Capital, vol 4 by Karl Marx

Author:Karl Marx
Language: pt
Format: mobi
Tags: non.fiction, economics
ISBN: 9788432315954
Publisher: Siglo XXI
Published: 2010-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

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[a] The term “prix suffisant” (sufficient price) is used in the French translation of the Wealth of Nations from which Marx quotes.—Ed.

[b] i.e., out of the product of the land situated at a greater distance from the market.—Ed.

[c] “requisite for each particular article” inserted by Garnier in the French version.—Ed.

[Chapter XV] Ricardo’s Theory of Surplus-Value

[A. The Connection Between Ricardo’s Conception of Surplus-Value and his Views on Profit and Rent]

[1. Ricardo’s Confusion of the Laws of Surplus-Value with the Laws of Profit]

||636| Nowhere does Ricardo consider surplus-value separately and independently from its particular forms—profit (interest) and rent. His observations on the organic composition of capital, which is of such decisive importance, are therefore confined to those differences in the organic composition which he took over from Adam Smith (actually from the Physiocrats), namely, those arising from the process of circulation (fixed and circulating cap-ital). Nowhere does he touch on or perceive the differences in the organic composition within the actual process of production. Hence his confusion of value with cost-price, his wrong theory of rent, his erroneous laws relating to the causes of the rise and fall in the rate of profit, etc.

Profit and surplus-value are only identical when the capital advanced is identical with the capital laid out directly in wages. (Rent is not taken into account here since the surplus-value is, in the first place, entirely appropriated by the capitalist, [irrespective of] what portion he has subsequently to hand over to his co-partners. Furthermore, Ricardo himself presents rent as an item which is separated, detached from profit.) In his observations on profit and wages, Ricardo also abstracts from the constant part of capital, which is not laid out in wages. He treats the matter as though the entire capital were laid out directly in wages. To this extent, therefore, he considers surplus-value and not profit, hence it is possible to speak of his theory of surplus-value. On the other hand, however, he thinks that he is dealing with profit as such, and in fact views which are based on the assumption of profit and not of surplus-value, constantly creep in. Where he correctly sets forth the laws of surplus-value, he distorts them by immediately expressing them as laws of profit. On the other hand, he seeks to present the laws of profit directly, without the intermediate links, as laws of surplus-value.

When we speak of his theory of surplus-value, we are, therefore, speaking of his theory of profit, in so far as he confuses the latter with surplus-value, i.e., in so far as he only considers profit in relation to variable capital, the part of capital laid out in wages. We shall later deal with what he says of profit as distinct from surplus-value.

It is so much in the nature of the subject-matter that surplus-value can only be considered in relation to the variable capital, i.e., capital laid out directly in wages—and without an understanding of surplus-value no theory of profit is possible—that Ricardo treats the entire capital

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