Henryk Grossman Works, Volume 3: The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crises

Description

Long awaited, the first full translation of Henryk Grossman’s The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System, Being also a Theory of Crisis has been published in English. It was the most important, influential and yet most denounced of Grossman's works and recovers not only Marx’s primary explanation of capitalism’s economic crises and breakdown tendency but also his method in Capital. ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgements ‎Editor’s Introduction (Kuhn) ‎Context ‎Grossman’s Argument ‎Initial Reception, Translations, Republications and Later Literature ‎Criticisms and Responses ‎Conventions ‎Introduction ‎Chapter 1. The Downfall of Capitalism in Previous Discussions ‎1. The Points at Issue ‎2. The Conception of Breakdown in Previous Literature ‎3. The Final Abandonment of Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown by Karl Kautsky ‎Chapter 2. The Law of Capitalist Breakdown ‎1. Is There a Theory of Breakdown in Marx? ‎2. Preliminary Methodological Remarks. Economic Coordinate System: The Necessity of Simplifying Assumptions. The Assumption of Constant Prices as the Starting Point for the Analysis (Constant Value of Money. Equilibrium State of the Capitalist Mechanism, under Which Prices Coincide with Values. Exclusion of Competition) ‎3. The Equilibrium Theory of the Neo-Harmonists. Otto Bauer’s Reproduction Schema ‎4. The Conditions and Tasks of the Analysis Using the Schema ‎5. Why Were the Classical Economists Disquieted by the Fall in the Rate of Profit despite Growth in the Mass of Profit? ‎6. The Views of the Classical Economists on the Future of Capitalism. Ricardo and John Stuart Mill ‎7. Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown ‎8. Marx’s Theory of Breakdown Is Simultaneously a Theory of Crises ‎9. An Anti-Critical Interlude ‎10. The Logical and Mathematical Basis of the Law of Breakdown ‎11. Causes of the Misunderstanding of Marx’s Theory of Accumulation and Breakdown ‎12. The Factors of the Breakdown Tendency. The Problem of the Periodicity of Crises. The Course of the Cycle and the Problem of Establishing the Duration of Its Phases. The Cycle Research Institutes’ Symptomatology. The Provisional Exclusion of Credit. The Tempo of Capital Accumulation (in the Upswing) and the Extent of Population Growth ‎13. The Crisis and Underconsumption Theory. Incorporating Credit into the Analysis. The Cycle within the ‘Three Markets’: The Impetus to the Boom within the Sphere of Production (Business). The Spillover of the Wave Movement from Production into the Money Market (Money), Finally to the Stock Exchange (Speculation) ‎14. The Elasticity of Accumulation. The Problem of Sudden Leaps and One-Sided Development in Individual Branches of Production. The Relationship between the Size of the Apparatus of Production and the Size of Sales Turnover ‎15. Fetters on the Development of the Productive Forces under Capitalism ‎16. Marx’s Theory of Insufficient Valorisation Due to Overaccumulation and Luxemburg’s Theory of the Impossibility of ‘Realising Surplus Value’ under Capitalism ‎Chapter 3. Modifying Countertendencies ‎1. The Domestic Market. Restoring Profitability through Internal Structural Changes in the Mechanism of Capitalist Countries ‎a. Raising the Rate of Profit by Developing the Productive Forces and Its Impact on the Reduction of the Cost of Constant Capital ‎b. Reducing the Costs of Variable Capital by Developing Productivity ‎c. Reduction of Turnover Time and Its Impact on the Rate of Surplus Value and Rate of Profit ‎d. The ‘Additional Money’ Required for Expansion of Production ‎e. The Opposition between Use Value and Exchange Value, and Rising Productivity (Cheapening Elements of Production and Expansion of the Mass of Use Values) ‎f. The Emergence of New Spheres of Production with Lower Organic Compositions of Capital ‎g. The Struggle over the Abolition of Ground Rent. Bourgeois Land Reform from Quesnay to Henry George and Adolf Damaschke ‎h. The Struggle to Eliminate Commercial Profit. The Economic Function of the New ‘Middle Class’ ‎i. The Economic Function of ‘Third Persons’ Not Involved in Material Production, Such as Public Officials, Military Personnel, Free Professionals etc. The Impact of ‘Derivative’ Incomes on the Reproduction Process ‎j. Extending the Scope of Production with the Same Technology (Simple Accumulation) ‎k. The Influence of Periodic Devaluation of the Existing Capital on the Accumulation Process. Crises and Wars as Factors That Weaken the Breakdown Tendency ‎l. The Rise of Share Capital ‎m. Expanding the Demographic Base by Accelerating the Rate of Population Growth and Immigration. Capital Accumulation and the Problem of Population. The Fear of Underpopulation ‎n. A Historical Retrospective: The Problem of Population in Early Capitalism. The Character of Early Capitalist Colonial Policy ‎2. The World Market. Restoring Profitability by Dominating the World Market. The Economic Function of Imperialism ‎a. The Function of Foreign Trade under Capitalism ‎i. The Significance of Foreign Trade in Enhancing the Diversity of Use Values ‎ii. Extension of the Territorial Market as a Means of Reducing Costs of Production and Circulation ‎iii. Foreign Trade and the Sale of Commodities at Prices of Production Deviating from Their Values ‎iv. Does the Industrialisation of the Colonial, Agrarian Countries Signify the End of Capitalism? The International Nature of Economic Cycles ‎b. Foreign Trade and the Significance of World Monopolies. The Struggle for World Raw Materials. The Significance of Monopoly Profits ‎c. The Function of Capital Exports under Capitalism. The Overaccumulation of Capital and the Struggle for Investment Spheres. The Role of Speculation in Capitalism ‎i. Previous Discussions of the Problem ‎ii. Overaccumulation and Export of Capital according to Marx’s Conception ‎iii. Inductive Verification ‎iv. The Result. Intensification of the International Struggle over Profitable Spheres for Investment. Transformations of the Relationship between Finance Capital and Industrial Capital ‎Concluding Observations ‎1. The Breakdown Tendency and the Class Struggle (Marx’s Theory of Wages. The Factors That Determine Wages. The Historical Tendency of Wage Levels. The Class Struggle and the Final Goal) ‎2. The Breakdown of Capitalism and the General Cartel ‎Appendix. Corrections of Grossman’s Calculations ‎References ‎Index, including Abbreviations and Micro Biographies