The flaw in Marx's analysis is, in our opinion, the misguided
formulation of the problem as a mere question of 'the sources of money',
whereas the real issue is the effective demand, the use made of goods,
not the source of the money which is paid for them. As to money as a
means of circulation: when considering the reproductive process as a
whole, we must assume that capitalist society must always dispose of
money, or a substitute, in just that quantity that is needed for its
process of circulation. What has to be explained is the great social
transaction of exchange, caused by real economic needs. While it is
important to remember that capitalist surplus value must invariably pass
through the money stage before it can be accumulated, we must
nevertheless try to track down the economic demand for the surplus
product, quite apart from the puzzle where the money comes from. As Marx
himself says in another passage:
'The money on one side in that case calls forth expanded reproduction on
the other, because the possibility for it exists without the money. For
money in itself is not an element of actual reproduction.'[133]
And in a different context, Marx actually shows the question about the
'sources of money' to be a completely barren formulation of the problem
of accumulation.
In fact, he had come up against this difficulty once before when
examining the process of circulation. Still dealing with simple
reproduction, he had asked, in connection with the circulation of the
surplus value:
'But the commodity capital must be monetised before its conversion into
productive capital, or before the surplus-value contained in it can be
spent. Where does the money for this purpose come from? This question
seems difficult at the first glance, and neither Tooke nor anyone else
has answered it so far.'[134]
And he was then quite uncompromising about getting to the root of the
matter: 'The circulating capital of 500 p.st. advanced in the form of
money-capital, whatever may be its period of turn-over, may now stand
for the total capital of society, that is to say, of the capitalist
class. Let the surplus-value be 100 p.st. How can the entire capitalist
class manage to draw continually 600 p.st. out of the circulation, when
they continually throw only 500 p.st. into it?'[135]
All that, mind you, refers to simple reproduction, where the entire
surplus value is used for the personal consumption of the capitalist
class. The question should therefore from the outset have been put more
precisely in this form: how can the capitalists secure for themselves
consumer goods to the amount of £100 surplus value on top of putting
£500 into circulation for constant and variable capital? It is
immediately obvious that those £500 which, in form of capital, always
serve to buy means of production and to pay the workers, cannot
simultaneously defray the expense of the capitalists' personal
consumption. Where, then, does the additional money come from?--the £100
the capitalists need to realise their own surplus value? Thus all
theoretical dodges one might devise for this point are summarily
disposed of by Marx right away:
'It should not be attempted to avoid this difficulty by plausible
subterfuges.
'For instance: So far as the constant circulating capital is concerned,
it is obvious that not all invest it simultaneously. While the
capitalist A sells his commodities so that his advanced capital assumes
the form of money, there is on the other hand, the available
money-capital of the buyer B which assumes the form of his means of
production which A is just producing. The same transaction, which
restores that of B to its productive form, transforms it from money into
materials of production and labour-power; the same amount of money
serves in the two-sided process as in every simple purchase C-M. On the
other hand, when A reconverts his money into means of production, he
buys from C, and this man pays B with it, etc., and thus the transaction
would be explained.
'But none of the laws referring to the quantity of the circulating
money, which have been analysed in the circulation of commodities (vol.
i, chap, iii), are in any way changed by the capitalist character of the
process of production.
'Hence, when we have said that the circulating capital of society, to be
advanced in the form of money, amounts to 500 p.st., we have already
accounted for the fact that this is on the one hand the sum
simultaneously advanced, and that, on the other hand, it sets in motion
more productive capital than 500 p.st., because it serves alternately as
the money fund of different productive capitals. This mode of
explanation, then, assumes that money as existing whose existence it is
called upon to explain.
'It may be furthermore said: Capitalist A produces articles which
capitalist B consumes unproductively, individually. The money of B
therefore monetises the commodity-capital of A, and thus the same amount
serves for the monetisation of the surplus-value of B and the
circulating constant capital of A. But in that case, the solution of the
question to be solved is still more directly assumed, the question:
Whence does B get the money for the payment of his revenue? How does he
himself monetise this surplus-portion of his product?
'It might also be answered that that portion of the circulating variable
capital, which A continually advances to his labourers, flows back to
him continually from the circulation, and only an alternating part stays
continually tied up for the payment of wages. But a certain time elapses
between the expenditure and the reflux, and meanwhile the money paid out
for wages might, among other uses, serve for the monetisation of
surplus-value. But we know, in the first place, that, the greater the
time, the greater must be the supply of money which the capitalist A
must keep continually in reserve. In the second place, the labourer
spends the money, buys commodities for it, and thus monetises to that
extent the surplus-value contained in them. Without penetrating any
further into the question at this point, it is sufficient to say that
the consumption of the entire capitalist class, and of the unproductive
persons dependent upon it, keeps step with that of the labouring class;
so that, simultaneously with the money thrown into circulation by the
labouring class, the capitalists must throw money into it, in order to
spend their surplus-value as revenue. Hence money must be withdrawn from
circulation for it. This explanation would merely reduce the quantity of
money required, but not do away with it.
'Finally it might be said: A large amount of money is continually thrown
into circulation when fixed capital is first invested, and it is not
recovered from the circulation until after the lapse of years, by him
who threw it into circulation. May not this sum suffice to monetise the
surplus-value? The answer to this is that the employment as fixed
capital, if not by him who threw it into circulation, then by some one
else, is probably implied in the sum of 500 p.st. (which includes the
formation of a hoard for needed reserve funds). Besides, it is already
assumed in the amount expended for the purchase of products serving as
fixed capital, that the surplus-value contained in them is also paid,
and the question is precisely, where the money for this purpose came
from.'[136]
This parting shot, by the way, is particularly noteworthy in that Marx
here expressly repudiates the attempt to explain realisation of the
surplus value, even in the case of simple reproduction, by means of a
hoard formed for the periodical renewal of fixed capital. Later on, with
a view to realising the surplus value under the much more difficult
conditions of accumulation, he makes more than one tentative effort to
substantiate an explanation of this type which he himself dismissed as a
'plausible subterfuge'.
Then follows a solution which has a somewhat disconcerting ring: 'The
general reply has already been given: When a mass of commodities valued
at _x_ times 1,000 p.st. has to circulate, it changes absolutely nothing
in the quantity of the money required for this circulation, whether this
mass of commodities contains any surplus-value or not, and whether this
mass of commodities has been produced capitalistically or not. In other
words, _the problem itself does not exist_. All other conditions being
given, such as velocity of circulation of money, etc., a definite sum of
money is required in order to circulate the value of commodities worth
_x_ times 1,000 p.st., quite independently of the fact how much or how
little of this value falls to the share of the direct producers of
these commodities. So far as any problem exists here, it coincides with
the general problem: Where does all the money required for the
circulation of the commodities of a certain country come from?'[137]
The argument is quite sound. The answer to the general question about
the origin of the money for putting a certain quantity of commodities
into circulation within a country will also tell us where the money for
circulating the surplus value comes from. The division of the bulk of
value contained in these commodities into constant and variable capital,
and surplus value, does not exist from the angle of the circulation of
money--in this connection, it is quite meaningless. But it is only from
the angle of the circulation of money, or of a simple commodity
circulation, that the problem has no existence. Under the aspect of
social reproduction as a whole, it is very real indeed; but it should
not, of course, be put in that misleading form that brings us back to
simple commodity circulation, where it has no meaning. We should not
ask, accordingly: Where does the money required for realising the
surplus value come from? but: Where are the consumers for this surplus
value? It is they, for sure, who must have this money in hand in order
to throw it into circulation. Thus, Marx himself, although he just now
denied the problem to exist, keeps coming back to it time and again:
'Now, there are only two points of departure: The capitalist and the
labourer. All third classes of persons must either receive money for
their services from these two classes, or, to the extent that they
receive it without any equivalent services, they are joint owners of the
surplus-value in the form of rent, interest, etc. The fact that the
surplus-value does not all stay in the pocket of the industrial
capitalist, but must be shared by him with other persons, has nothing to
do with the present question. The question is: How does he maintain his
surplus-value, not, how does he divide the money later after he has
secured it? For the present case, the capitalist may as well be regarded
as the sole owner of his surplus-value. As for the labourer it has
already been said that he is but the secondary point of departure, while
the capitalist is the primary starting point of the money thrown by the
labourer into circulation. The money first advanced as variable capital
is going through its second circulation, when the labourer spends it
for the payment of means of subsistence.
'The capitalist class, then, remains the sole point of departure of the
circulation of money. If they need 400 p.st. for the payment of means of
production, and 100 p.st. for the payment of labour-power, they throw
500 p.st. into circulation. But the surplus-value incorporated in the
product, with a rate of surplus-value of 100 per cent, is equal to the
value of 100 p.st. How can they continually draw 600 p.st. out of
circulation, when they continually throw only 500 p.st. into it? From
nothing comes nothing. The capitalist class as a whole cannot draw out
of circulation what was not previously in it.'[138]
Marx further explodes another device which might conceivably be thought
adequate to the problem, i.e. a more rapid turnover of money enabling a
larger amount of value to circulate by means of a smaller amount of
money. The dodge will not work, of course, since the velocity of money
in circulation is already taken into account by equating the aggregate
bulk of commodities with a certain number of pounds sterling. But then
at last we seem in sight of a proper solution:
'Indeed, paradoxical as it may appear at first sight, it is the
capitalist class itself that throws the money into circulation which
serves for the realisation of the surplus-value incorporated in the
commodities. But, mark well, it is not thrown into circulation as
advanced money, not as capital. The capitalist class spends it for their
individual consumption. The money is not advanced by them, although they
are the point of departure of its circulation.'[139]
This lucid and comprehensive account is the best evidence that the
problem is not just imaginary but very real. It provides a solution, not
by disclosing a new 'source of money' for the realisation of the surplus
value, but by pointing out at last the consumers of this surplus value.
We are still, on Marx's assumption, within the bounds of simple
reproduction; the capitalist class, that is to say, use the whole of
their surplus value for personal consumption. Since the capitalists are
the consumers of surplus value, it is not so much a paradox as a truism
that they must, in the nature of things, possess the money for
appropriating the objects of consumption, the natural form of this
surplus value. The circulatory transaction of exchange is the necessary
consequence of the fact that the individual capitalist cannot
immediately consume his individual surplus value, and accordingly the
individual surplus product, as could, for instance, the employer of
slave labour. As a rule the natural material form of the surplus product
tends to preclude such use. The aggregate surplus value of the
capitalists in general is, however, contained in the total social
product--as long as there is simple reproduction--as expressed by a
corresponding quantity of consumer goods for the capitalist class, just
as the sum total of variable capital has its corresponding equivalent in
the quantity of consumer goods for the working class, and as the
constant capital of all individual capitalists taken together is
represented by material means of production in an equivalent quantity.
In order to exchange the unconsumable individual surplus values for a
corresponding amount of consumer goods, a double transaction of
commodity exchange is needed: first, the sale of one's own surplus
product and then the purchase of consumer goods out of the surplus
product of society. These two transactions can only take place among
members of the capitalist class, among individual capitalists, which
means that their agent, the money, thereby merely changes hands as
between one capitalist and another without ever being alienated from the
capitalist class in general. Since simple reproduction inevitably
implies the exchange of equivalents, one and the same amount of money
can serve year by year for the circulation of the surplus value, and
only an excess of zeal will inspire the further query: where does the
money which mediates the capitalists' own consumption come from in the
first place? This, question, however, reduces to a more general one: how
did money capital initially come into the hands of the capitalists, that
money capital of which they always retain a certain part for their
personal consumption, apart from what they use for productive
investment? Put in this way, however, the question belongs in the
chapter of so-called 'primitive accumulation', i.e. the historical
genesis of capital, going beyond the framework of an analysis of the
process of circulation as well as of reproduction.
Thus the fact is clear and unequivocal--so long as we remain within the
bounds of simple reproduction. Here the problem is solved by the
premises themselves; in fact, the solution is already anticipated by
the very concept of simple reproduction which indeed is based on the
entire surplus value being consumed by the capitalist class. This
implies that it must also be the latter who buy it, that is to say,
individual capitalists must buy it from each other.
'In the present case', Marx says himself, 'we had assumed, that the sum
of money which the capitalist throws into circulation until the first
surplus-value flows back to him, is exactly equal to the surplus-value
which he is going to produce and monetise. This is obviously an
arbitrary assumption, so far as, the individual capitalist is concerned.
But it must be correct when applied to the entire capitalist class, when
simple reproduction is assumed. It expresses the same thing that this
assumption does, namely, that the entire surplus-value is consumed
unproductively, but it only, not any portion of the original capital
stock.'[140]
But simple reproduction on a capitalist basis is after all an imaginary
quantity in economic theory: no more and no less legitimate, and quite
as unavoidable as [sqrt](-1) in mathematics. What is worse, it cannot
offer any help at all with the problem of realising the surplus value in
real life, i.e. with regard to enlarged reproduction or accumulation.
Marx himself says so for a second time in the further development of his
analysis.
Where does the money for realising the surplus value come from if there
is accumulation, i.e. not consumption but capitalisation of part of the
surplus value? Marx's first answer is as follows:
'In the first place, the additional money-capital required for the
function of the increasing productive capital is supplied by that
portion of the realised surplus-value which is thrown into circulation
by the capitalists as money-capital, not as the money form of their
revenue. The money is already present in the hands of the capitalists.
Only its employment is different.'[141]
Our investigation of the reproductive process has already made us
familiar with this explanation, and we are equally familiar with its
defects; for one thing, the answer rests on the moment of the first
transition from simple reproduction to accumulation. The capitalists
only yesterday consumed their entire surplus value, and thus had in hand
an appropriate amount of money for their circulation. To-day they decide
to 'save' part of the surplus value and to invest it productively
instead of squandering it. Provided that material means of production
were manufactured instead of luxury goods, they need only put part of
their personal money fund to a different use. But the transition from
simple reproduction to expanded reproduction is no less a theoretical
fiction than simple reproduction of capital itself, for which reason
Marx immediately goes on to say:
'Now, by means of the additional productive capital, its product, an
additional quantity of commodities, is thrown into circulation. Together
with this additional quantity of commodities, a portion of the
additional money required for its circulation is thrown into
circulation, so far as the value of this mass of commodities is equal to
that of the productive capital consumed in their production. This
additional quantity of money has precisely been advanced as an
additional money-capital, and therefore it flows back to the capitalist
through the turn-over of his capital. Here the same question reappears,
which we met previously. Where does the additional money come from, by
which the additional surplus-value now contained in the form of
commodities is to be realised?'[142]
The problem could not be put more precisely. But instead of a solution,
there follows the surprising conclusion:
'The general reply is again the same. The sum total of the prices of the
commodities has been increased, not because the prices of a given
quantity of commodities have risen, but because the mass of the
commodities now circulating is greater than that of the previously
circulating commodities, and because this increase has not been offset
by a fall in prices. The additional money required for the circulation
of this greater quantity of commodities of greater value must be
secured, either by greater economy in the circulating quantity of
money--whether by means of balancing payments, etc., or by some measure
which accelerates the circulation of the same coins,--or by the
transformation of money from the form of a hoard into that of a
circulating medium.'[143]
All this amounts to an exposition along these lines: under conditions of
developing and growing accumulation, capitalist reproduction dumps ever
larger masses of commodity values on the market. To put this commodity
mass of a continually increasing value into circulation requires an ever
larger amount of money. This increasing amount of money must be found
somehow or other. All this is, no doubt, plausible and correct as far as
it goes, but our problem is not solved, it is merely wished away.
One thing or the other! Either we regard the aggregate social product in
a capitalist economy simply as a mass, a conglomeration of commodities
of a certain value, seeing under conditions of accumulation, a mere
increase in this undifferentiated mass of commodities and in the bulk of
its value. Then all we need say is that a corresponding quantity of
money is required for circulating this bulk of value, that with an
increasing bulk of value the quantity of money must also increase,
unless this growth of value is offset by acceleration of, and economy
in, the traffic. And the final question, where does all money originally
come from, could then be answered on Marx's recipe: from the gold mines.
This, of course, is one way of looking at things, that of simple
commodity circulation. But in that case there is no need to drag in
concepts such as constant and variable capital, or surplus value, which
have no place in simple commodity circulation, belonging essentially to
the circulation of capitals and to social reproduction; nor is there
need to inquire for sources of money for the realisation of the social
surplus value under conditions of first simple, and then enlarged,
reproduction. Under the aspect of simple commodity circulation puzzles
of this kind are without meaning or content. But once these questions
have been raised, once the course has been set for an investigation into
the circulation of capitals and social reproduction, there can be no
appealing to the sphere of simple commodity circulation, where there is
no such problem at all, and consequently no solution to it. There can be
no looking for the answer there, and then saying triumphantly that the
problem has long been solved and in fact never really existed.
All this time, it appears, Marx has been tackling the problem from a
wrong approach. No intelligent purpose can be served by asking for the
source of the money needed to realise the surplus value. The question is
rather where the demand can arise--to find an effective demand for the
surplus value. If the problem had been put in this way at the start, no
such long-winded detours would have been needed to show whether it can
be solved or not. On the basis of simple reproduction, the matter is
easy enough: since all surplus value is consumed by the capitalists,
they themselves are the buyers and provide the full demand for the
social surplus value, and by the same token they must also have the
requisite cash in hand for circulation of the surplus value. But in this
showing it is quite evident that under conditions of accumulation, i.e.
of capitalisation of part of the surplus value, it cannot, _ex
hypothesi_, be the capitalists themselves who buy the entire surplus
value, that they cannot possibly realise it. True, if the capitalised
surplus value is to be realised at all, money must be forthcoming in
adequate quantities for its realisation. But it is quite impossible that
this money should come from the purse of the capitalist class itself.
Just because accumulation is postulated, the capitalists cannot buy
their surplus value themselves, even though they might, _in abstracto_,
have the money to do so. But who else could provide the demand for the
commodities incorporating the capitalised surplus value?
'Apart from this class (the capitalists), there is, according to our
assumption--the general and exclusive domination of capitalist
production--no other class but the working class. All that the working
class buys is equal to the sum total of its wages, equal to the sum
total of the variable capital advanced by the entire capitalist
class.'[144]
The workers, then, are even less able than the capitalist class to
realise the capitalised surplus value. Somebody must buy it, if the
capitalists are still to be able to recover the capital they have
accumulated and advanced; and yet--we cannot think of any buyers other
than capitalists and workers. 'How can the entire capitalist class
accumulate money under such circumstances?'[144]
Realisation of the surplus value outside the only two existing classes
of society appears as indispensable as it looks impossible. The
accumulation of capital has been caught in a vicious circle. At any
rate, the second volume of _Capital_ offers no way out.
If we should now ask why Marx's _Capital_ affords no solution to this
important problem of the accumulation of capital, we must bear in mind
above all that this second volume is not a finished whole but a
manuscript that stops short half way through.
The external form of its last chapters in particular proves them to be
in the nature of notes, intended to clear the author's own mind, rather
than final conclusions ready for the reader's enlightenment. This fact
is amply authenticated by the man best in the position to know:
Friedrich Engels, who edited the second volume. In his introduction to
the second volume he reports in detail on the conditions of the
preliminary studies and the manuscripts Marx had left, which were to
form the basis of this volume:
'The mere enumeration of the manuscripts left by Marx as a basis for
Volume II proves the unparalleled conscientiousness and strict
self-criticism which he practised in his endeavour to fully elaborate
his great economic discoveries before he published them. This
self-criticism rarely permitted him to adapt his presentation of the
subject, in content as well as in form, to his ever widening horizon,
which he enlarged by incessant study.
'The material ... consists of the following parts: First, a manuscript
entitled "A contribution to the Critique of Political Economy",
containing 1,472 quarto pages in 23 divisions, written in the time from
August, 1861, to June, 1863. It is a continuation of the work of the
same title, the first volume of which appeared in Berlin, in 1859....
This manuscript, valuable though it is, could not be used in the present
edition of Volume II.
'The manuscript next following in the order of time is that of Volume
III....
'The period after the publication of Volume I, which is next in order,
is represented by a collection of four manuscripts for Volume II, marked
I-IV by Marx himself. Manuscript I (150 pages) presumably written in
1865 or 1867, is the first independent, but more or less fragmentary,
elaboration of the questions now contained in Volume II. This manuscript
is likewise unsuited for this edition. Manuscript III is partly a
compilation of quotations and references to the manuscripts containing
Marx's extracts and comments, most of them relating to the first section
of Volume II, partly an elaboration of special points, particularly a
critique of Adam Smith's statements as to fixed and circulating capital
and the source of profits; furthermore, a discussion of the relations
of the rate of surplus-value to the rate of profit, which belongs in
Volume III. The references furnished little that was new, while the
elaborations for Volumes II and III were rendered valueless through
subsequent revisions and had to be ruled out for the greater part.
Manuscript IV is an elaboration, ready for printing, of the first
section and the first chapters of the second section of Volume II, and
has been used in its proper place. Although it was found that this
manuscript had been written earlier than Manuscript II, yet it was far
more finished in form and could be used with advantage for the
corresponding part of this volume. I had to add only a few supplementary
parts of Manuscript II. This last manuscript is the only fairly
completed elaboration of Volume II and dates from the year 1870. The
notes for the final revision, which I shall mention immediately, say
explicitly: "The second elaboration must be used as a basis."
'There is another interruption after 1870, due mainly to ill health.
Marx employed this time in his customary way, that is to say he studied
agronomics, agricultural conditions in America and especially Russia,
the money market and banking institutions, and finally natural sciences,
such as geology and physiology. Independent mathematical studies also
form a large part of the numerous manuscripts of this period. In the
beginning of 1877, Marx had recovered sufficiently to resume once more
his chosen life's work. The beginning of 1877 is marked by references
and notes from the above named four manuscripts intended for a new
elaboration of Volume II, the beginning of which is represented by
Manuscript V (56 pages in folio). It comprises the first four chapters
and is not very fully worked out. Essential points are treated in
footnotes. The material is rather collected than sifted, but it is the
last complete presentation of this most important first section. A
preliminary attempt to prepare this part for the printer was made in
Manuscript VI (after October, 1877, and before July, 1878), embracing 17
quarto pages, the greater part of the first chapter. A second and last
attempt was made in Manuscript VII, dated July 2, 1878, and consisting
of 7 pages in folio.
'About this time Marx seems to have realised that he would never be able
to complete the second and third volume in a manner satisfactory to
himself, unless a complete revolution in his health took place.
Manuscripts V-VIII show traces of hard struggles against depressing
physical conditions far too frequently to be ignored. The most difficult
part of the first section had been worked over in Manuscript V. The
remainder of the first, and the entire second section, with the
exception of Chapter 17, presented no great theoretical difficulties.
But the third section, dealing with the reproduction and circulation of
social capital, seemed to be very much in need of revision. Manuscript
II, it must be pointed out, had first treated of this reproduction
without regard to the circulation which is instrumental in effecting it,
and then taken up the same question with regard to circulation. It was
the intention of Marx to eliminate this section and to reconstruct it in
such a way that it would conform to his wider grasp of the subject. This
gave rise to Manuscript VIII, containing only 70 pages in quarto. A
comparison with Section III, as printed after deducting the paragraphs
inserted out of Manuscript II, shows the amount of matter compressed by
Marx into this space.
'Manuscript VIII is likewise merely a preliminary presentation of the
subject, and its main object was to ascertain and develop the new points
of view not set forth in Manuscript II, while those points were ignored
about which there was nothing new to say. An essential part of Chapter
17, Section II, which is more or less relevant to Section III, was at
the same time drawn into this discussion and expanded. The logical
sequence was frequently interrupted, the treatment of the subject was
incomplete in various places, and especially the conclusion was very
fragmentary. But Marx expressed as nearly as possible what he intended
to say on the subject.
'This is the material for Volume II, out of which I was supposed "to
make something", as Marx said to his daughter Eleanor shortly before his
death.'[145]
We cannot but admire this 'something' which Engels managed to 'make'
from material of such a kind. As far as our present problem is
concerned, however, this detailed report makes it clear that no more
than the first two of the three sections that make up volume ii were
anything like ready for print in the manuscripts Marx left: the section
'On the Circulation of Money and Commodity Capital' and on 'The Causes
of Circulation and the Turnover of Capital'. The third section which
treats of the reproduction of total capital is merely a collection of
fragments which Marx himself considered to be 'very much in need of
revision.' Yet it is the last part of this section, i.e. chapter 21, 'On
Accumulation and Enlarged Reproduction', which is of primary importance
in the present context, and of the whole book this is the most
incomplete. It comprises thirty-five pages of print in all and breaks
off right in the middle of the analysis.
Besides this extraneous circumstance, we would suggest another point of
great influence. Marx's investigation of the social reproductive process
starts off, as we have seen, from the analysis of Adam Smith which came
to grief, among other reasons, because of the erroneous doctrine that
the price of all commodities is composed of _v + s_. Polemics against
this dogma dominated Marx's entire analysis of the reproductive process.
He devoted all his attention to proving that the total capital of
society must serve, not only for consumption to the full amount of the
various sources of revenue, but also for renewal of the constant
capital. And inasmuch as the purest theoretical form for this line of
reasoning is given, not by enlarged reproduction, but by simple
reproduction, Marx tends to consider reproduction mainly from a point of
view that is the very opposite of accumulation, from the assumption that
the entire surplus value is consumed by the capitalists. How greatly
these polemics influenced his analysis is proved by his returning time
and again in the course of his work to the attack on Adam Smith from the
most various angles. So already in volume i, the following pages are
devoted to it: vol. i, sect. 7, chap. 24, (2), pp. 588-602, and in vol.
ii, pp. 417-56, p. 473, pp. 504-8, and pp. 554 f.
Marx again takes up the question of total reproduction in volume iii but
from the start becomes once more involved with the problem set by Smith
to which he devotes the whole of his 49th chapter and most of chapter 50
(pp. 968-92 and 992-1022). Finally, in _Theorien ueber den Mehrwert_, we
again find detailed polemics against Smith's dogma: pp. 164-253 in vol.
i, and pp. 92, 95, 126, 233, and 262 in vol. ii, part 2. Marx repeatedly
stressed and emphasised the fact that he considered replacement of the
constant capital from the aggregate social product the most difficult
and important problem of reproduction.[146] The other problem, that of
accumulation, i.e. realisation of the surplus value for the purpose of
capitalisation, was thus pushed into the background, so that in the end
Marx hardly touched upon it.
This problem being of such paramount importance for capitalist economy,
it is not surprising that bourgeois economists have dealt with it again
and again. Attempts to grapple with this vital question for capitalist
economy, with the question whether capital accumulation is possible in
practice, come up time and again in the history of economic theory. To
these historical attempts, before and after Marx, at solving this
problem we shall now turn.