Natalie Moszkowska

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Signature of Natalie Moszkowska

Natalie Moszkowska (born May 1, 1886 in Warsaw ; died November 26, 1968 in Zurich ) was a Polish socialist economist who made a significant contribution to Marxist theory of values ​​and crisis, to the concept of monopoly capital and to the economic interpretation of military spending .

Life

Natalie Moszkowska was the child of Alexander Moszkowski and Eveline Juhwihler. Because of the persecution of Jews carried out by the Tsarist government around 1900 , she had to flee to Switzerland , where she began her studies at the University of Zurich and graduated with a doctorate in economics on July 18, 1914 under the direction of Heinrich Sieveking . She wrote her doctoral thesis on the workers' savings banks in the coal and steel industries in Poland, using Russian documents that she had access to during her last stay in Congress Poland in 1911 . Because of the October Revolution of 1917 and the then current November Revolution in Germany , the Swiss authorities Natalie Moszkowska suspected the end of 1918 an "agitator for Bolshevism " to be, and she then Leiba Chaim Kaplan longer than expected in the Alpine Hotel in Weesen - Amden lingered, was even the canton police of St. Gallen commissioned to monitor this “Russian couple”, who received mail “often by registered mail”.

By 1923 at the latest, she moved to Zurich, where she worked as a tutor for the trade union and social press. In addition to her doctoral thesis, she has published three other books and numerous articles. As a member of the Swiss Socialist Party, she is also actively involved in economic discussions and generally maintained contact with the international scientific community (e.g. with Maurice Dobb , Adolph Lowe or Edgar Salin ).

Works

The Marxian System (1929)

Title page: The Marxian system. A contribution to its expansion (1929)

The Marxian system was the first book that Moszkowska wrote after her dissertation. It was published in 1929 by the Berlin publisher Robert Engelmann. In the first part of the book she defends the theory of labor value in a manner very similar to that of Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz , and uses an unusually large number of numerical examples for the conversion of values ​​into prices of production.

Similarities with Bortkiewicz can also be seen in the second part of the book, in which she criticizes the handling of the decline in the rate of profit in Volume III of Karl Marx's Capital . Moszkowska argues that capitalists will only buy a new machine if it saves at least as much paid labor as it costs. In this way, all technological advances increase the productivity of work; its effect on the rate of profit depends on the increase in productivity by increasing the quantity of production per worker. One of her greatest achievements was that she described (albeit with a flawed technical analysis) what later became known as Okishio's theorem : viable innovations that reduce the rate of profit are associated with an increase in wages. It concludes that the theory of the lowering of the rate of profit should not be interpreted as a historical prediction, but as a functional relationship rate between surplus value and the rate of profit. It could also be referred to as "the law of the rate of profit fall" or "the law of the rate of increase in the rate of exploitation" and, in fact, it is the second tendency that prevailed.

In the third part of the book, she rejects the rate of profit model contained in Volume III of Capital and also contradicts the notion that the disproportions between the various branches of production are the underlying cause of the business cycle. If there really is a fundamental mismatch in the capitalist economy, she says, it is in the realm of distribution. Part of excessive profits encourages over-accumulation of capital and leads to underconsumption crises, and if real wages rise rapidly as unemployment falls, the resulting decline in profitability will end prosperity. For Moszkowska, under-consumption is the most obvious explanation.

On the Critique of Modern Crisis Theories (1935)

Title page: On the Critique of Modern Crisis Theories (1935)

In her second book On the Critique of Modern Crisis Theories , published in 1935, Natalie Moszkowska criticizes the crisis theories of the youngest German and Austrian socialist writers such as Adolph Lowe , Emil Lederer , Henryk Grossmann , Otto Bauer and Gustav Landauer .

She argues that wages must keep pace with labor productivity growth, that is, in order to maintain macroeconomic equilibrium, the wage share must remain constant. She also returns to technological advancement, a subject already developed in her previous book. She asserts with conviction that the latter is synonymous with increasing profit rates. The book also mentions the period of depression that was underway at the time of writing. She writes that the added value should rise even faster because of the inequality of the price adjustment, because wages and raw material prices fall faster than the prices for finished goods.

In this second book, Natalie Moszkowska dedicates herself entirely to the theory of underconsumption. She explains the decadence of capitalism:

“If the gap between production and consumption reaches a certain depth and the consumption deficit reaches a certain extent, the relative impoverishment turns into an absolute one . Production is reduced, the worker thrown on the pavement. If high capitalism is characterized by relative impoverishment, then late capitalism is characterized by absolute. And this absolute, in the long run unsustainable impoverishment causes the decline of capitalism . "

- N. Moszkowska : On the criticism of modern crisis theories

She also cites the Great Depression of 1930 as evidence of this.

Her second book marks a turning point in her way of thinking, and everything indicates that due to the growing gap between consumption and production, she anticipates the impending emergence of a permanent crisis in capitalism.

On the dynamics of late capitalism (1943)

Title page: On the dynamics of late capitalism (1943)

In her third book (On the Dynamics of Late Capitalism) Natalie Moszkowska continues her criticism of the downward trend in the rate of profit by resorting to two approaches to crisis: over- and under-accumulation. In their view, the under-accumulation is compatible with the contemporary theory of cycles and with the analysis of Volume III of Capital by Karl Marx. It is a “natural” or “eternal” law of capitalism. However, according to Moszkowska, Marxist political economy should focus on "social" and "historical" laws, such as over-accumulation (which is just another name for under-consumption ).

Moszkowska then goes on to analyze the problem of utility costs (or waste). This is only intended to represent one way of widening the gap between the production of society and its consumption through the misuse of resources and, in particular, armaments expenditure as well as the enormous economic and social costs of war. It comes to the conclusion that bourgeois liberalism and the reformism of social democracy are no longer viable and that now the only alternatives to socialism are fascism , imperialism and war.

Publications

Books

  • Moszkowska, N. (1917). Workers 'Funds at the Private Mines and Metallurgy Works in the Kingdom of Poland: A Contribution to the History of Employers' Welfare Institutions. Stuttgart: Dietz Nachf. (Publication of her dissertation from 1914).
  • Moszkowska, N. (1929). The Marxian system: a contribution to its expansion. Berlin: Engelmann, HR
  • Moszkowska, N. (1935). On the criticism of modern crisis theories. Prague: New World Stage.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1943). On the dynamics of late capitalism . Zurich: the departure.

items

  • Moszkowska, N. (1933). Capital shortage or shortage of sales? Rote Revue: socialist monthly , 31: 308–312.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1938). On the problem of value and price calculation - a reply [re. Emil J. Walter]
  • Moszkowska, N., Brügel, JW (1951). Capitalism after the world wars. Rote Revue: socialist monthly , 30: 461–466.
  • Thürig, W., Moszkowska, N. (1952). The old and the new fascism. Rote Revue: Socialist monthly , 31: 14–20.
  • Brügel, JW, Moszkowska, N. (1952). Who Saved Capitalism? Rote Revue: socialist monthly , 12: 76–83, 288.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1952). The capitalist final stage. Rote Revue: Socialist monthly , 31: 145–154.
  • Miville, C., Moszkowska, N., VG (1952). Who drives to war? Rote Revue: socialist monthly , 31: 245–250.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1952). Economic and political effects of armaments. Work and Economy, Vienna, 6th year / no. 3
  • Moszkowska, N., Zajfert, T., Bührer, J. (1954). Keeping mass consumption small and economic development. Rote Revue: socialist monthly , 33: 116–123, 137–140, 165–168.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1955). Barriers to democratic development. The VPOD Public Service , 48.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1955). Credit inflation and inflation. Red Review , 34: 30–39.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1958). Capitalist Economic Miracles, Union Monthly Bullets , 9 (4): 224–228.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1959). The crisis problem with Marx and Keynes. Schmoller's Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Economics, 79 (6): 665–701.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1960). Expectation and Reality, Periodical for Scientific Socialism , 16: 5-16.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1963). Change of the method and the knowledge object of economics. Schmoller's Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Economics , 83 (3): 269–293.
  • Moszkowska, N. (1965). Methodological subjectivism in economics. Schmoller's Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Economics , 85: 513–524.

Archives

Documents from Natalie Moszkowska, such as B. many annotated typescripts (of published or unpublished articles or works) or letters and enclosures for the promotion of their works are in the Swiss Social Archives in Zurich. Other documents concerning Natalie Moszkowska are in the archives of the Swiss Socialist Party, which are in the same institution.

literature

  • Michael. C Howard, John E. King: Natalie Moszkowska . In: Robert W. Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand, Evelyn L. Forget (Eds.): A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists . Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2000, pp. 313-317.
  • Karl Schoer: Natalie Moszkowska and the Falling Rate of Profit . In: New Left Review, 95 (1), 1976, pp. 92-96.
  • Harald Hagemann, Heinz D. Kurz, G. Magoulas: On the relationship of Marx's theory of value to the value and price theories of the classics: Comments on W. Becker's essay "Dialectics as a method in Marx's economic value theory" . In: Yearbooks for National Economics and Statistics , 189 (6), 1975, pp. 531-543.
  • Emmanuel Arghiri: La question de l'échange inégal . In: L'Homme et la société , 18 (1), 1970, pp. 35-59.
  • S. Groll, E.g. Orzech: From Marx to the Okishio Theorem: a Genealogy . In: History of Political Economy , 21 (2), 1989, pp. 253-272.
  • Paul M. Sweezy : The Theory of Capitalist Development . Oxford University Press, New York 1942.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Natalie Moszkowska: Workers ' funds at the private mines and metallurgical works in the Kingdom of Poland: a contribution to the history of the employers' welfare institutions . JHW Dietz, Stuttgart 1917.
  2. ↑ a b Peter Goller: Natalie Moszkowska (1886–1968), a Marxist economist (with comments on her contacts to the Austrian labor movement) . Wilfried Bader Printing and Publishing, Angerberg 2007, p. 20 .
  3. ↑ Natalie Moszkowska's letters to Maurice Dobb are in the Wren Library of Trinity College , Cambridge in Maurice Dobb's archives (CA150). See [1]
  4. ^ A correspondence between Natalie Moszkowska and Edgar Salin can be found in the archives of the library of the City and University Library Basel. See [2]
  5. ↑ The descriptions of these three books largely follow Howard and King (2000).
  6. ↑ a b c Michael. C Howard, John E. King: A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists . Edward Elgar, 2000.
  7. ↑ Melchior Palyi: On the Critique of Modern Crisis Theories. Natalie Moszkowska . In: American Journal of Sociology , vol. 42, no 2, September 1, 1936, p. 296, doi: 10.1086 / 217420 ( ISSN  0002-9602 )
  8. ^ N. Moszkowska: On the criticism of modern crisis theories . Kacha Verlag, Prague 1935, p. 106.
  9. ^ Swiss Social Archives , Zurich, detailed inventory of the archive of Natalie Moszkowska (Ar 121)
  10. ↑ Signature: Ar 1
personal data
SURNAME Moszkowska, Natalie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish socialist economist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1968
Place of death Zurich