FOOTNOTES:
[89] See chaps. III. and IV.
[90] We here suppose a series of productive periods already rapidly passed through, which may suffice to replace the whole of the total capital by the new technical processes. It is evident however, that as fixed capital is replaced in successive portions, in a first stage, goods are used as capital, whose cost of reproduction no longer corresponds to their original cost of production, i.e. whose actual social value no longer corresponds to the original one. But to consider the separate stages would here cause a useless complication.
[91] The explanation of the way in which the average rate of profit arises belongs to the fundamental part of the third book of Das Kapital, and Marx must have thought it out together with the fundamental chapters in the first book.
[92] This is the case contemplated by Ricardo in the celebrated ยง 44 of chapter vi, On Profits: Marx appears to attach little importance to this case, having complete faith in the continued technical progress of agriculture, not to speak of other counteracting causes. It is necessary to add that Marx in conformity with his law, maintains that the rent of land also has a tendency to fall, although it may increase its total amount, or its proportion in reference to industrial profits: see vol. iii, 223-4.