Gil
> ---
>
> Paul, I agree with the sense of this, subject to two caveats. The
> first one is for the sake of clarification: it is under the
> *capitalist mode of production* that merchant capital is a subsidiary
> element of the surplus product. Prior to this, and this is the
> second caveat, Marx describes merchant's capital as appropriating all
> of the surplus labour plus some of the workers' subsistence. Thus
> merchant's capital was capable of taking the "greater part" of the
> surplus product, all by itself.
>
> Paul
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>
> No. The greater part of the surplus product was appropriated by
> the landowning classes.
Sorry, you're right. I should have said the greater part of the
surplus product of workers producing solely within the
proto-industrial system (as opposed, e.g., to serfs). Satisfactory?
Gil