3
distribution, which concentrates interest on the conflicts
in the workshop about hours, efficiency norms, discipline etc
but the scales are turned also here against the worker
only owing to the abundance of labour offered in the market.
It is striking that Marx never hit on the important idea
that monopoly in the widest sense of a barrier against
free entry is inseparable from the conditions of
capitalism because you need wealth in order to make use
of the opportunities of efficient production opened up
by new techniques since the industrial revolution.
Free entry is denied in principle, and it is the more
difficult the greater the capital necessary to exploit
certain technological advantages. Restriction on free
competition is therefore a general feature of capitalism
capable of explaining profit and exploitation ( Joan
Robinson spoke of the property qualification for entry
into business ). This argument is persistently valid also
in conditions of full employment ( pace Marx ) and
in a stagnating economy ( Pace Schumpeter ).
The contrast between competition and monopoly is to some
extent linked to the choice between labour values and
market prices. For Kalecki value is of no interest becuase
he deals with a world of monopolies and therefore prefers
to use market prices which are also the basis of
statistical data available. I see no reason why the
discussion of accumulation in chapter 23 should not
be perfectly comprehensible in terms of market prices
without any great danger of misunderstanding.