Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Simple Reproduction in Capital, Vol. I, Ch. 7, 11 and 23
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- Part I The Development of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part II The Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part III The Underdevelopment of the Capitalist Mode of Production
- Part IV The Value Theory of Labour
- Conclusion to Part IV
- Conclusion
- Appendix: On Social Classes
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
If the capitalist-to-be invests a primitively accumulated capital of £1,000, if this capital of £1,000 produces yearly a surplus value of £200, and if further this surplus value of £200 is consumed unproductively by the capitalist in order to reproduce him or herself and his family, then at the end of a period of 5 years the surplus value consumed unproductively (5 × £200 = £1,000) will be equal in value to the £1,000 originally invested and the original capital will in effect have been entirely used up and will exist no more. Similarly, if the capitalistto-be consumes surplus value unproductively at only half the annual rate as that in the above example (i.e. at the rate of only £100 per year), it will take 10 years instead of 5 for the original investment to be consumed unproductively by the capitalist-to-be in the form of his profit on the enterprise. In both cases the result will be the same: if unproductive consumption takes place by the capitalist-to-be and his or her family in order to reproduce themselves and is not put back into the enterprise in some way, there must eventually come a point – whether it is in 5 years time, 10 years or even 50 years – when the original sum invested has been entirely used up during the process of production and is no more. Marx calls this period at the end of which the sum originally advanced has been consumed unproductively by the capitalistto-be the reproduction period of the original sum invested and he argues that the would-be capitalist, having received back a sum equivalent in value to his or her original investment, has no further interest in the value embodied in the process of production that still exists on the same site and in the same place as his or her original investment. On the contrary, Marx argues that these means of production – the factory, the machinery, the raw materials, etc. – which are equivalent in value to the would-be capitalist's original investment belong to all the people employed in the process of production during the previous 5, 10, 50 years, or however long the reproduction of the original primitively accumulated capital has taken.
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- Karl Marx's 'Capital': A Guide to Volumes I-III , pp. 43 - 49Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021