ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the “simple reproduction” and “extended reproduction” of “individual capital” and “social capital.” Accumulation is dealt with in the “sphere of production” (Book I, Chapter 25), then extended to “the circuit of Money capital” (Book II), in two stages: i) the accumulation of “individual capital,” i.e. the microeconomics of decisions whose interaction forms ii) “social capital as a whole.” Three theoretical advances emerge from the “Simple Reproduction” (Book II, Chapter 20) and “Reproduction on an Expanded Scale” (Chapter 21) schemes of reproduction: i) the dynamics are first ensured by the means of production (Department I), which quantitatively fixes those of the means of consumption (Department II); ii) a permanent disproportion structure expanded reproduction: the overproduction of (D.I) is the material basis of accumulation, not a dysfunction; iii) the organic composition of capital in (D.I) is always superior to that in (D.II). These conditions of “enlarged reproduction” show the possibility of an indefinite development of capitalism; a premise for the debate on the “decline” vs. the “perpetuation” of capitalism.
