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PARTISAN REVIEW
an increasing amount of surplus labor was directly converted into
capital without first having to enter the exchange process. The
growth of capital implies an always greater "exchange"
in natura,
because a progressively greater part of the social labor is converted
into means of production. In America, for example, during the
period from 1899 to 1922, the ratio between quantities of labor
and capital changed continuously
"until in 1922 only 37 per cent as much labor was combined
with each unit of capital as in 1899, and reciprocally 270 per
cent as much capital combined with a unit of labor as then.mo
This change in the "organic composition" of capital alters the
whole structure of capitalism; it changes the importance and the
character of the market. Because of the monopolization of capital
connected with this process the control over diverse products was
concentrated into fewer hands; and thus non-market distribution
for purposes of capital formation became more important.
11
The market for production goods is the market for capitalists,
not the market that regulates production and consumption.
With
the growing interdependence of capital through concentration, car–
telization, and monopolization, the capital-market contracts. Book–
keeping transactions replace market transactions. Though the re–
production process of capital is still a circulation process, the latter
is no longer in need of the old market arrangements. The market
is not only controlled but is slowly abolished in favor of the direct
transformation of surplus labor into capital.
All other phenomena related to market relations change with
the above changes. The transformation from monopolistic to gov–
ernmental control of production, prices, profits, and investments;
the change from tariff regulations that serve the growth of home
industries to absolute control of all foreign trade; the fact that
banks which previously were
mainly
credit-organizations are now
mainly
politico-economic instruments; that concentration by means
of acquisition of shares, contracts, interlocking directorates is now
augmented by direct political decisions-the equivalent of a com·
bination of all previous control measures; the fact that monetary
10
P. H. Douglas,
The Theory of Wages;
p. 129.
11
Henry Ford, to use a relatively simple example, today buys less from other enter·
prises than he did before. He produces to a large extent his own factories, machines,
tools, steel, soy beans, etc. Thus his capital grows by a more direct conversion of
surplus labor into capital; that is, a growing part of his production does not enter
the market at all, nor is it taken from the market.
