ABSTRACT
Marx's abstract model of capital accumulation concerns itself solely with the immanent contradictions of this process. It does not pretend to depict the actual course of capitalist development, even though the general direction of this development is determined by the value relations of capital production. It deals with the social relations basic to capital as such, independently of their changing appearances in the expanding capitalist economy. While the model reveals a trend inherent in capital production, only on the basis of knowledge of concrete social conditions and the actual state of the economy is it possible to venture some predictions as to the probable further course of events and to formulate policies to cope with these contingencies.
