Hodgskin was trying to make the case that profits were unjustified. What he
did was to conceptualize the economy as a system coexisting production.
Classical economics presented a system of production as a sequence: cows
become leather which become shoes. Hodgskin saw this as a way of justifying
profits as a contribution from capital. So he presented capital as being
produced by labor side by side with the industries that used capital.
Marx and Engels are experiencing the dislocations caused by shortages of
cotton. Cotton in storage was soaring in price. This is when Marx got
interested in rent and scarcity.
So in volume 2, rather than describe value as she did in the previous
volume by adding up the various labors embodied in the commodity, he sets
up his reproduction scheme. With that setup, reproduction values came
naturally.
I describe all this in more detail in the book, which virtually nobody ever
read.
-- Michael
Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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Received on Mon Aug 31 23:57:31 2009
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