Imperialism and War by V. I. Lenin Nikolai Bukharin Phil Gasper

Author:V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Bukharin, Phil Gasper [V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Bukharin, Phil Gasper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781931859660
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2017-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

The conditions of wheat production in England and America are widely different. Yet wheat prices are almost the same at the London and New York markets (139 and 141 marks per kilogram respectively). This is due to the fact that an immense stream of American wheat is continually pouring over the Atlantic Ocean into England and Western Europe in general.

5. THE WORLD MARKET OF COMMODITIES

The formation and the movement of these world prices may be seen most clearly in the commodity exchanges of the largest cities of the world: London, New York, Berlin, where world prices are registered daily, information comes in from every corner of the world, and thus world demand and world supply are being taken into account.

International exchange of commodities is based on the international division of labor. We must not think, however, that it takes place only within the limits set by the latter. Countries mutually exchange not only different products, but even products of the same kind. A, for instance, may export into B not only such products as are not produced in B, or produced in a very small quantity; it may export its commodities into B to compete with local production. In such cases, international exchange has its basis, not in division of labor which presupposes the production of different use-values, but solely in different levels of production costs, in values having various scales in the various countries, but reduced, through international exchange, to socially indispensable labor on a world scale.11

How closely the various countries have become knitted by the process of the exchange of commodities may be seen from the economy in means of payment, i.e., economy in the transportation of gold bullion.

If, on the one hand, we were to add the export of bullion of a certain country to its import, on the other hand the export of commodities of a country to its import, it would be seen that the value of bullion shipments was never more than 5 percent of the value of commodity shipments. Besides, we must not forget that the trade balance of a country is only a portion of its balance of payments.12

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