Marx’s Theory of Natural Resources and Economic Development

School of Finance and Economic Management, Modern College, Northwest University, Xi’an 710130, China

Abstract　Marx theory of natural resources and economic development is an important part of Marx’s economic theory. Marx not only studied the role of natural resources and revealed the characteristics of natural resources in the process of social and economic development, and also illustrated the basic ways of protecting and developing natural resources.

Key words　Marx, Natural resources, Economic development

1　Introduction

Marx believes that natural resources are an indispensable element of social production and the first source of social material wealth. They can provide unpaid services for social production, save people’s production costs and increase profits. With the development of economic society, and science and technology, people are increasingly using natural resources. However, the scarcity of natural resources has become increasingly restrictive for economic development. Therefore, when people use natural resources, they must anticipate the possible serious consequence and take practical measures to economically use and comprehensively develop natural resources and prevent the severe destruction of natural resources.

2　Role of natural resources in economic development

2.1NaturalresourcesarethefirstsourceofsocialmaterialwealthMarx pointed out that only one person treats the natural world, the first source of all labor information and labor objects, as an owner from the outset and disposes the nature as his belonging, and his work becomes the sources of use value, also the source of wealth[1]. In addition to the human labor force, human beings are required to have two elements: the subject of labor and the means of labor. The former is a subjective element in the production process. The latter is an objective factor in the production process. The subjective element that first enters the human production process is natural resources,i.e., the external natural conditions that enter the social production process. When people produce products that they consume directly or produce goods for the market, natural resources are more or less involved in the formation of the use value of the goods. It is an indispensible element in the formation of use value. Therefore, natural resources are the first source of social wealth.

2.2NaturalresourcesprovidedifferentlevelsofprobonoservicesforsocialproductionMarx pointed out that natural forces such as water, steam, air and electricity provide free services[2]. Natural resources are not products of people’s labor, but are natural materials that are given by nature without compensation. They have no value, but have use value. The use value is to be able to participate in the production process and provide services for the formation of use value of products. As natural resources have no value, their value cannot be transferred to new products. This determines that the services provided by natural resources are free of charge.

First, natural resources provide free services for the production of products, including necessary service and alternative service, two forms. The so-called necessary service refers to indispensable and irreplaceable services such as rain, air and sunlight. The so-called alternative service refers to the substitution of manpower and other production conditions with free services of natural resources, such as replacing human force with natural force. Second, as natural resources have no value and do not participate in the formation of product value, their replacement of manpower and other production conditions that cost money can save human labor and other production conditions, save production costs and increase profitability. At last, under the private ownership-based commodity production conditions, people take natural resources as their own, monopolizing the ownership, destroying the unpaid nature of natural resources to provide services to humans, and making the gratuitous nature of natural resource services become paid. In order to overcome the impediments of private ownership of natural resources to the economic development, Marx advocated the nationalization of natural resources before the country disappears. Marx once pointed out clearly that land can only be the property of the state[1].

2.3UtilizationofexcellentnaturalresourcescanprovidemorematerialproductsMarx pointed out that the same amount of labor can provide more metal when used in rich mines than in poor mines[2]. The qualitative and quantitative nature of natural resources determines that they will have great differences in the provision of gratuitous services for social and economic development, thus the natural resources themselves show a hierarchical character. Rich mines have high mining value. On the contrary, the value of exploitation is not too great for poor mines.

On the one hand, the difference in the quality of natural resources has a great impact on the material production process of human beings. For the same labor at the same time, the amount of product that people’s labor demands from the natural world is more when better natural resources are used. On the contrary, when inferior natural resources are used, the amount of product that people’s labor demands for nature is less. On the other hand, the differences in the quality of natural resources lead to different quantities of products people produce at the same time. This determines the difference in people’s labor productivity.

2.4Utilizationofhigh-qualitynaturalresourcescanproducehigh-qualityproductsMarx pointed out that when one industry uses raw materials and auxiliary materials, raw materials form the entity of the product, and auxiliary materials also add products to objects, unlike burning coal which adds products only to the value[3]. The difference in the quality of natural resources not only affects the quantity of products produced during the production of materials, it also affects the quality of the products produced during the production process. Many natural resources enter the material production process as subject of labor, and some of natural resources of physical forms will be reproduced in new products. The addition of good natural resources to the production process not only has a low scrap rate but also produces excellent products. On the contrary, the introduction of inferior natural resources into the production process not only has a high scrap rate but also reduces the quality of new products produced.

2.5GoodnaturalresourcesarethenaturalbasisfortheformationofsurpluslaborMarx pointed out that good natural conditions always provide only the possibility of surplus labor, that is, the possibility of surplus value or surplus products, and it can never provide its reality[2]. The reason is that these natural conditions only act as natural boundaries on the surplus labor, that is, they only determine the starting point for starting work for others[2]. Good natural resources are not only the natural basis on which surplus labor depends. At the same time, they are the natural basis for generating excess profits. For example, renting superior land can obtain more excess profits. As Marx pointed out that nature is not a source of excess profits, but a natural basis for excess profits, because it is the natural basis for particularly high labor productivity[4].

3　Characteristics of human use of natural resources

3.1MoreandmorenaturalresourcesareutilizedbyhumanbeingsMarx pointed out that the external natural conditions can be divided into two major categories economically: natural rich sources of living materials, such as fertile soil and the water rich in fish; the natural rich sources of means of labor, such as cascading waterfalls, rivers that can sail, forests, metals and coal[2]. The use of the natural rich sources of living materials is a low-level human use of natural resources. The use of natural rich sources of labor means is a stage in which human understanding of the natural world has gradually deepened and the social productive forces have developed to a certain degree. Therefore, at the beginning of the culture, the first category of natural rich sources has a decisive significance; at a higher stage of development, the second category of natural rich sources has a decisive significance[2]. It suggests that in the higher stage of socio-economic development, the natural resources that are increasingly used by mankind are no longer natural rich sources for living materials, instead, they are the natural rich sources of labor means. At the same time, as the needs of society increase, the capabilities of humans for recognizing and transforming nature enhance, scientific and technological achievements continue to emerge and are increasingly used in production, the breadth of socio-economic development is expanding day by day, and the scope for exploitation and utilization of natural resources is also growing.

3.2CostofhumanuseofnaturalresourcesisgraduallyincreasingMarx pointed out because of the natural laws of farming, when farming has reached a certain level and the land has been consumed correspondingly, capital (here also referred to as the mean of production already produced) will become the decisive factor in the cultivation of land[4]. Taking land fertility as an example, Marx illustrated that there is an order of superiority to inferiority in the use of natural resources. Under the same investment, people always first use the natural resources that are the most productive (i.e. the best natural resources), then use the natural resources that are more productive (i.e. the better natural resources), and finally use the natural resources that produce the least amount of production (i.e. the worst natural resources). When all natural resources are put into use, but the output produced cannot satisfy people’s demand for agricultural products, continuous adding investment in the same land is required. Therefore, with the development of economics and the expansion of social needs, and as natural resources become more widely and deeply used by humans, the cost of using natural resources will increase.

3.3ThescarcityofnaturalresourceshasbecomeincreasinglyrestrictivetoeconomicdevelopmentMarx pointed out that the natural condition that makes labor more productive does not depend on capital at all; this natural condition exits only in certain places in nature; and where is does not exist, it cannot be created by a certain amount of investment[4]. During the underdevelopment period of human social economics, the amount of degree of natural resources being used by people is low, and the amount of potential natural resources that have not been utilized is relatively large. It seems hard for people to feel that natural resources are scarce. In contrast, people mistakenly believe that natural resources are an inexhaustible natural treasure house. However, with the development of economic activities, the number and types of social needs have gradually expanded, and the breadth and depth of people’s use of natural resources is increasing. As a result, the scarcity of natural resources is constantly exposed.

Marx discovered the scarcity of natural resources long ago. Moreover, he found that the scarcity of natural resources restricts socio-economic development. Many natural resources in nature, especially those natural resources that are scarce in stock and suitable for people’s use and those natural resources that are abundant in stock and demanded greatly by society, will be depleted when humans use them to a certain extent. Since a considerable part of natural resources cannot be regenerated, people must invest more labor and money to make deeper exploitations. As a result, the cost of mining increased. This shows that the scarcer the natural resources are, the greater the impact on economic development is.

3.4TheimpactofnaturalresourcesontheagriculturalsectorisparticularlyevidentFirst, the use of natural resources by agriculture has a large scale from the outset. Marx pointed out that in agriculture, nature’s assistance, to increase human labor through the use and development of autogenic forces, has a large scale from the very beginning[5]. Since agricultural production itself must use land as labor mean and manufactured goods have long-term dependence on air, sunlight and rain, the improvement of agricultural labor productivity depends to a large extent on natural grants. Second, it is difficult for agriculture to avoid being dominated by natural resources. Marx pointed out that until today, agricultural not only cannot control the climate, instead, it has to be controlled by the climate. Third, agricultural production and agricultural labor productivity are greatly affected by natural resources. Marx pointed out the productivity of agricultural labor is linked to natural conditions and due to the different productivity of natural conditions, the same amount of labor will reflect more or less product or use value[4]. Because of this, the scale of agricultural production is difficult to rapidly expand due to natural conditions. Even worse, the production time in agriculture is affected by natural conditions with uncertainty. Marx pointed out the difference between production time and labor time is particularly significant in agriculture[3]. The production time in agriculture cannot be accurately determined and controlled in advance due to the influence of natural resources. At last, agricultural reproduction is consistent with natural reproduction. Marx pointed out reproduction exists in all production sectors. However, this kind of reproduction associated with production is only consistent with the reproduction of nature in agriculture[6]. Due to the special nature of agriculture, it must make heavy use of natural resources. As a result, the reproduction process also becomes a natural reproduction process.

4　Basic ways to protect and develop natural resources

4.1PreventseriousdestructionofnaturalresourcesMarx pointed out after long-term, often painful experiences, after comparing and study historical materials, we gradually learn to recognize the indirect and far-reaching social impact of our production activities, and thus we have the possibility to control and regulate these effects[7]. Historically, there have been numerous startling instances of using natural resources without regard to consequences. For example, deforestation and destroying grassland for land reclamation have resulted in the depletion of water resources, desertification of the soil, deteriorating climate and flooding; predatory exploitation of natural resources affects the sustainable development of economic activities. Therefore, in the use of natural resources, long-term interests must be considered, and practical measures must be taken to prevent the severe destruction of natural resources.

4.2UtilizenaturalresourceseconomicallyFirst, natural resources are used to meet needs and adapt to demand. Marx pointed out that a certain item can be consumed only if it is within a certain limits, and it is the object of need. For example, only a certain amount of grain can be eaten. Therefore, the product as a use value, considers a certain restriction in itself, that is, the limit to the needs of the product; this limit is not measured by the needs of the producer, it is measured by the total needs of the exchange; when the particular use value of a product is not needed, the product is no longer a use value[8]. Second, natural resources are used to produce best-selling products and reduce scrap. Products or waste products that do not sell, if they do not meet people’s needs, will certainly cause waste. If natural resources are used to produce products that are marketable and reduce waste, natural resources will be saved. Third, excreta can be used. The use of excrement can not only improve the economical environment but also save natural resources. Finally, machinery and equipment needs to be innovated. Innovating machines and improving equipment can greatly save various production resources.

4.3EnhanceinvestmentinnaturalresourcesWhen products produced using natural resources cannot meet the needs of society, people can only take the following two measures: discovering and using new natural resources when continuing the use of the original natural resources and changing the use of natural resources to transform the extensive use into an intensive use. Regardless of the measures taken, additional investment is required. In the study of the theory of rent, Marx revealed the historical inevitability of turning extensive farming methods into intensive farming methods and clarified the need for continuous investment in the same land.

4.4StrengthentheapplicationofscientificandtechnologicalachievementsinsocialproductionMarx pointed out that with the development of natural sciences and agronomics, the fertility of the land is also changing, because the variety of means that can make the land elements immediately available to people change[4]. Progress in science and technology and the application of scientific and technological achievements in social production make the natural resources that could not have been used for production could thus serve human production and make inferior natural resources better serve human production. Taking agricultural soil improvements as an example, scientific and technological achievements are applied to transform poor land into better land.

4.5Utilizenaturalresourcesaccordingtolocalconditions

Marx pointed out that in the climatic conditions of the Tulan Plains, if there is no feed reserve for the long cold winter, nomadic life is impossible. Therefore, pasture cultivation and grain cultivation become necessary here[9]. The role of natural resources in various sectors of social production is very different. In general,

natural resources have a greater impact on the agricultural sectors. Even today, agriculture cannot control the climate. Instead, it has to be controlled by the climate. To this end, people must use the methods that adapt to the natural conditions such as climate.

4.6FocusoncomprehensivedevelopmentofnaturalresourcesMarx pointed out that each of these things is the sum of many attributes and it can be useful in different aspects. It is a matter of history to discover these different aspects and find out numerous use patterns for the things[2]. The discovery of different properties and use patterns of things is the result of human scientific and technological development and experience accumulation, and is a process of historical progress. There is no end to the development of science and technology, and there is no end to the discovery of useful properties of matter. The function of natural resources is also multifaceted. During the use of natural resources, people are required to be good at discovering the diverse functions of natural resources and to be good at developing and utilizing comprehensively the various functions of natural resources, thus making full use of the limited natural resources.