Marx understood that capitalism constitutes more than a simple system of commodity
exchange: it is at the same time a system of commodity production, and this distinction
provides the basis for the characterisation of capitalism in Marxian political economy. From this perspective, the reproduction of ‘daily life’is dependent on commodity production and consumption (circulation) through a market that has the accumulation of value or profit as its central goal. Production, therefore, presupposes consumption and the existence of a social division of labour (Pratt 1994). Considered in this way, the competitive strategies of rural SMEs are ‘necessarily’ reliant on the pre-existence of
a complex set of social relationships, what might be crudely termed the capitalist mode
of production. Within these relationships,companies are encumbered with the liability
to produce value and the power to exercise control over methods of production. Their
functions within the productive system, therefore,represent a necessary precondition for
the behaviour of company decision-makers,and by implication the business strategies that
are adopted.A second set of necessary relationsh