Preface to Marx-Engels Collected Works Volume (31)
Theories of Surplus Value
III. Adam Smith
[1. Smith's Two Different Definitions of Value; the Determination of Value by the Quantity of Labour Expended Which Is Contained in a Commodity, and Its Determination by the Quantity of Living Labour Which Can Be Bought in Exchange for This Commodity]
[2. Smith's General Conception of Surplus-Value. The Notion of Profit, Rent and Interest as Deductions from the Product of the Worker's Labour]
[3. Adam Smith's Extension of the Idea of Surplus-Value to All Spheres of Social Labour]
[4. Smith's Failure to Grasp the Specific Way in Which the Law of Value Operates in the Exchange between Capital and Wage-Labour]
[5. Smith's Identification of Surplus-Value with Profit. The Vulgar Element in Smith's Theory]
[6. Smith's Erroneous View of Profit, Rent of Land and Wages as Sources of Value]
[7. Smith's Dual View of the Relationship between Value and Revenue. The Vicious Circle of Smith's Conception of "'Natural Price" as the Sum of Wages, Profit and Rent]
[8. Smith's Error in Resolving the Total Value of the Social Product into Revenue. Contradictions in His Views on Gross and Net Revenue]
[9. Say as Vulgariser of Smith's Theory. Say's Identification of the Social Gross Product with the Social Revenue. Attempts to Draw a Distinction between Them by Storch and Ramsay]
[10. Inquiry into How It Is Possible for the Annual Profit and Wages to Buy the Annual Commodities, Which Besides Profit and Wages Also Contain Constant Capital]
[(a) Impossibility of the Replacement of the Constant Capital of the Producers of Consumption Goods through Exchange between These Producers]
[(b) Impossibility of Replacing the Whole Constant Capital of society by Means of Exchange between the Producers of Articles of Consumption and the Producers of Means of Production]
[(c) Exchange of Capital for Capital between the Producers of Means of Production. Annual Product of Labour and the Product of Labour Newly Added Annually]
[11. Additional Points: Smith's Confusion on the Question of the Measure of Value. General Character of the Contradictions in Smith]
IV. Theories of Productive and Unproductive Labour
[1. Productive Labour from the Standpoint of Capitalist Production: Labour Which Produces Surplus-Value]
[2. Views of the Physiocrats and Mercantilists on Productive Labour]
[3. The Duality in Smith's Conception of Productive Labour. His First Explanation: the View of Productive Labour as Labour Exchanged for Capital]
[4. Adam Smith's Second Explanation: the View of Productive Labour as Labour Which Is Realised in a Commodity]
[5. Vulgarisation of Bourgeois Political Economy in the Definition of Productive Labour]
[6. Advocates of Smith's Views on Productive Labour. On the History of the Subject]
[(a) Advocates of the First View: Ricardo, Sismondi]
[(b) Early Attempts to Distinguish between Productive and Unproductive Labour (D'Avenant, Petty)]
[(c) John Stuart Mill, an Adherent of Smith's Second View of Productive Labour]
[7.] Germain Garnier [Vulgarisation of the Theories Put Forward by Smith and the Physiocrats]
[(a) Confusion of Labour which Is Exchanged Against Capital with Labour Exchanged against Revenue. The False Conception that the Total Capital Is Replaced through the Revenue of the Consumers]
[(b) Replacement of the Constant Capital by Means of the Exchange of capital against Capital]
[(c) Vulgar Assumptions of Garnier's Polemics against smith, Garnier's Relapse into Physiocratic Ideas. The View of the Unproductive Labourers' Consumption as the source of Production—a step Backwards as Compared with the Physiocrats]
[8.] Charles Ganilh [Mercantilist Conception of Exchange and Exchange-Value. Inclusion of All Paid Labour in the Concept of Productive Labour]
[9. Ganilh and Ricardo on Net Revenue. Ganilh as Advocate of a Diminution of the Productive Population; Ricardo as Advocate of the Accumulation of Capital and the Growth of Productive Forces]
[10.] Exchange of Revenue and Capital [Replacement of the Total Amount of the Annual Product: (a) Exchange of Revenue for Revenue; (b) Exchange of Revenue for Capital; (c) Exchange of Capital for Capital]
[11.] Ferrier [Protectionist Character of Ferrier's Polemics against Smith's Theory of Productive Labour and the Accumulation of Capital, Smith's Confusion on the Question of Accumulation, The Vulgar Element in Smith's View of "Productive Labourers"]
[12.] Earl of Lauderdale [Apologetic Conception of the Ruling Classes as Representatives of the Most Important Kinds of Productive Labour]
[13. Say's Conception of "Immaterial Products". Vindication of an Unrestrained Growth of Unproductive Labour]
[14.] Count Destutt de Tracy [Vulgar Conception of the Origin of Profit. Proclamation of the Industrial Capitalist" as the Sole Productive Labourer]
[15. General Nature of the Polemics against Smith's Distinction between Productive and Unproductive Labour. Apologetic Conception of Unproductive Consumption as a Necessary Spur to Production]
[16.] Henri Storch [Unhistorical Approach to the Problem of the Interaction between Material and Spiritual Production. Conception of "Immaterial Labour" Performed by the Ruling Class]
[17.] Nassau Senior [Proclamation of All Functions Useful to the Bourgeoisie as Productive. Toadyism to the Bourgeoisie and the Bourgeois State]
[18.] Pellegrino Rossi [Disregard of the Social Form of Economic Phenomena. Vulgar Conception of "Labour-saving" by Unproductive Labourers]
[19. Apologia for the Prodigality of the Rich by the Malthusian Chalmers]
[20. Concluding Observations on Adam Smith and His Views on Productive and Unproductive Labour]
V. Necker. Attempt to Present the Antagonism of Classes in Capitalism as the Antithesis between Poverty and Wealth
VI. Quesnay’s Tableau Economique (Digression)
[1. Quesnay's Attempt to Show the Process of Reproduction and Circulation of the Total Capital]
[2. Circulation between Farmers and Landowners. The Return Circuit of Money to the Farmers, Which Does Not Express Reproduction]
[3. On the Circulation of Money between Capitalist and Labourer]
[(a) The Absurdity of Speaking of Wages as an Advance by the Capitalist to the Labourer. Bourgeois Conception of Profit as Reward for Risk]
[(b) Commodities Which the Labourer Buys from the Capitalist. A Return Flow of the Money Which Does Not Indicate Reproduction]
[4. Circulation between Farmer and Manufacturer According to the Tableau Économique]
[5. Circulation of Commodities and Circulation of Money in the Tableau Économique. Different Cases in Which the Money Flows Back to Its Starting-Point]
[6. Significance of the Tableau Économique in the History of Political Economy]
VII. Linguet. Early Critique of the Bourgeois-Liberal View of the “Freedom” of the Labourer
XXI. Opposition to the Economists (Based on the Ricardian Theory)
1. [The Pamphlet] "The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties"
[a) Profit, Rent and Interest Regarded as Surplus Labour of the Workers. The Interrelation Between the Accumulation of Capital and the so-called "Labour Fund"]
[b) On the Exchange Between Capital and Revenue in the Case of Simple Reproduction and of the Accumulation of Capital]
[c) The Merits of the Author of the pamphlet and the Theoretical Confusion of His Views. The Importance of the Questions He Raises about the Role of Foreign Trade in Capitalist society and of "Free Time" as Real Wealth]
2. Ravenstone. [The View of Capital as the Surplus Product of the Worker. Confusion of the Antagonistic Form of Capitalist Development with Its Content. This Leads to a Negative Attitude Towards the Results of the Capitalist Development of the Productive Forces]
3. Hodgskin
[a) The Thesis of the Unproductiveness of Capital as a Necessary Conclusion from Ricardo's Theory]
[b) Polemic against the Ricardian Definition of Capital as Accumulated Labour. The Concept of Coexisting Labour. Underestimation of the Importance of Materialised Past Labour. Available Wealth in Relation to the Movement of Production]
[c)] So-called Accumulation as a Mere Phenomenon of Circulation. (Stock, etc.—Circulation Reservoirs)
[d) Hodgskin's Polemic Against the conception that the Capitalists "store Up" Means of Subsistence for the Workers. His Failure to Understand the Real causes of the Fetishism of Capital]
[e)] Compound Interest: Fall in the Rate of Profit Based on This
[f) Hodgskin on the Social Character of Labour and on the Relation of Capital to Labour]
[g) Hodgskin's Basic Propositions as Formulated in His Book—"Popular Political Economy"]
[h) Hodgskin on the Power of Capital and on the Upheaval in the Right of Property]
[4.] Bray as an Opponent of the Economists
IX. Notes on the History of the Discovery of the So-Called Ricardian Law of Rent. Supplementary Notes on Rodbertus (Digression)
[1. The Discovery of the Law of Differential Rent by Anderson. Distortion of Anderson's Views by His Plagiarist, Malthus, in the Interests of the Landowners]
[2. Ricardo's Fundamental Principle in Assessing Economic Phenomena Is the Development of the Productive Forces. Malthus Defends the Most Reactionary Elements of the Ruling Classes. Virtual Refutation of Malthus's Theory of Population by Darwin]
[3. Roscher's Falsification of the History of Views on Ground-Rent. Examples of Ricardo's Scientific Impartiality. Rent from Capital Investment in Land and Rent from the Exploitation of Other Elements of Nature. The Twofold Influence of Competition]
[4. Rodbertus's Error Regarding the Relation Between Value and Surplus-Value When the Costs of Production Rise]
[5. Ricardo's Denial of Absolute Rent—a Result of His Error in the Theory of Value]
[6. Ricardo's Thesis on the Constant Rise in Corn Prices. Table of Annual Average Prices of Corn from 1641 to 1859]
[7. Hopkins's Conjecture about the Difference Between Absolute Rent and Differential Rent; Explanation of Rent by the Private Ownership of Land]
[8. The Costs of Bringing Land into Cultivation. Periods of Rising and Periods of Falling Corn Prices (1641-1859)]
[9. Anderson versus Malthus. Anderson's Definition of Rent. His Thesis of the Rising Productivity of Agriculture and Its Influence on Differential Rent]
[10. The Untenability of the Rodbertian Critique Rodbertus's of Ricardo's Theory of Rent. Lack of Understanding of the Peculiarities of Capitalist Agriculture]
Now back to Rodbertus, definitively and for the last time.
X. Ricardo’s and Adam Smith’s Theory of Cost-Price (Refutation)
[A. Ricardo's Theory of Cost-price]
[1. Collapse of the Theory of the Physiocrats and the Further Development of the Theories of Rent]
[2. The Determination of Value by Labour-Time—the Basis of Ricardo's Theory. Despite Certain Deficiencies the Ricardian Mode of Investigation Is a Necessary Stage in the Development of Political Economy]
[3. Ricardo's Confusion about the Question of "Absolute" and "Relative" Value. His Lack of Understanding of the Forms of Value]
[4.] Ricardo's Description of Profit, Rate of Profit, Average Prices etc.
[a) Ricardo's Confusion of Constant Capital with Fixed Capital and of Variable Capital with Circulating Capital. Erroneous Formulation of the Question of Variations in "Relative Values" and Their Causative Factors]
[b) Ricardo's Confusion of Cost-Prices with Value and the Contradictions in His Theory of Value Arising Therefrom. His Lack of Understanding of the Process of Equalisation of the Rate of Profit and of the Transformation of Values into Cost-Prices]
[5.] Average or Cost-Prices and Market-Prices
[a) Introductory Remarks: Individual Value and Market-Value; Market-Value and Market-Price]
[b) Ricardo Confuses the Process of the Formation of Market-Value and the Formation of Cost-Prices]
[c) Ricardo's Two Different Definitions of "Natural Price". Changes in Cost-Price Caused by Changes in the Productivity of Labour]
[B. Adam Smith's Theory of Cost-price]
[1. Smith's False Assumptions in the Theory of Cost-Prices. Ricardo's Inconsistency Owing to His Retention of the Smithian Identification of Value and Cost-Price]
[2. Adam Smith's Theory of the "Natural Rate" of Wages, Profit and Rent]
XI. Ricardo’s Theory of Rent
[1. Historical Conditions for the Development of the Theory of Rent by Anderson and Ricardo]
[2. The Connection Between Ricardo's Theory of Rent and His Explanation of Cost-Prices]
[3. The Inadequacy of the Ricardian Definition of Rent]
XII. Tables of Differential Rent and Comment
[1. Changes in the Amount and Rate of Rent]
[2. Various Combinations of Differential and Absolute Rent. Tables A, B, C, D, E]
[3. Analysis of the Tables]
[a)] Table A [The Relation Between Market-Value and Individual Value in the Various Classes]
[b) The Connection Between Ricardo's Theory of Rent and the Conception of Falling Productivity in Agriculture. Changes in the Rate of Absolute Rent and Their Relation to the Changes in the Rate of Profit]
[c)] Observations on the Influence of the Change in the Value of the Means of Subsistence and of Raw Material (Hence also the Value of Machinery) on the Organic Composition of Capital
[d) Changes in the Total Rent, Dependent on Changes in the Market-Value]
XIV. Adam Smith’s Theory of Rent
[1. Contradictions in Smith's Formulation of the Problem of Rent]
[2. Adam Smith's Hypothesis Regarding the Special Character of the Demand for Agricultural Produce. Physiocratic Elements in Smith's Theory of Rent]
[3. Adam Smith's Explanation of How the Relation Between Supply and Demand Affects the Various Types of Products from the Land. Smith's Conclusions Regarding the Theory of Rent]
[4. Adam Smith's Analysis of the Variations in the Prices of Products of the Land]
[5. Adam Smith's Views on the Movements of Rent and His Estimation of the Interests of the Various Social Classes]
Addenda to Part 2
[1. Early Formulation of the Thesis That the Supply of Agricultural Products Always Corresponds to Demand. Rodbertus and the Practicians among the Economists of the Eighteenth Century]
[2. Nathaniel Forster on the Hostility Between Landowners and Traders]
[3. Hopkins's Views on the Relationship Between Rent and Profit]
[4. Carey, Malthus and James Deacon Hume on Improvements in Agriculture]
[5. Hodgskin and Anderson on the Growth of Productivity in Agricultural Labour]
[6. Decrease in the Rate of Profit]