登陆注册
4810500000008

第8章

The other economic feats performed by Rodbertus are on about the same plane. His elaboration of surplus-value into a utopia has already been unintentionally criticised by Marx in his Poverty of Philosophy. What else may be said about it I have said in my preface to the German edition of that work. Rodbertus's explanation of commercial crises as outgrowths of the underconsumption of the working-class may already be found in Sismondi's Nouveaux Principes de I'Economie Politique , book IV, ch. IV. [3] However, Sismondi always had the world-market in mind, while Rodbertus's horizon does not extend beyond the Prussian border. His speculations as to whether wages are derived from capital or income belong to the domain of scholasticism and are definitely settled in Part III of this second book of Capital . His theory of rent has remained his exclusive property and may rest in peace until the manuscript of Marx criticising it is published.

Finally his suggestions for the emancipation of the old Prussian landed property from the oppression of Capital are also entirely utopian;for they evade the only practical question raised in this connection, viz.:

How can the old Prussian landed junker have a yearly income of, say, 20,000marks and a yearly expenditure of, say, 30,000 marks, without running into debt?

The Ricardian school suffered shipwreck about the year 1830 on the rock of surplus-value. And what this school could not solve remained still more insoluble for its successor, Vulgar Economy. The two points which caused its failure were these:

1. Labour is the measure of value. However, living labour in its exchange with capital has a lower value than materialised labour for which it is exchanged. Wages, the value of a definite quantity of living labour, are always less than the value of the product begotten by this same quantity of living labour or in which this quantity is embodied. The question is indeed insoluble, if put in this form. It has been correctly formulated by Marx and thereby been answered. It is not labour which has a value.

As an activity which creates values it can no more have any special value than gravity can have any special weight, heat any special temperature, electricity any special strength of current. It is not labour which is bought and sold as a commodity, but labour- power . As soon as labour-power becomes a commodity, its value is determined by the labour embodied in this commodity as a social product. This value is equal to the labour socially necessary for the production and reproduction of this commodity. Hence the purchase and sale of labour-power on the basis of its value thus defined does not at all contradict the economic law of value.

2. According to the Ricardian law of value, two capitals employing equal quantities of equally paid living labour all other conditions being equal, produce commodities of equal value and likewise surplus-value, or profit, of equal quantity in equal periods of time. But if they employ unequal quantities of living labour, they cannot produce equal surplus-values, or, as the Ricardians say, equal profits. Now in reality the opposite takes place. In actual fact, equal capitals, regardless of how much or how little living labour is employed by them, produce equal average profits in equal times. Here there is therefore a contradiction of the law of value which had been noticed by Ricardo himself, but which his school also was unable to reconcile. Rodbertus likewise could not but note this contradiction.

But instead of resolving it, he made it one of the starting-points of his utopia. ( Zur Erkenntnis , p. 131.) Marx had resolved this contradiction already in the manuscript of his Zur Kritik . According to the plan of Capital , this solution will be provided in Book III. Months will pass before that will be published. Hence those economists who claim to have discovered in Rodbertus the secret source and a superior predecessor of Marx have now an opportunity to demonstrate what the economics of a Rodbertus can accomplish. If they can show in which way an equal average rate of profit can and must come about, not only without a violation of the law of value, but on the very basis of it, I am willing to discuss the matter further with them. In the meantime they had better make haste.

The brilliant investigations of the present Book II and their entirely new results in fields hitherto almost untrod are merely introductory to the contents of Book III, which develops the final conclusions of Marx's analysis of the process of social reproduction on a capitalist basis. When this Book III appears, little mention will be made of the economist called Rodbertus.

The second and third books of Capital were to be dedicated as Marx had stated repeatedly, to his wife.

Frederick Engels London, on Marx's birthday, May 5, 1885Preface to the Second Edition The present second edition is, in the main, a faithful reprint of the first. Typographical errors have been corrected, a few stylistic blemishes eliminated, and a few short paragraphs that contain only repetitions struck out.

The third book, which presented quite unforseen difficulties, is now also nearly ready in manuscript. If my health holds out it will be ready for press this autumn. [RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE]

F. Engels London, 15 July 1893

NOTES

1. In the Preface to Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy, translated by E. Bernstein and K. Kautsky, Stuttgart, 1885. [RETURNTO TEXT]

2. Roscoe and Schorlemmer, Ausführiches Lehrbuch der Chemie , Braunschweig, 1877, I, pp. 13, 18. [RETURNTO TEXT]

3. 'Thus the home market becomes ever more constricted by the concentration of riches in the hands of a small number of proprietors, and industry is forced more and more to seek its outlets in foreign markets, where still greater revolutions await it' (i.e. the crisis of 1817, which Sismondi goes on to describe). 1819 edition, I, p. 336. [RETURNTO TEXT]

同类推荐
  • 龙门心法

    龙门心法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 治安疏

    治安疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The House Behind The Cedars

    The House Behind The Cedars

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大毗卢遮那佛眼修行仪轨

    大毗卢遮那佛眼修行仪轨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 江城名迹

    江城名迹

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 华阳巾

    华阳巾

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 校草一打请笑纳

    校草一打请笑纳

    平昊街的霸王花苏保保,在情窦初开的年纪里,每个月都会收到神秘礼物,那个署名Q的人,如清风朗月一般走进了她的心。然而,因为祖辈的一个约定,她成为了美集集团的太子爷龙千秋的未婚妻。只是两人,似乎八字不合,从第一次见面起,就成了冤家……贵族学院圣安,苏保保,龙千秋,穆南倾,神秘的Q先生……斩不断的桃花劫,正呵呵傻笑着……
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 美漫从港片开始

    美漫从港片开始

    陈浩南手持血饮狂刀,从街头砍到巷尾,一战成名!青年督察刘杰辉,左手麒麟臂,右手排云掌,专治极恶!超级警察程家驹,拼死救助神秘小孩,得超凡力量,飞龙再生!这是一个融合无数港片的漫威世界!故事从《力王》开始……【南山雅客群337017522】
  • 女儿国的搬运工

    女儿国的搬运工

    韩飞穿越到了女儿国,本来以为这必定是一场香艳无比,从此走上人生巅峰的逆天穿越之旅。然而,很快韩飞就发现自己想多了……女儿国内忧外患,竟然生存在野蛮之地,内战不断,强敌环伺,这里有身披铠甲,手持大刀的御姐将军,有黄袍加身,号令天下的女皇,作为穿越过来的韩飞,竟然发现自己只是个地位低下,还正处于战争期间的搬运工……为了活命,也为了热血,韩飞紧抱女神大腿,搞生产,抓科技,提军事,看韩飞这个搬运工,如何逐步成为女神的贴身国师,带着女儿国,征服蛮兽,掀翻帝国,成就宇内大业……
  • 江湖浪子游

    江湖浪子游

    他想要离开江湖,却无法离开。一日江湖人,终生江湖魂。这是江湖人的悲哀,也是诅咒。于是他走遍这江湖,看遍这江湖里的人和事。做一个他人生命里的过客。只为打破这诅咒,寻找那一份逍遥。
  • 童年

    童年

    《童年》是高尔基的自传体长篇小说三部曲的第一部,其他两部是《在人间》和《我的大学》。作者以童年时的生活为素材,描写了俄国十九世纪七八十年代的生活,表现了这一时期俄罗斯劳动人民的生活艰辛困苦。也描写了人们对新生活充满希望的追求。
  • 嘿你到底喜欢我吗

    嘿你到底喜欢我吗

    初夏暗恋一个人,虽然,已多年未见。易安喜欢一个女孩,只是,总是被她的态度判断的前后不定。文案无能啊!
  • 总裁夫人要和你离婚

    总裁夫人要和你离婚

    她20岁,他28岁。某天,他把她按在墙上说:“宝贝,你说过要嫁给我的!想反悔?”她的家庭破碎,他出手相助。她遭遇陷害,他霸气保护。
  • 月河桥

    月河桥

    工作是嘉兴市中级法院的一名法官。已发表小说100万余字,散见于《小说选刊》、《中篇小说选刊》、《中国作家》、《江南》、《山花》、《百花洲》等期刊。