> (1) can anyone produce a coherent explanation of the passage from Marx in
> which Marx is *not* saying that "surplus product" can be positive while
> surplus-value is negative?
I agree with Jerry's original response on this: Marx doesn't
say anything about negative surplus value in the quotation
Andrew brought forward, and I don't see much point in
discussing a forced interpretation of the passage. I don't
have the passage to hand right now, but as I recall Marx
says something like "a surplus product (i.e. a mere
*increase* in quantity)" (emphasis added), which suggests
that the whole thing is implicitly in first-differences and
has nothing to do with negative surplus value.
Allin.