ABSTRACT
The second condition of importance for acquiring means of produc-
tion and realising the surplus value is that commodity exchange and
commodity economy should be introduced in societies based on nat-
ural economy as soon as their independence has been abrogated, or
rather in the course of this disruptive process. Capital requires to buy
the products of, and sell its commodities to, all non-capitalist strata and
societies. Here at last we seem to find the beginnings of that ‘peace’ and
‘equality’, the do ut des, mutual interest, ‘peaceful competition’ and the
‘influences of civilisation’. For capital can indeed deprive alien social
associations of their means of production by force, it can compel the
workers to submit to capitalist exploitation, but it cannot force them to
buy its commodities or to realise its surplus value. In districts where
natural economy formerly prevailed, the introduction of means of
transport-railways, navigation, canals-is vital for the spreading of
commodity economy, a further hopeful sign. The triumphant march
of commodity economy thus begins in most cases with magnificent
constructions of modern transport, such as railway lines which cross
primeval forests and tunnel through the mountains, telegraph wires
which bridge the deserts, and ocean liners which call at the most
outlying ports. But it is a mere illusion that these are peaceful changes.
