I'll have to go at this by stages. First a comment on the
question of what Hilferding meant. Having pored over his
text and Steve's commentary, in my opinion the matter is
undecidable. The text contains elements that suggest both
of two incompatible positions. One might pose the question
as: If Hilferding were presented with Keen's and Cottrell's
readings, would he (a) immediately recognize Keen's as what
he intended, (b) immediately recognize Cottrell's as what he
intended, or (c) say "Hmm. I hadn't thought of it that way;
let me consider..."? But I'm not sure this question is all
that interesting, and it's clear we'll never get an answer.
Allin Cottrell