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Prior to any analysis of the production process of commodity economy a fundamental assumption about the extent of domination of the capitalist mode of production is made. This is done to simplify the reality for the purpose of easy comprehension. There are two possible readings of the basic assumption on the extent of domination of capital.
One interpretation can be : There exists an independent country totally dominated by capital i.e. constituted by representatives of capital and wage labourers. This implies that though capitalist production does not exist without foreign commerce, but the inclusion of foreign commerce in analysing the problem of capitalist production only confuses the issue without contributing any new element to the problem or to its solution. For this reason international commerce is totally discarded.
The second interpretation can be : The whole globe is one country and is dominated by the capitalist mode of production.
While analysing the process of production, either of these interpretations of the assumption poses no acute problem. However, it is not so in the case of the analysis of distribution of labour and extended reproduction of capital.
Both the interpretations have two features in common. One, inter-state competition does not play any significant role in the dynamics of commodity economy. And two, the existence of other modes of production, especially of simple commodity production, have no significance. On both of these counts the assumption is flawed.
This assumption erases out from the realm of analysis the competition and struggle amongst state apparatuses which play a very significant role in the dynamics of commodity economy. The expenses of states and their intervention in the production process due to inter-state competition and conflict is very significant whereas this assumption negates this.
Even on the basis of Marx’s assumption states’ role needs to be taken into consideration while dealing with economic processes. State apparatuses corner a very significant portion of the total produce, whose distribution is determined by the logistics of their sustenance. Custom duties, excise duties and other taxes have always played an economically crucial role in determining the dynamics of commodity economy. Differential taxes and subsidies (which are actually lower taxes) are used by the state apparatuses in determining the solvency or insolvency of enterprises according to their strategic and other needs. Marx’s analyses simply erase this all pervasive economic role of state apparatuses in commodity economy .
Commodity economy did not grow in a political vacuum, but under the watchful gaze of state apparatuses. In coercing the ‘bonded to person’ peasant and artisan into disciplined appendage of machines, the wage-worker, state apparatuses have played an overwhelming role. Their actual weightage is lost both due to conscious erasure and unconscious neglect. Anti-vagabondage and anti-beggary acts, denial of access to natural resources through enclosures and forest nationalisations, organisation of slave labour and indentured labour, forced emigrations and also suppressing rebellions of artisans and peasants against factory system (e.g. Luddites) are well known historical examples. In addition to these is the more obvious role of tackling social discontent and resistances to wage-work.
The policing apparatus of surveillance and control, the legal system of discipline and punishment, the armed forces for suppression and instilling fear, schools for training and discipline, the political institutions for camouflage and management and other organs of state apparatuses are intimately connected with the present production process of surplus extraction. The production process cannot be visualised without them. Added to all these is the constant mass mobilisation for inter-state contentions and conflicts.
State apparatuses have played a crucial role in both keeping branches of production alive and competitive or doing away with them. States’ role in the coercion of wage-workers on the one hand and differential taxes and custom duties on the other have always determined to a greater or lesser extent the competitiveness of various production units. States act as factions of global capital. The monetary and fiscal policies, especially in the 20th century, determine the viability of branches of production within state frontiers. The policies themselves are determined by competition in the world market. There is an additional compulsion, that of tackling social discontent. Marx’s analysis sadly, if at all it does, deals with the economic role of state apparatuses in a very cursory way. It is constrained by its own assumption. Today, when states gobble more than 50 percent of the global produce amongst themselves, this deficiency in Marx’s assumption becomes painfully glaring.
Secondly, this assumption of Marx disregards the significance and existence of simple commodity production. This leads to serious errors while analysing extended reproduction of capital and the violence that accompanies enlarged reproduction of capital. Moreover it fails to show the necessity for capital to “mould the world in its own image”. This problem is dealt with in the section on the accumulation of capital .
The disregard of simple commodity production, leads to another disparity between theory and reality. As per Marx, on an average wages represent value of labour power. Value of labour power is the value of subsistence and other goods necessary for the reproduction of the wage-worker. But it needs to be pointed out that the creation and reproduction of significant numbers of wage-workers takes place within simple commodity production. Children of peasants and artisans become wage-workers. Wage-workers often continue as members of peasants’ and artisans’ families. Which means a part of the value of subsistence and other goods, which are necessary for the reproduction of the wage-workers come from the simple commodity producing unit to which they belong. Therefore, the wages do often represent a far lesser amount than the value of labour power. This was important throughout the world, and is still important in large areas.
A better and more meaningful assumption or starting point would be to assume global production to be dominated by commodity production, which includes capitalist commodity production and simple commodity production. Global production is divided into various factions of capital, organised as state, corporate, company formations. Each region has to a greater or lesser extent segments of simple commodity production. Each faction competes or struggles against all others for greater and greater share of the global produce.
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