All the material conditions necessary for men to engage in the production of material means. It is the material element in the productive forces of society, i.e., the sum total of the instruments of labor and objects of labor used by men in the production process. The means of production include land, forests, rivers, mineral deposits, machines, equipment, plants, production buildings, means of transportation, raw materials, auxiliary materials, etc. The determining part in the means of production is played by the instruments of production. The quality and quantity of the instruments of production determine the breadth and depth of the reshaping and conquest of nature and the quantity of material resources that people can acquire. While the objects of labor, which are part of nature, are also indispensable to labor, the transformation of this part of nature into objects of labor depends on the degree of development of the instruments of production. With advanced instruments of production, men can effectively extend the range of objects of labor and call forth the productive forces that lie dormant in nature…
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