THE "NEW ORDER"
297
merly state interferences were less important, it was because capital
itself was less developed.
Fascist economists, however, blame liberal economies for the
prolongation of the crisis because liberal society opposes a neces–
sary reorganization of world economy. And just as formerly
monopolistic trends in capitalist society were mistaken for social–
izing tendencies, so, at present, fascists look upon state-control as
the realization of a nationally limited socialism. Though only the
fascists, and not even all of them, dare to draw this conclusion,
socialists opposed to both the "old" and the "new" order find dif–
ficulty naming this new fascist society because of the apparent
disappearance of "market-determined production" in the fascist
states.
However,
what
market
no longer determines production? Or
rather,
what
market
did determine production in the "old" capi–
talism? Bourgeois economists assume that capitalist production
and distribution are regulated by the market. The market, that is,
selling and buying to realize a profit, is seen as a conglomeration
of competing capitalists. Their competition, it is argued, forbids
extraordinary prices and thus exceptional profits.
If
there is a
shortage of commodities of some sort, prices will rise, but only
temporarily.
An
increased production of those commodities ini–
tiated by the great demand will reduce the price again to "normal."
The price-mechanism based on competition is held to be the "regu–
lator" of production and distribution by all economists whether
they belong to the classical, marginal, or neo-classical school. The
first school makes the price dependent on the "objective supply,"
the second on the "subjective demand," and the third on both. Even
the Historical School and the Institutionalists do not deny the
existence of the price-mechanism, but believe that it could, in
addition, be influenced by other forces than merely those of supply
and demand. On price fluctuations depend the grandeur and mis–
ery of all capitalists. Thus the price-mechanism is their only real
concern.
Because the beginnings of capitalism were cumbersome, the
transformation of surplus labor into capital generally went through
the metamorphoses: money-commodity-money plus profit. But
this historically-conditioned awkwardness cannot be taken as the
essential feature of capital production. With the growth of capital,
