Lecture
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(the capitalist farmer) is forced to pay rent even for plots of worse fertility. Moreover, all landowners who lease out land claim the appropriation of rent of a corresponding magnitude, regardless of differences in the fertility of the leased plots. This variety of rent was termed by K. Marx absolute rent.
Absolute rent is that part of the rental payment paid to the owner of a land plot regardless of the latter's natural fertility. Where, then, does absolute rent come from — what is its source, and how can the tenant pay it? K. Marx explains the formation of absolute rent by the difference in the structure of the price of production in industry and in agriculture, which arises owing to the different organic composition of capital in these branches. Since the organic composition of capital in agriculture is lower, the ratio of the surplus value created to the total capital is higher. And because of the limited extent of land plots, there is no free flow of capital between industry and agriculture, and thus no general rate of profit common to these branches is formed. Free competition between capitals employed in industry and in agriculture is further hindered by the circumstance that private owners do not lease out plots without payment of absolute rent, thereby further restricting the number of capitals that can be applied in agriculture on terms of appropriating the average profit.
Indeed, the price of production of agricultural products must be formed under such a restriction of the supply of these products as would raise the price to a level allowing not only differential rent but also absolute rent to be paid. This is how the monopoly on land as an object of private property is economically realized. Thus, the source of absolute rent is that part of the surplus value created in agriculture which, owing to the lower organic composition of capital, secures in agriculture a higher rate of profit on the whole capital, without entering into the process of equalizing the general rate of profit because of the monopoly of private property in land.
That part of the value created in agriculture which does not enter into the process of equalizing the general rate of profit, and which forms the basis for the payment of absolute rent, K. Marx called false social value. From this point of view, private landed property appears as a purely parasitic growth, restricting the pace of capital accumulation in agriculture. Therefore, a measure such as the nationalization of land — that is, the transfer of land ownership to the state — does not contradict the foundations of capitalist production. In this case, absolute land rent could be eliminated altogether, while differential rent would be appropriated by the state as owner of the land. In a number of capitalist states, such a measure has been carried out fully or in part. However, in most cases the capitalist state does not dare take this step, for fear of touching the "sacred principle" of private property. The magnitude of the land rent formed in agriculture is the basis for determining the price of land plots. The price of a land plot is calculated as the capitalization of the land rent yielded by that plot. The price of a land plot is equivalent to the sum of money that would need to be lent out at interest in order to receive annual interest equal to the annual land rent from the given plot.
The price of a land plot as capitalization of rent: For example, if the rent on a leased plot of land amounts to $1,000 a year, and the loan interest rate equals 5% per annum, then, to obtain an annual income of $1,000, one would need to place $20,000 at interest. That would also be the price of the given land plot. This price can be called a twenty-year capitalization of the land rent — the sum of the land rent received over twenty years.
The category "price of land" is an irrational economic category (just as interest, considered as the price of capital, is an irrational category). Land is not a product of human labor, and therefore no value basis for its price exists. The category of price is applied to land insofar as the value-form is common to all processes of capitalist production, and hence is also placed upon objects that are not produced as values.
One can speak of price in a real economic sense, in some sense, only in application to the additional artificial fertility of a land plot created by human effort. But even in this case, additional artificial fertility cannot arise without a basis in the natural fertility of the land, and therefore there is no direct quantitative relationship between efforts to improve a land plot and the growth of its fertility. On some plots a significant increase in fertility can be achieved with quite small expenditures of labor, while on others enormous expenditures of labor may lead only to a small increase in fertility.
The modern development of capitalism poses two difficult questions for the Marxist theory of capitalist land rent. The first of these is connected with the fact that in many developed countries the organic composition of capital in agriculture may reach a higher magnitude than in industry. Where, then, is the source of absolute land rent to be found? One possible answer may lie in the fact that the monopoly of private property in land is capable of securing the appropriation not only of part of the value created in agriculture and not participating in the process of equalizing the general rate of profit, but also of part of the value created in non-agricultural branches.
This occurs on the basis of the mechanism already disclosed above, of restricting the supply of land plots (owing to the monopoly of private property in land) by excluding from use plots of worse fertility, which leads to a restriction of the supply of agricultural products and, as a consequence, to a rise in their market price above the price of production. The second question concerns the fact that an explanation is required for the considerable subsidization of agricultural producers by the capitalist state. These subsidies may be explained by both economic and non-economic causes.
Among the economic causes may be the state's desire to avoid the relative underproduction of agricultural products that arises owing to the above-mentioned exclusion from use of worse-fertility plots, by providing farmers with subsidies enabling them to pay absolute rent. To this motive may be added the desire to expand the production of agricultural produce for reasons of food security.
Furthermore, subsidization may also be prompted by the protection of domestic agricultural producers from world-market competition. Among the non-economic causes one may cite the desire to support farmers as a conservative social stratum ensuring socio-political stability within the state. In addition, it should be borne in mind that competition among small tenant farmers for lease terms is higher than among large ones. As a result, small farmers are often forced to hand over, in the form of rental payment, not only rent proper but also part of their profit or wages. Small farmers are subject to pressure from large trading and industrial monopolies that supply agriculture, which partly disrupts the mechanism of redistributing, in favor of agriculture, value created in non-agricultural branches, and narrows the sources for the formation of land rent for small tenants. The state's interest in preventing the ruin of the stratum of small farmers under such conditions leads to the creation of a subsidization mechanism.
It has already been mentioned above that the process of reproduction of the whole of social capital has, under conditions of the capitalist mode of production, a cyclical character, and the material basis of this cyclicality was pointed out, lying in the periodic character of the renewal of fixed capital. The picture of the capitalist cycle becomes considerably more complicated if we take into account not only this fact but also the dynamics of capital accumulation in the course of its reproduction, and the specific relations among industrial, commercial, and loan capital, as well as the development of fictitious capital. As noted above, the appearance and application of innovations that significantly increase the efficiency of new fixed capital compels competing capitalists likewise to apply similar innovations on a broad scale, leading to waves of mass renewal of fixed capital and a general rise in business conditions. Having begun in some one branch, these waves, owing to intersectoral linkages and the multiplier effect, spread to many, if not all, branches of the economy. The exhaustion of this mass renewal reduces demand for means of production and leads to a general decline in business conditions. What is the economic mechanism of this decline?
A significant mass of capital, newly formed in the process of its accumulation, turns out to be impossible to apply with the former average profit, because: 1) the organic composition of capital has risen (but for a time the fall in the rate of profit is compensated for capitalists by the growth of its mass under conditions of economic upswing, or counteracting factors prevent any visible decline in the rate of profit at all); 2) demand for new means of production cannot indefinitely be sustained at the level characteristic of the period of mass renewal of fixed capital.
But this fact does not manifest itself immediately for industrial capitalists. At first it is commercial capitalists who begin to feel snags in realization — it is precisely they whose unsold goods begin to pile up. Industrial capitalists remain calm — for they have already sold their goods to the commercial capitalists, and can therefore excellently convert the proceeds into additional capital, which is exactly what they do, continuing to expand production, taking on new workers, and even raising wages. Incidentally, this allows us to reject the explanation of cyclical crises by the underconsumption of the broad masses, for on the eve of a crisis underconsumption is in fact at its lowest, and consumption at its highest, level.
Meanwhile, the commercial capitalists, being unable to sell their goods, lower the price in order to cut their losses and realize at least something, and try to cover the shortage of money for payments on their own obligations by resorting to loan capital beyond the usual level, taking out loans in the hope that the difficulties are temporary. The heightened demand for loan capital and the more risky conditions of credit provision drive up the interest rate. A sales crisis develops. In the next turnover, industrial capital itself now runs into difficulties in realizing the commodity capital it has produced. Commercial capitalists are unable to buy it even in the former quantities — for they have not been able to fully sell even their earlier purchases. Moreover, since the final sale price has fallen, they also offer to buy goods from producers at reduced prices. And yet industrial capital has already expanded production!
Thus, a significant portion of goods is not sold, and those that are sold, sell more cheaply than before. A crisis of overproduction begins. Monetary receipts fall, and industrial capitalists, in turn, are forced to take out additional loans in order to settle their obligations. The loan interest rate soars even higher. Thus it turns out that the ordinary average profit of the preceding period has become an unattainable dream. The general rate of profit falls, and a significant part of individual capitals suffers losses. Ruined commercial and industrial capitalists find themselves unable to repay the loans they have taken out. As a result, a number of banks (especially those that pursued a risky lending policy) also find themselves in a difficult position and go bankrupt. A banking crisis begins. The bankruptcy of banks triggers panic among depositors — they begin hastily withdrawing their deposits from banks, putting the banks in an even more difficult position.
The deterioration of business conditions causes panic on the market for fictitious capital. It should be noted that this panic can arise even earlier — already under the influence of the very first reports of a deteriorating business climate — and in that case panic on the exchange significantly accelerates the development of the crisis. Securities traded on the market — shares, bonds, bills of exchange, and the like — also begin to lose value. Those capitalists and ordinary holders of securities who invested most of their wealth in them are ruined. A mass sell-off of securities begins at the most bargain-basement prices, in order to salvage at least something for them. At a significant number of joint-stock companies, the holders of controlling blocks of shares may change.
Securities that had been pledged as collateral for loans lose their value — banks cannot realize the collateral securing overdue loans. The interest rate soars sky-high. Credit becomes practically inaccessible. The impossibility of profitably employing one's capital can be regarded as overaccumulation of capital: a mass of capitals appears that are unable to produce surplus value (still less the average profit), and are therefore relatively superfluous. Overaccumulation of capital is the formation, in the process of capital accumulation, of a significant mass of additional capitals whose application does not secure the average rate of profit. Many capitalists are forced to cut back, suspend, or altogether liquidate their business activity, which leads to mass layoffs of workers.
Together with the superfluous capitals, a relatively superfluous labor force is also formed. The reserve army of labor grows. Together with the growth of unemployment, the wages of those who have managed to keep their jobs fall (for the supply of free hands increases while the demand for them shrinks). Capital sets about cutting all and every kind of expense, in order to reduce production costs as much as possible and raise the rate of profit (or simply obtain any profit at all). The fall in the income of both capitalists and the bulk of the population (wage workers) leads to a fall in the savings rate. The population cuts back on savings in order to maintain its level of consumption. Capitalist entrepreneurs, in order to sustain current expenditures, forgo long-term investment. At the same time, both the supply of loan capital and the demand for it decline. Further decapitalization of the banking system takes place. Such a course of events moves the capitalist cycle into the phase of depression. Production slowly contracts or stagnates at one level, unemployment is very high. Through the "withdrawal from play" of overaccumulated capitals (that is, those unable to find profitable application), the disrupted balance of the capitalist economy is gradually restored. The "surviving" capitals — as a rule the most efficient from the standpoint of producing profit,
as well as those that have taken extraordinary measures to restore their profitability — begin slowly to expand production. The connection among industrial, commercial, and loan capital is restored, though at a lower volume of operations than during the preceding upswing. The market for fictitious capital stabilizes, but its activity and price level remain very low. Together with the beginning growth of production, the level of unemployment begins gradually to fall. The loan capital that has remained in the banks cannot lie idle — it too seeks profitable application and begins offering active industrialists and merchants loans at a lower interest rate. A revival of production begins. Those capitalists who strive to get ahead of competitors in the struggle for markets and for cost reduction begin to develop the production of new kinds of products, to apply new technologies, and acquire new equipment, thereby creating additional demand in the branches that produce means of production. Conditions on the market for fictitious capital improve, and it becomes possible there to place new issues of securities, with the aim of attracting additional funds for the development of production. Credit becomes more accessible — together with the growth of profitable opportunities for the application of capital, with the growth of the population's incomes and savings, and so on — and its accessibility expands the possibilities for the expansion of capitalist production beyond the limits set directly by the material conditions of production. Gradually the revival of production spreads to an ever-growing number of individual capitals and entire branches of the economy. The revival grows into the phase of upswing, and the whole cycle repeats itself from the beginning. The difference between the modern capitalist cycle and the one that took shape in Marx's time lies in the fact that in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, the crisis manifested itself above all in the overaccumulation of commodity capital, and therefore appeared as a crisis of overproduction. Modern methods of market research and of tracking the movement of goods make it possible to react much more promptly to sales snags and even to forecast them. Therefore, although overaccumulation of commodity capital still occurs, it does so on a much smaller scale, and the overaccumulation of capital that does occur manifests itself primarily as overaccumulation of productive capital, expressed in a growing underutilization of production capacity. Moreover, together with the shortening of the duration of the fixed-capital renewal cycle, the duration of the business cycle has also gradually shortened. Whereas in Marx's time crises occurred with a periodicity of roughly 11-12 years, the interval between cycles has now shrunk to 8-9 years. The modern cycle has a more smoothed-out character (frequently a crisis is not accompanied by a contraction of production but leads only to a slowdown in the rate of growth), which is connected with the development of methods of market research, aimed at weakening its unpredictability, and of anti-cyclical regulation of production (which will be examined in more detail in subsequent chapters).
PURE COSTS OF CIRCULATION — costs of circulation that do not add any new value to the commodity.
ADDITIONAL COSTS OF CIRCULATION — costs that alter the useful properties of a commodity and thereby enter into the process of value creation.
TURNOVER OF CAPITAL: the continuous, interconnected circuits of capital constitute its turnover.
FIXED CAPITAL — capital that during one circuit is only partially consumed, and hence only partially enters the process of circulation, although it is applied in its entirety. Accordingly, it transfers its value to the finished product in parts. Its complete renewal is accomplished only after a multitude of circuit cycles.
CIRCULATING CAPITAL — capital that enters the process of circulation and is consumed in it entirely, and must be renewed in every cycle of the circuit. The elements of circulating capital transfer their value to the finished product entirely within a single circuit. SOCIAL CAPITAL — the production relation of the aggregate capitalist to the aggregate labor force of society, manifesting itself as a multitude of individual relations, the division into which, as well as their interconnection into social capital, are conditioned by the social division of labor.
THE LAW OF SIMPLE REPRODUCTION: that part of the production of means of production in the first subdivision which corresponds in value to the variable capital and surplus value of the first subdivision must be equal to that part of the production of consumer goods in the second subdivision which corresponds in value to the constant capital of the second subdivision 
THE LAW OF EXPANDED REPRODUCTION: production in the second subdivision corresponding in value to the constant capital of the second subdivision and to that part of the surplus value of the second subdivision that is directed toward the growth of constant capital must be equal to production in the first subdivision corresponding in value to the variable capital of the first subdivision and to that part of the surplus value of the first subdivision that is directed toward the growth of the capitalists' personal consumption and the expansion of variable capital 
PRICE OF PRODUCTION — the price of commodities, formed on the basis of competition among capitals for equal profit on equal-sized capital, and quantitatively equal to the costs of production plus the average profit. BANKNOTE — a bill of exchange drawn on a banker.
FICTITIOUS CAPITAL — a form of existence of capital in which the title certifying ownership rights to real capital undergoes an independent circulation, separated from the movement of the real capital, although fictitious and real capital retain channels of mutual influence.
DIFFERENTIAL EXTRA PROFIT — the profit obtained by capitalists farming relatively better-fertility plots of land in excess of the average profit, as a result of the fact that the price of production in agriculture is regulated by the average-normal conditions of production on relatively worse-fertility plots of land.
DIFFERENTIAL RENT — that part of the rental payment to the owner of a land plot whose source is differential extra profit.
ABSOLUTE RENT — that part of the rental payment paid to the owner of a land plot, regardless of the latter's natural fertility.
OVERACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL — the formation, in the process of capital accumulation, of a significant mass of additional capitals whose application does not secure the average rate of profit.
Часть 1 Chapter 10. Circulation and Transformed Forms of Capital: Wages, Profit, Interest, and Rent. Reproduction and
Часть 2 The price of land and soil fertility: - Chapter 10.
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