Marx's theory of the development of the capitalist mode of production applies to agriculture just as it does to industry. One must not confuse the fundamental features of capitalism with the various forms it takes in agriculture and industry.

Let us analyze what constitutes the characteristic fundamental features and particular forms of the process that creates a capitalist system of agriculture. The cause of the emergence of this process is twofold: 1) commodity production, and 2) the fact that what becomes a commodity is not the product, but labor-power itself. When this force is drawn into exchange, all production becomes capitalist, creating a particular class of proletariat. The growth of commodity production and the development of wage labor in agriculture occurs in a different form than in industry; therefore, the application of Marx's theory to this sphere may appear incorrect, but one must know in what form agriculture becomes capitalist. For this, above all, one must clarify two phenomena:

I. How does commercial agriculture grow? and

II. How does the formation of the working class manifest itself?

I. The fundamental phenomenon of this process is the rapid growth of the industrial population and the export of products of production to the market. Consequently, for the broad development of commodity agriculture, broad development of the non-agricultural population is necessary. This process manifests itself in various forms and is observed in countries both importing and exporting grain. The rapid growth of the industrial population creates a grain shortage in industrial countries—that is, the impossibility of managing without grain imports from other countries under an unchanged system of technique. The rise in demand for grain, given private property in all land, leads to the formation of monopoly price.

This is important for explaining rent.

The very process of the formation of commercial agriculture does not occur quite as it does in factory industry: in industry this occurs in simple and straightforward form, but in agriculture we observe something different: there predominates a mixture of commercial and non-commercial agriculture. Here different forms are combined. To the market is brought mainly one particular product in each given locality. On one hand, the production of the landlord and especially the peasant is commodity production; on the other, it retains its consumption character.

The necessity of obtaining money brings about the transition from natural economy to commercial economy. The power of money hangs over the peasants not only in Western Europe, but also in Russia. Zemstvo statistics show that even where the remnants of patriarchal economy are very strong, the subjection of the peasant to the market reaches enormous proportions.

II. The process of formation of the class of wage laborers represents the decomposition of the peasantry into 2 strata: 1) farmers, who regard agriculture as an industry, and 2) wage laborers. This process is often called the differentiation of the peasantry. In Russia in particular did this process stand out very sharply. It was noted even in the time of the feudal system by economists.

Peculiarities of Formation.

This process occurs unevenly. Together with the formation of the class of wage laborers, we see the existence of the patriarchal system and the formation of the new, capitalist system. The wage-laboring class is bound to the land in one way or another: the forms of the process, consequently, will be extremely varied.