Quiz: Capital, Volume II

All 50 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What “distribution” does Marx say lies behind the process M-C{L, Pm}?

   The distribution of articles of consumption The distribution of the elements of production The distribution of profits among the capitalists The distribution of gold among nations
2. 2. Besides a lack of money-capital, what do Russian landowners complain of after the emancipation of the serfs?

   Foreign competition in the grain market High taxes Not enough labourers available Too many labourers
3. 3. What is a hoard, as Marx defines it in chapter II?

   Capital invested in land Unsold goods kept back in a warehouse for higher prices Money lent out at interest to industrial capitalists Money interrupted in circulation and stored up
4. 4. What kind of money does Marx assume throughout Volume II?

   Credit-money and bills Paper tokens of value Metallic money Labour certificates
5. 5. Into which two elements is the money-capital converted in the first stage?

   Wages and rent Labour-power and means of production Fixed capital and circulating capital Gold and credit
6. 6. What does Untermann say he had to do with quotations from English authors?

   Replace them with summaries in German Omit them Retranslate them from the German Leave them in German
7. 7. Which two branches does Marx compare to illustrate different working periods?

   A shipyard on the Clyde and a London brewery A cotton spinnery and a locomotive factory A coal mine and a farm A bank and a shop
8. 8. What does Marx say the cycle of fixed capital, averaging about ten years, furnishes?

   A guarantee against crises through steady renewal of machinery The average rate of interest over the cycle A material basis for periodic crises The basis of ground-rent on factory sites
9. 9. What is the “general law” about expenses of circulation arising only from changes of form?

   They are borne by landowners as deductions from rent They are paid out of wages They do not add any value to the commodities They add value to commodities in proportion to their cost
10. 10. Which classification of economic history does Marx criticise in chapter IV?

    Mercantilism, physiocracy and classical economy Ancient slavery, feudalism and capitalism Natural, money and credit economy Hunting, pastoral, agricultural and commercial stages
11. 11. What does improved transport lead to, according to chapter XIV?

    Lower wages for transport workers as the work is mechanised The end of all time spent in circulation Producing for the world market A return to production for local markets
12. 12. According to chapter VIII, how did railway managements artificially inflate their dividends?

    By raising fares and freight rates above those of competing lines By cutting the wages of engine drivers and platelayers By selling surplus land and counting the proceeds as current profit By charging repairs to capital account instead of revenue account
13. 13. What is the condition of simple reproduction between the two departments?

    I (v + s) = II c I v = II s I (c + s) = II (c + v) I (c + v) = II (v + s)
14. 14. In which form of capital, according to Marx, is the creation of surplus-value (not merely its appropriation) a function of capital?

    Merchant’s capital Money-dealing capital Industrial capital Interest-bearing capital
15. 15. What would happen to money-capital if society were communistic, according to chapter XVI?

    It would grow faster than production It would be replaced by gold It would be eliminated It would be held by the state bank
16. 16. What did Priestley call the gas he discovered in 1774?

    Inflammable air of metals Highly phlogisticated air Dephlogisticized air Eminently respirable air
17. 17. What relation do time of circulation and time of production have, according to chapter V?

    They mutually exclude one another Circulation time creates surplus-value They are always equal They overlap completely in every branch
18. 18. To whom were Volumes II and III to be dedicated?

    Engels The International Working Men’s Association Wilhelm Wolff Marx’s wife
19. 19. What is the real question about surplus-value raised in chapter XVII?

    Who owns the means of production Where surplus-value comes from How wages are determined Where the money to exchange it for comes from
20. 20. Why is the premise I (v + s) = II c “irreconcilable with capitalist production”?

    Because Department II could then not replace its own wages Because it would require wages to fall to zero in Department I Because it presupposes that all circulation is in gold money Because capitalist production means accumulation, which it rules out
21. 21. What difficulty does Engels say Marx had in chapter XV?

    Reading English sources German grammar and spelling Algebra and the calculus Commercial arithmetic
22. 22. Why does Ricardo mention the distinction between fixed and circulating capital?

    To explain money To show why the Corn Laws should be kept in force To explain the origin of surplus-value in production To illustrate exceptions to the law of value
23. 23. According to Engels, what is bought and sold as a commodity in the exchange between capital and labour?

    Hours of work Labour itself The product of labour Labour-power
24. 24. In which kind of production does Marx say bookkeeping is most necessary?

    Handicraft production Co-operative production Capitalist production Agricultural production
25. 25. How, according to chapter IV, can capital be understood?

    Only as a legal title Only as means of production Only as a sum of money Only as a thing in motion, not at rest
26. 26. Who, according to Marx, throws into circulation the money that realises the surplus-value?

    The working class, out of its wages The gold producers alone The landowners, by spending their rents The capitalist class itself
27. 27. What is “virtual” wear and tear?

    Wear estimated in advance by the accountant rather than observed Loss of value because the same equipment later becomes cheaper Physical wear from use, spread over the working life of the machine Damage from weather and idleness to equipment that stands unused
28. 28. What does the transportation industry sell, according to Marx?

    A change of location Nothing, since it is unproductive Storage space Insurance against loss
29. 29. To which scientist does Engels compare Marx’s relation to his predecessors in the theory of surplus-value?

    Darwin Priestley Lavoisier Newton
30. 30. How does Marx describe the system of the Physiocrats?

    The first systematic conception of capitalist production A theory of money A defence of feudal landed property and nothing more An early form of agrarian socialism
31. 31. Under which form of the circuit did classical political economy discuss the rotation of industrial capital?

    The cycle of commodity-capital The cycle of interest-bearing capital The cycle of productive capital The cycle of money-capital
32. 32. Which doctrine does Marx say resulted from identifying circulating capital with the workers’ means of subsistence?

    The law of diminishing returns on land The doctrine of a labour fund of fixed size The iron law of wages The quantity theory of money
33. 33. According to Engels’s preface, which of Marx’s manuscripts for Volume II had been fully revised and made ready for the printer?

    All eight Manuscripts I and VIII At best only one, manuscript No. 4 None of them were for Volume II
34. 34. Which cycle does Marx say is the basis of Quesnay’s Tableau Économique?

    C′...C′, the cycle of commodity-capital M...M′, the cycle of money-capital M-C-M, the circulation of money as capital P...P, the cycle of productive capital
35. 35. What does Marx say about civilisation and industry in relation to forests?

    Private capital is ideally suited to forestry Their destruction of forests dwarfs all efforts to preserve them They have preserved forests through scientific planning and replanting They have no effect on forests
36. 36. What does Engels challenge Rodbertus’s supporters to show?

    How surplus-value can arise in circulation rather than in production How a rent of land can exist without any surplus-value at all How periodic crises can be prevented by a fair distribution of income How an equal average rate of profit can arise from the law of value
37. 37. Under socialised production, what might producers receive instead of money, according to chapter XVIII?

    Nothing at all Paper checks that do not circulate Gold coins Shares in their enterprise
38. 38. What alone determines whether capital invested in means of production is fixed capital?

    Whether it is physically immovable Whether it is owned or rented The peculiar way its value circulates Whether it is made of durable material
39. 39. What does Marx give as the natural basis of the year as the unit of turnover?

    The annual general meeting of shareholders The working day multiplied by 300 days Annual crops of the temperate zone The yearly calendar of the Bank of England
40. 40. When does the annual rate of surplus-value coincide with the current rate?

    When the capital turns over once a year In every case, whatever the period of turnover Never, since the two rates measure different things When wages are paid out weekly throughout the whole year
41. 41. According to the contractor’s testimony of 1857, how were London houses now mostly built?

    By building societies On speculation, for the market By the municipality To order, paid in instalments
42. 42. Which economist was Marx accused of plagiarising, a charge Engels refutes in the preface?

    Ferdinand Lassalle Simonde de Sismondi Rodbertus John Stuart Mill
43. 43. Why, according to Marx, does the capitalist “sell dearer than he has bought”?

    Because his commodity contains a greater value than its elements Because competition lets him sell above its value Because money is scarce and its value rises against commodities Because buyers are cheated by a mark-up added in circulation
44. 44. What does Marx call the “slogan” of the circulation of money-capital?

    Buying to sell dearer Accumulate, accumulate! Money begets more money Production for use, not for profit
45. 45. To whom did Marx say, shortly before his death, that Engels should “make something” of the material?

    His wife Jenny His daughter Eleanor Paul Lafargue Karl Kautsky
46. 46. What does Marx call the claim that crises are caused by a scarcity of paying consumers?

    The correct explanation A tautology A law of nature Rodbertus’s great discovery
47. 47. Into which two departments does Marx divide the total production of society?

    Means of production and means of consumption Necessities and luxuries Agriculture on one side and industry on the other Fixed and circulating capital
48. 48. What is the formula for the circulation process of money-capital?

    M-C...P...C′-M′ P...C′-M′-C...P C-M-C M-M′
49. 49. According to Marx, what usually precedes crises?

    A general fall in wages A bad harvest A period in which wages rise generally A shortage of gold
50. 50. What were Quesnay’s terms for what later became fixed and circulating capital?

    Stock and flow Avances primitives and avances annuelles Capitaux fixes and capitaux circulants Produit net and produit brut