INTRODUCTION
1.Revue économique, Jan. 1967.
2.David Ricardo, The works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. I, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Piero Sraffa, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
3.Karl Marx, Capital, (New York: International Publishers, 1970), I, 80-81. All references to Capital hereafter are to this edition.
4.Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar, Reading Capital (New York: Pantheon, 1970).
5.H. Denis, La Monnaie (Paris: Editions sociales, 1951).
6.John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1936).
PART ONE
1.R. Establet, Reading Capital, op. cit.
2.The discussion of Hilferding’s book as a whole will be the subject of a subsequent work.
3.Capital, II, 116.
4.Ibid., II, 81.
5.Ibid., II, 112.
6.Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (New York: New World Paperbacks, 1970), p. 187. Hereafter cited as Critique for all references to this edition.
7.Ibid. p. 65.
8.Ibid. p. 85.
9.Ibid. p. 170.
10.Capital, I, 92.
11.Critique, pp. 65-66.
12.Capital, I, 68-69.
13.Ibid., I, 67.
14.Ibid., I, 101-102.
15.Ibid., III, 193.
16.Ibid., I, 100.
17.Critique, p. 73.
18.Ibid., pp. 200 ff.
19.Capital, I, 118.
20.Critique, p. 164.
21.Capital, I, 123.
22.Critique, p. 160.
23.The market price is here the price at which a certain quantity of pieces of money can be exchanged against uncoined gold. This gold market, in simple circulation, has to do with the exchange of material metal: it is completely different from the money market associated with credit.
24.Capital, I, 125-126.
25.The theory of the balance of payments and foreign exchange will be examined in the second major part of this study. See pp. 144 ff.
26.Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy (New York: New World Paperbacks, 1967), pp. 87-88.
27.H. Bartoli, La doctrine économique et sociale de Marx (Paris, 1950).
28.Critique, pp. 169 ff.
29.C. Rist, Historie des doctrines relative an credit et á la monnaie (Sirey, 1951), pp. 170-171.
30.Critique, p. 185.
31.C. Rist, op. cit., p. 343.
32.Critique, p. 121.
33.Capital, I, 128.
34.J. M. Keynes, The Pure Theory of Money, vol. I of A Treatise on Money (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1930), pp. 146-147.
35.Critique, p. 119.
36.C. Rist. op. cit., p. 51.
37.C. Rist, op. cit., p. 362.
38.Capital, Vol. I, part I, p. 129. Nevertheless on p. 130 Marx indicates that the “representatives” of gold can be hoarded. But he does not develop the point.
39.Critique, pp. 120-121.
40.Knut Wicksell: Lectures on Political Economy (London: Routledge, 1934), p. 150.
41.Capital, I, 129.
42.Ibid., I, 130.
43.Ibid.
44.Ibid.
45.Critique, p. 128.
46.Ibid.
47.Capital, I, 134,
48.Critique, p. 126. See also my Note 38.
49.Capital, I, 133.
50.Ibid.
51.Ibid., I, 113.
52.Ibid., I, 114.
53.Ibid., I, 95-96.
54.Critique, p. 105.
55.Capital, I, 589.
56.Critique, p. 149.
57.Ibid., p. 141.
58.Ibid., p. 146.
59.Ibid.
60.Capital, I, 142.
61.Ibid.
62.Critique, p. 150.
63.Ibid.
64.Ibid.
65.Ibid.
66.Capital, I, 100.
67.Ibid., I, 129.
68.Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 76-77. In the first case, the state profits as debtor. In the second case, the creditors profit from the operation, but so does the state, as the collector of taxes.
69.Ibid.
70.Capital, I, 132.
PART TWO
1.Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 718.
2.See the first volume of Capital, Chapter IV, where Marx analyzes “the transformation of money into capital.”
3.Capital, II, 100.
4.Ibid., II, 358.
5.Ibid., II, 31.
6.Ibid., II, 30.
7.Ibid., II, 117.
8.Ibid., II, 358.
9.Ibid., II, 112-113.
10.I shall not discuss the “period of turnover” so as not to prolong the exposition.
11.Capital, II, 354.
12.Ibid.
13.Ibid., II, 30.
14.Ibid., II, 393.
15.Ibid., II, 118.
16.Capital, I, 593-598.
17.Ibid., II, 120.
18.Ibid., II, 85.
19.Ibid., II, 120.
20.Ibid., II, 78.
21.Ibid., I, 625 ff. and II, 312 and 333 ff.
22.Cf. Capital, II, pp. 364. But this “inflation”, like the “deflation” referred to above, is a disequilibrium considered outside the cyclical context.
23.Capital, II, 501.
24.Ibid., II, 330.
25.Ibid., II, 333.
26.Ibid., II, 344. See also I, Ch. XXIII, and III, Ch. IV.
27.Ibid. II, 336.
28.Ibid., II, 333.
29.See p. 70.
30.Capital, II, 327.
31.Ibid., II, 336.
32.Ibid., II, 491.
33.Ibid., II, 470.
34.The Accumulation of Capital (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964).
35.Ibid., p. 100. Rosa Luxemburg is here faithful to the letter of what Marx says. Cf. Capital, II, 135-136.
36.Hence the necessity of beginning with Marx’s theory of money, cf., First Part.
37.Capital, II, 472-473.
38.Ibid., II, 479-480.
39.H. Denis, Historie de la Pensee économique (P.U.F., 1966), pp. 426-429.
40.Capital, II, 491.
41.Ibid., II, 349.
42.Ibid., II, 347 ff.
43.Ibid., II, 492.
44.Ibid., II, 522-523.
45.Cf. H. Denis, op. cit. It is nevertheless necessary to make clear that Marx here confines himself to the saving of enterprises, or self-financing. Wage-laborers do not save, and their demand for consumption goods is equal to their wages, V (cf. Capital, II, 118). But there is sometimes a certain confusion of the terms “saving” and “hoarding” in Vol. II of Capital; thus failure of the worker to consume is a saving, that is, Marx makes clear (p. 118), a hoarding, as retention of money corresponding to non-purchase. This is because in the absence of a system of credit, the savings of the laborer cannot be invested.
46.I borrow the terms “pure supply” and “pure demand” from H. Neisser and J.G. Koopmans; in 1933 the latter formulated the equation M = L (that the increase of active money, M, must be equal to that of hoarding), as the condition of equilibrium in terms of the equality of investment and saving. But as I indicate below, the concept of equilibrium does not have the same meaning in Marx.
47.Paul Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development (New York Monthly Review Press, 1968).
48.Capital, II, 478.
49.Ibid.
50.Ibid., III, 4.
51.Ibid., II, 116.
52.Ibid.
53.Ibid., II, 413.
54.Ibid., III, 315.
55.Ibid., III, 322.
56.Ibid., III, 317.
57.Ibid., III, 326.
58.Ibid., III, 600.
59.Ibid., III, 593.
60.Ibid., III, 598.
61.Ibid., III, 328.
62.Ibid., III, 325.
63.Karl Marx, Contribution á la critique de l’économie politique (Paris: Editions sociales, 1972), p. 181.
64.Ibid., p. 189.
65.Ibid., p. 182.
66.Capital, III, 324.
67.Ibid.
68.Ibid., III, 600.
69.Ibid., III, 522.
70.Ibid., III, 479-480.
72.Ibid.
73.Ibid., III, 400.
74.See pp. 77 ff.
75.Capital, I, 139.
76.Ibid., I, 137-138.
77.Ibid., III, 479.
78.Ibid., III, 480.
79.Ibid.
80.Ibid.
81.Ibid., III, 401.
82.Ibid., III, 403.
83.Critique, pp. 185 ff.
84.Capital, III, 458.
85.Ibid.
86.Ibid., III, 425.
87.See pp. 25-26.
88.H. Denis, op. cit., pp. 129-144.
89.In Lectures on Political Economy, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 149.
90.Fan Hung, in The Review of Economic Studies, vol. 7, No. 1, Oct. 1939.
91.Capital, III, 402.
92.Cf. especially Chapter 27 of Volume III, “The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production,” where Marx speaks in turn of credit money and stock companies.
93.Capital, III, 317-318.
94.Ibid., III, 321.
95.Ibid., III, 436.
96.Ibid., III, 368.
97.Ibid., III, 462.
98.Ibid., III, 544-545.
99.Ibid., III, 545.
100.Ibid., III, 402-403.
101.An altogether different interpretation is given by H. Denis in an article entitled “Trois théories de l’intérêt du capital,” Revue économique, 1950.
102.Article cited. Fan Hung himself makes certain reservations.
103.Capital, II, 357.
104.Capital, II, 346.
105.Ibid., III, 435.
106.Ibid., III, 370.
107.Ibid., III, 362.
108.Ibid., III, 363.
109.Ibid., III, 356.
110.Ibid., III, 364.
111.Ibid., III, 352-353.
112.Ibid., III, 372.
113.Ibid., III, 509-510.
114.Critique, p. 102.
115.Capital, III, 344.
116.Ibid., III, 403.
117.Ibid., III, 499.
118.See pp. 66-67.
119.See pp. 68-69.
120.Capital, III, 469.
121.Ibid., III, 506.
122.These terms are borrowed by me from the National Accounts.
123.Capital, III, 470 and 537.
124.See pp. 80-81.
125.Capital, III, 457.
126.Ibid., III, 463.
127.Ibid., III, 466.
128.Ibid., III, 465.
129.Ibid.
130.Ibid., III, 467.
131.Ibid., III, 466.
132.Ibid., III, 467.
133.Ibid.
134.Ibid., III, 469.
135.Ibid.
136.Ibid., III, 502.
137.Ibid., III, 509.
138.Ibid., III, 472.
139.See p. 97.
140.Capital, III, 469.
141.Ibid.
142.See first part of this study, pp. 39-40.
143.Critique, p. 176.
144.Capital, I, 144.
145.See pp. 165 ff. of Ms.
146.Capital, I, 143, N.1.
147.Critique, p. 177.
148.Ibid., p. 185.
149.Ibid., p. 186.
150.See pp. 87-88. and pp. 108-110.
151.Capital, III, 517.
139.Marx’s phrase which I quote ends, on the contrary, by saying that the fictitious quality of credit likewise “applies to the ‘reserve fund,’ where one would at last hope to grasp something solid.” But Marx is speaking here of the concentration of the reserves of the private banks in the common funds of the Bank of England, while my comments apply to the banking system as a whole.
152.Ibid., III, 492-493.
153.Ibid., II, 317-318.
154.Ibid., III, 491-492.
155.Ibid., III, 569-570.
156.Marx here takes over the comments of Newmarch, cited in Capital, III, 570, No. 15. They are particularly interesting in connection with the present balance of payments difficulties of the U.S.A.
157.This arithmetic concept of devaluation is unfortunately the only one discussed here by Marx.
158.Capital, III, 591.
159.Ibid., III, 451.
160.Ibid., III, 567-568.
161.Ibid., III, 517. Thornton had already showed this in 1802.
162.Capital, III, 460.
163.Ibid., III, 592.
164.Ibid., III, 581.
165.Ibid., III, 588.
166.H. Bartoli, La doctrine économique et sociale de Marx, 1950, p. 221. Cf. also the same author’s discussion of Marxist theories on crises in Fluctuations économiques, Domat-Monchrestien, 1954 (symposium).
167.Capital, III, 304.
168.Ibid., III, 321.
169.Ibid., III, 450.
170.Ibid.
171.Ibid., III, 488.
172.Ibid., III, 489.
173.Ibid.
174.Ibid., III, 178 ff. On this point Marx follows a tradition originating in Cantillon and unknown to Ricardo. Cf. Charles Rist, op. cit., pp. 118-119 and 169.
175.Capital, II, 315-316.
176.Ibid., III, 467-468, 480-481, 502, and II, 254-255 and 316.
177.P. Dieterlen, Quelque enseignements de l’evolution monétaire française de 1948 á 1952, A. Colin, 1954, p. 82.
178.Ibid., p. 91.
179.See pp. 106-107.
180.Capital, III, 569.
181.Ibid., III, 490.
182.Ibid. I, 138, N.1.
183.Ibid., III, 571-572.
184.Ibid., I, 138.
185.Critique, p. 146.
186.Capital, III, 574.
187.Ibid., III, 254.
188.Ibid., III, 447.
189.See point c) below.
190.Capital, III, 458-459.
191.Ibid., III, 530.
192.Ibid., II, 318.
193.Fan Hung, op. cit.
194.Capital, I, 122.
195.Ibid., III, Ch. 33.
196.Ibid., III, 541.
197.C. Rist, op. cit., p. 237.
198.Capital, III. 403-404, “… the principal banks issuing notes … actually have the national credit to back them, and their notes are more or less legal tender.…”
199.Marx does not discuss in this connection the monetization of the public debt by the central bank and its effect on the politics of monetary control. He only views this financial relationship between the bank and the state as a method of accumulating funds at the expense of the taxpayers. (Capital, I, 754 ff.)
200.Capital, III, 452.
201.See Part I, p. 47.
202.Capital, III, 543.
203.Ibid., III, 404.
204.Ibid., III, 516-517.