amount is also consumed by the same production each year,
though the whole of the fixed capital as a use-form, an aggregate of
objects, has been renewed. After ten years, society possesses in the
eleventh, just as in any other year, a fixed capital of 15,000, whereas
it has annually achieved only 1,500_c_; and its constant capital as a
whole is 19,500, whereas it has created only 6,000. Obviously, since it
must have created this surplus of 13,500 fixed capital by its labour, it
possesses more accumulated past labour than our scheme of reproduction
warrants. Even at this stage, the annual labour of society must be based
on some previous annual labour that has been hoarded. This question of
past labour, however, as the foundation of all present labour, brings us
to the very first beginning which is as meaningless with regard to the
economic development of mankind as it is for the natural development of
matter. The scheme of reproduction grasps the social process as
perpetually in motion, as a link in the endless chain of events, it
neither wants to demonstrate its initial origin, nor should it do so.
The social reproductive process is always based on past labour, we may
trace it back as far as we like. Social labour has no beginning, just as
it has no end. Like the historical origin of Herodotus' Lake Moeris, the
beginnings of the reproductive process in the history of civilisation
are lost in the twilight of legend. With the progress of techniques and
with cultural development, the means of production change their form,
crude paleoliths are replaced by sharpened tools, stone implements by
elegant bronze and iron, the artisan's tool by steam-driven machinery.
Yet, though the means of production and the social organisation of the
productive process continually change their form, society already
possesses for its labour process a certain amount of past labour serving
as the basis for annual reproduction.
Under capitalist methods of production past labour of society preserved
in the means of production takes the form of capital, and the question
of the origin of this past labour which forms the foundation of the
reproductive process becomes the question of the genesis of capital.
This is much less legendary, indeed it is writ in letters of blood in
modern history. The very fact, however, that we cannot think of simple
reproduction unless we assume a hoard of past labour, surpassing in
volume the labour annually performed for the maintenance of society,
touches the sore spot of simple reproduction; and it shows that simple
reproduction is a fiction not only for capitalist production but also
for the progress of civilisation in general. If we merely wish to
understand this fiction properly, and to reduce it to a scheme, we must
presume, as its _sine qua non_, results of a past productive process
which cannot possibly be restricted to simple reproduction but
inexorably points towards enlarged reproduction. By way of illustration,
we might compare the aggregate fixed capital of society with a railway.
The durability and consequently the annual wear and tear of its various
parts is very different. Parts such as viaducts and tunnels may last for
centuries, steam engines for decades, but other rolling stock will be
used up in a short time, in some instances in a few months. Yet it is
possible to work out an average rate of wear and tear, say thirty years,
so that the value of the whole is annually depreciated by one thirtieth.
This loss of value is now continually made good by partial reproduction
of the railway (which may count as repairs), so that a coach is renewed
to-day, part of the engine to-morrow, and a section of sleepers the day
after. On our assumption then, the old railway is replaced by a new one
after thirty years, a similar amount of labour being performed each year
by the society so that simple reproduction takes place. But the railway
can only be reproduced in this manner--it cannot be so produced. In
order to make it fit for use and to make good its gradual wear and tear,
the railway must have been completed in the first place. Though the
railway can be repaired in parts, it cannot be made fit for use
piecemeal, an axle to-day and a coach to-morrow. Indeed, the very
essence of fixed capital is always to enter into the productive process
in its entirety, as a material use-value. In order to get this use-form
ready in the first place, society must apply a more concentrated amount
of labour to its manufacture. In terms of our example, the labour of
thirty years that is used for repairs, must be compressed into, say, two
or three years. During this period of manufacture, society must
therefore expend an amount of labour far greater than the average, that
is to say it must have recourse to expanding reproduction; later, when
the railway is finished, it may return to simple reproduction. Though we
need not visualise the aggregate fixed capital as a single coherent
use-object or a conglomeration of objects which must be produced all at
once, the manufacture of all the more important means of production,
such as buildings, transport facilities, and agricultural structures,
requires a more concentrated application of labour, and this is true for
the modern railway or steamship as much as it was for the rough
stone-axe and the handmill. Therefore it is only in theory that simple
reproduction can be conceived as alternating with enlarged reproduction;
the latter is not only a general condition of a progressive civilisation
and an expanding population, but also the _sine qua non_ for the
economic form of fixed capital, or those means of production which in
every society correspond to the fixed capital.
Marx deals with this conflict between the formation of fixed capital and
simple reproduction but indirectly, in connection with fluctuations in
the wear and tear of the fixed capital, more rapid in some years than in
others. Here he emphasises the need for perpetual 'over-production',
i.e. enlarged reproduction, since a strict policy of simple reproduction
would periodically lead to reproductive losses. In short, he regards
enlarged reproduction under the aspect of an insurance fund for the
fixed capital of the society, rather than in the light of the actual
productive process.[87]
In quite a different context Marx appears to endorse the opinion
expressed above. In _Theories on the Surplus Value_, vol ii, part 2,
analysing the conversion of revenue into capital, he speaks of the
peculiar reproduction of the fixed capital, the replacement of which in
itself already provides a fund for accumulation. He draws the following
conclusion:
'The point we have in mind is as follows: even if the aggregate capital
employed in machine manufacture were just large enough to make good the
annual wear and tear of the machines, many more machines could be
annually produced than are required, since the wear and tear is in parts
merely _idealiter_ and must be made good _realiter_, _in natura_, only
after a certain number of years. Capital so employed supplies each year
a mass of machinery which becomes available for, and anticipates new,
capital investments. Let us suppose, for instance, a machine
manufacturer who starts production this year. During this year, he
supplies machines for £12,000. If he were merely to reproduce the
machines he has manufactured, he would have to produce, during the
subsequent eleven years, machines for £1,000 only, and even then, a
year's production would not be consumed within the year. Still less
could it be consumed, if he were to employ the whole of his capital. To
keep this capital working, to keep it reproducing itself every year, a
new and continuous expansion of the branches of manufacture that require
these machines, is indispensable. This applies even more, if the
machine manufacturer himself accumulates. In consequence, even _if the
capital invested in one particular branch of production is simply being
reproduced_,[88] a continuous accumulation in the other branches of
production must go with it.'[89]
We might take the machine manufacturer of Marx's example as illustrating
the production of fixed capital. Then the inference is that if society
maintains simple reproduction in this sphere, employing each year a
similar amount of labour for the production of fixed capital (a
procedure which is, of course, impossible in practical life), then
annual production in all other spheres must expand. But if here, too,
simple reproduction is to be maintained, then, if the fixed capital once
created is to be merely renewed, only a small part of the labour
employed in its creation can be expended. Or, to put it the other way
round: if society is to provide for investment in fixed capital on a
large scale, it must, even assuming simple reproduction to prevail on
the whole, resort periodically to enlarged reproduction.
With the advance of civilisation, there are changes not only in the form
of the means of production but also in the quantity of value they
represent--or better, changes in the social labour stored up in them.
Apart from the labour necessary for its immediate preservation, society
has increasingly more labour time and labour power to spare, and it
makes use of these for the manufacture of means of production on an ever
increasing scale. How does this affect the process of reproduction? How,
in terms of capitalism, does society create out of its annual labour a
_greater_ amount of capital than it formerly possessed? This question
touches upon enlarged reproduction, and it is not yet time to deal with
it.