The Value Dimension by Fine Ben

Author:Fine, Ben.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781135040390
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Competition between capitals

In the first section, we examined competition between capitals at two different levels. In the formation of market values, competition within a sector establishes different individual rates of profits.7 In the formation of prices of production competition between sectors established a general rate of profit. In the first case unequal rates of profit are established, in the second they are eroded. For both cases, the competition between capitals is located at the level of commodity exchange. It is governed for the competition between sectors by the free flow of capital.

The previous section considered competition between capitals of a different sort. It was located at the level of production for which productivity increase is the means of competition. As such, it concerns competition within a sector to establish individual values below the market value as a means of appropriating surplus profit. This competition explains the divergence of individual values from the market value. The net result of this competition is not to establish permanent surplus profits. All capitalists within a sector compete to obtain surplus profits but not all can establish an individual value below the market value for then the market value would itself be lower. Nevertheless, at any one time, there will be a range of techniques in use some of which yield surplus, others deficient, profits.

The matter cannot be left here, however, because it presents a static and one-sided picture. There is a tendency for the competition for surplus profits to lead to a divergence of individual from market values, but exactly the same competition tends to make general the most advanced techniques so that the market value is successively reduced. Nor must these tendencies be seen in isolation from the means by which productivity increases and surplus profits are created. While in the labour process a relative expulsion, increasing intensity and deskilling of labour is required, the precondition for these developments is the gathering together of the money-capital required to finance the increased expenses of fixed capital, raw materials and labour supply. Necessarily the competition between capitalists to establish surplus profits is conducted at the level of access to credit. As capitalism develops through centralisation, there is a continuous increase in the minimum level of capital required to maintain competitiveness, and consequently an increasing level of capital that is the average or normal. For these reasons, Marx emphasises that the accumulation in developed form depends upon the creation of a sophisticated credit system as the lever of centralisation, and that the primary basis of competition between capitals is the size of capital controlled by each. That these results represent Marx’s view can be verified by reference to many quotations. We choose two:

The reduction in cost-price and the surplus profit arising from it are here the result of the manner in which the functioning capital is invested. They result either from the fact that the capital is concentrated in the hands of one person in extraordinarily large quantities (a condition that is cancelled out as soon

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.