Marxist Economic Theory

415 Pages·1968·12.162 MB·English

by  Ernest Mandel

2 vols.
MARXIST
$15.00 the set
ECONOMIC
THEORY
by Ernest Mandel
Translated by Brian Pearce
This book is certainly the most im
portant work in Marxist economics
since Paul Sweezy's The Theory of
Capitalist Development. Reviews in
France and Britain (see back of
jacket) have praised it both for its
enormous erudition and effortless
readability.
Unquestionably orthodox-Marxist
in its approach and methodology, the
work is very far from being that type
of reverent paraphrase of Marx
which has wearied so many readers
and done so much harm to Marx.ism
itself. The author describes his in
tention in these words: "What we
seek to show is that it is possible, on
the basis of the scientific data of
contemporary science, to reconsti
tute the whole economic system of
Karl Marx." In line with this ap
proach he has "strictly abstained"
from quoting Marx and interpreting
Marxist texts.
Instead he seeks, through the use
of contemporary data and the analy
sis of contemporary thought, to de
scribe the modern war ld in a Marxist
way. Consequently he has produced
a book which is not only the best
introduction to Marxist economics,
but strives also to bring the theory
up to date and apply it in the mod
em world.
MARXIST ECONOMIC THEORY
Volume Two

MARXIST ECONOMIC
THEORY
Volume Two
by
ERNEST MANDEL
TRANSLATED BY
BRIAN PEARCE
(@
NEW YORK AND LONDON
©Copyright 1962, 1968 Ernest Mandel.
Translation copyright.
The Merlin Press, London, 1968.
Published in the United States 1968
by Monthly Review Press
116 West 14th Street,
New York, N.Y. 10011
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-13658
A II rights reserved.
Throughout this book the term
billion refers to a thousand million.
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED ST ATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
CHAPTER TWELVE
MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
The second industrial revolution 393
Industrial concentration accentuated 394
Monopoly agreements, groupings and combines 398
The forms of capitalist concentration 401
Bank concentration and finance capital 403
Monopolies 406
The empires of financial groups 411
Monopoly super-profits 419
Equalisation of the monopoly rate of profit 423
Origins of monopoly profit 426
Monopolies as fetters on economic progress 428
Monopolies and "oligopolies" 433
Monopoly capitalism and contradictions of capitalism 434
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
IMPERIALISM
Capitalism and inequality among nations 441
The world market and industrial capitalism 445
From export of goods to export of capital 448
Colonialism 450
Colonial super-profits 453
The world-wide division of labour 459
International trusts and cartels 465
Private trusts wield sovereign rights in under-developed countries 469
Economic structure of the under-developed countries 472
Imperialism as an obstacle to the industrialisation of under-
developed countries 476
Neo-imperialism 480
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE EPOCH OF CAPITALIST DECLINE
Concentration and centralisation of capital on an international scale 485
Relative shrinkage and fragmentation of the world market 488
AU-round cartellisation of industry 491
Forced cartellisation 496
The bourgeoisie and the state 498
The state as guarantor of monopoly profits 501
Increasing fusion between state and monopolies 507
389
390 CONTENTS
Self-financing 511
Overcapitalisation 517
Growing importance of armaments and war economy 521
Permanent tendency to currency inflation 526
A crisis-free capitalism? 529
The laws of development of capitalism in its age of decline 534
Welfare State and Fascisn: 536
The age of the managers? 539
The bankruptcy of capitalism 541
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE SOVIET ECONOMY
Stages of the Soviet economy 548
What the Five-Year Plans achieved 557
The social character of the Soviet economy 560
The "economic categories" in the U.S.S.R. 565
The fundamental contradictions of Soviet economy 572
Disproportion between industry and agriculture 575
Planned economy and the material incentive of personal interest 584
The contradictions of bureaucratic management 589
Bureaucratic management and workers' conditions 593
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE ECONOMY OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD
The third industrial revolution 605
Need for a transition period 608
Sources of international socialist accumulation 612
Sources of socialist accumulation in industrialised countries 615
Sources of socialist accumulation in under-developed countries 618
Maximum and optimum rates of accumulation 621
Note on the "law of priority in the development of the capital
goods sector" 627
Economic function of socialist democracy 631
Planned economy and market economy 632
Planning techniques 637
New production relations and socialised mode of production 643
Agriculture and distribution in the transition period 646
A mixed economy? 649
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SOCIALIST ECONOMY
Mode of production, mode of distribution, mode of life 654
Individual wages and social wages 656
Basic needs and secondary needs: freedom of consumption and
rational consumption 660
CONTENTS 391
Withering away of commodity production and money economy 664
Economic revolution and psychological revolution 668
Withering away of classes and the state 673
Economic growth not a permanent aim 677
Alienated labour and free labour 679
Man's limitations? 683
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
ORIGIN, RISE AND WITHERING AWAY
OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
Economic activity and ideology 690
The dawn of economic thought 692
Origins of the labour theory of value 693
Development of the labour theory of value 698
Climax and break-up of classical political economy 703
Marx's contribution 705
Attacks on the labour theory of value 707
The marginalist theory of value and neo-classical political
economy 712
The "Keynesian revolution" 717
The econometrists 721
An apologetic variant of Marxism 722
New developments in economic thinking in the U.S.S.R. 726
The end of political economy 729
BIBLIOGRAPHY 735
INDEX 773

CHAPTER TWELVE
MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
The second industrial revolution
DURING the last quarter of the nineteenth century. capitalist industry
was drawn into a fresh technical revolution. Like the first, the second
industrial revolution changed essentially the source of power for pro
duction and transport. Alongside coal and steam. petrol and elec
tricity henceforth played their part in driving the wheels and the
machinery. From the end of the century onward the internal com
bustion engine and the electric motor took the place of prime movers
operated by steam.
This power revolution transformed the whole of industrial life. At
the same time, steel-making was given a new impetus by the introduc
tion of the Bessemer process, the open-hearth furnace, and the
Siemens-Martin regenerators, together with processes for hardening
steel with alloys.* Steel became more and more the basic industrial
material. Further, the electrolysis of bauxite made it possible to turn
aluminium into a cheap raw material for industrial use, whereas
previously it had been regarded as a precious metal, costing £7 an
ounce.
Finally, the chemical industry underwent during this same period
its first big development. With knowledge of the use of coal by
products, this industry proceeded to make dyes synthetically, and dealt
a mortal blow to the ancient production of natural dyes in the Far
East. The synthetic textile industry also came into being.
The industrial revolution at the end of the nineteenth century
altered the relative importance of the different branches of industry
in world economy.2 For a century, cotton and coal had been kings.
Now steel held the first place, soon to be followed by mechanical
engineering and motor car production.
In Britain the centre of gravity shifted from Manchester (cotton)
to Birmingham (steel). At the same time Britain lost for good its
industrial preponderance and its monopoly of high productivity, as
*In 1870 American production of Bessemer steel did not exceed 30,500 tons;
in 1880 it reached 850,000 tons, and in 1890 1·9 million tons. In 1880 the
quantity of iron rails produced was still the same as that of steel rails; in 1890
iron rails made up less than 1 per cent of the total tonnage. In 1874 the first
steel bridge was built, over the Mississippi at St. Louis.'
393