Note 381 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

Sismondi’s awkwardness in the manipulation of abstract reasoning is clearly visible in a host of other passages, especially in the vagueness of his definitions. Labour in one place is defined as the source of all revenues (ibid., vol. i, p. 85); elsewhere, as the workers’ revenue as contrasted with interest and rent (vol. i, pp. 96, 101, 110, 113, 114; vol. ii, p. 257, etc.). He never distinguishes between national and private capital, and wages are sometimes treated as capital, sometimes as revenue (p. 379). He constantly uses such vague terms as “rich” and “poor” to designate capitalist and worker (vol. ii, chap. 5). In his explanation of how the rate of interest is fixed he says that the strength of the lenders of capital just balances the strength of the borrowers, and, as in all other markets, they hit upon a proportional mean (vol. ii, p. 36). In a similar fashion he is constantly confusing revenue in kind with money revenue.