Note 382 — Chapter I · : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL

“Last year’s revenue pays for the production of this.” (Ibid., vol. i, p. 120.) Farther on he adds: “After all, what we do is to exchange the total product of this year against the total product of the preceding one” (p. 121). Sismondi attached great importance to the distinction between the national revenue and the annual product. “The confusion of the annual revenue with the annual product casts a thick veil over the whole science. On the other hand, all becomes clear and facts fall in with the theory as soon as one is separated from the other.” (Ibid., pp. 366-367.) It is he himself, on the contrary, who creates the confusion.