I want to try to respond briefly and concisely (due to time constraints) to
Mike's very interesting first question to his "quiz":
1. What is the reason (the logical basis) for beginning Vol. 3 with the
category of cost-price?
1. The strating point of the answer is that main subject of Volume 3 is the
DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS-VALUE, first into individual branches of production
(Part 2) and then the further division of surplus-value into industrial
profit, merchant profit, interest, and rent (Parts 4, 5, and 6). This
subject determines the overall logical structure of Volume 3 and, as we
shall see, also requires cost price as the starting point.
I am very glad that John mentioned Marx's 1868 letter to Engels about Volume
3, which I forgot to mention in my last post. This letter provides a really
excellent, concise summary of Volume 3. It also provides clear further
evidence that the main subject of Volume 3 is the distribution of
surplus-value and also (in relation to Mike's original post and Heinrich's
article) that Engels followed exactly the clear instructions of Marx in
terms of the overall structure of Volume 3.
Marx introduced his part-by-part summary in this letter with the following
general statement:
In Book III we come to the transformation of surplus-value into its
different forms and separate component parts.
2. The first aspect of the distribution of surplus-value explained in
Volume 3 is the equalization of profit rates across branches of production.
This equalization of profit rates across industries is logically prior to
the other aspects of the distribution of surplus-value considered in Volume
3: the division of surplus-value into industrial profit and merchant
profit, the division of surplus-value into profit and interest, and the
division of surplus-value in agriculture into profit and rent. That the
determination of prices of production was logically prior to the
determination of rent was Marx's important discovery while working on the
1861-63 manuscript (what we know now as Volume 2 of TSV, especially Chapter
8 on Rodbertus).
3. The equalization of profit rates across industries involves the
determination of prices of production.
4. Prices of production are explained on the basis of the COST PRICE of
commodities (i.e. the sum of constant capital and variable capital consumed
in the production of commodities). Prices of production are explained in
Part 2 as the sum of the cost price (k) and the average profit (p); i.e.
ppd(i) = k(i) + p(i)
Therefore, the concept of cost price must be introduced and explained prior
to the explanation of prices of production.
5. Therefore, Volume 3 starts with cost price as the necessary preliminary
step in the explanation of prices of production, which is the first and must
fundamental aspect of the distribution of surplus-value explained in Volume
3. This is the "logical basis for beginning Volume 3 with the category of
cost price."
6. Jerry is also right (quoting the first paragraph of Volume 3) that one
of the main goals of Volume 3 is to explain the forms of appearance of
capitalism, and in particular, to explain the false perceptions of
capitalists (and economists). Marx's explanation of capitalists' false
consciousness follows from his theory of surplus-value, the fundamental
subject of Volume 3. The forms of consciousness explained in Volume 3 are
the forms of appearance of surplus-value, i.e. the individual component
parts of surplus-value (industrial profit, merchant profit, etc.). The main
point of Marx's explanation of capitalist consciousness is that, once
surplus-value is divided into these individual parts (in actual practice, in
the real capitalist economy, by competition), then these individual parts of
surplus-value COME TO APPEAR TO CAPITALISTS AS SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT
"SOURCES" OF VALUE AND SURPLUS-VALUE. This is the "Trinity Formula" and the
fetishism of capital summarized so eloquently by Marx in the final Part 7 of
Volume 3.
So, Mike, did I pass the quiz? More seriously, what do you think?
Comradely,
Fred