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Economic Works of Karl Marx 1857-61
Grundrisse der
Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy
Written: 1857-61;
Published: in German 1939-41;
Source: Penguin 1973;
Translated by: Martin Nicolaus;
Scanned by: Tim Delaney, 1997;
HTML Mark-up: Andy Blunden, 2002.
Marx wrote this huge manuscript as part of his preparation for what would become A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (published in 1859) and Capital (published 1867).
Soviet Marxologists released several never-before-seen Marx/Engels works in the 1930s. Most were early works – like the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts – but the Grundrisse stood alone as issuing forth from the most intense period of Marx’s decade-long, in-depth study of economics. It is an extremely rich and thought-provoking work, showing signs of humanism and the influence of Hegelian dialectic method. Do note, though, Marx did not intend it for publication as is, so it can be stylistically very rough in places.
The series of seven notebooks were rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes of self-clarification, during the winter of 1857-8. The manuscript became lost in circumstances still unknown and was first effectively published, in the German original, in 1953. A limited edition was published by Foreign Language Publishers in Moscow in two volumes, 1939 and 1941 respectively, under the editorship of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, Moscow. The first volume contained the introduction and the seven notebooks translated here. The second added fragments from Marx’s 1851 notebooks of excerpts from Ricardo, the fragment ‘Bastiat and Carey’ (also included in this translation), and miscellaneous related material; also extensive annotations and sources. A photo-offset reprint of the two volumes bound in one, minus illustrations and facsimiles, was issued by Dietz Verlag, Berlin (E.), in 1953, and is the basis of the present translation. It is referred to hereafter as Grundrisse. Rosdolsky states that only three or four copies of the 1939-41 edition ever reached ‘the western world’.
The online edition has been transcribed for MEIA from the Penguin edition, transl. Martin Nicolaus, 1973, used by permission of the translator. Transcribed and marked-up by Tim Delaney.
Analytical Contents List
INTRODUCTION (Notebook M)
81 (1) Production in general 81 (2) General relation between production, distribution, exchange and consumption 88 (3) The method of political economy 100 (4) Means (forces) of production and relations of production, relations of production and relations of circulation 109 THE CHAPTER ON MONEY (Notebooks I and II, pp. 1-7)
113 Darimon's theory of crises 115 Gold export and crises 125 Convertibility and note circulation 130 Value and price 136 Transformation of the commodity into exchange value; money 140 Contradictions in the money relation 147 (1) Contradiction between commodity as product and commodity as exchange value 147 (2) Contradiction between purchase and sale 148 (3) Contradiction between exchange for the sake of exchange and exchange for the sake of commodities 148 (Aphorisms) 149 (4) Contradiction between money as particular commodity and money as general commodity 150 (The Economist and the Morning Star on money) 151 Attempts to overcome the contradictions by the issue of time-chits 153 Exchange value as mediation of private interests 156 Exchange value (money) as social bond 156 Social relations which create an undeveloped system of exchange 163 Product becomes a commodity; the commodity becomes exchange value; the exchange value of the commodity becomes money 165 Money as measure 166 Money as objectification of general labour time 168 (Incidental remark on gold and silver) 169 Distinction between particular labour time and general labour time 171 Distinction between planned distribution of labour time and measurement of exchange values by labour time 172 (Strabo on money among the Albanians) 173 The precious metals as subjects of the money relation 173 (a) Gold and silver in relation to the other metals 174 (b) Fluctuations in the value-relations between the different metals 180 (c) and (d) (headings only): Sources of gold and silver; money as coin 185 Circulation of money and opposite circulation of commodities 186 General concept of circulation 187 (a) Circulation circulates exchange values in the form of prices 187 (Distinction between real money and accounting money) 190 (b) Money as the medium of exchange 193 (What determines the quantity of money required for circulation) 194 (Comment on (a)) 195 Commodity circulation requires appropriation through alienation 196 Circulation as an endlessly repeated process 197 The price as external to and independent of the commodity 198 Creation of general medium of exchange 199 Exchange as a special business 200 Double motion of circulation: C-M; M-C, and M-C; C-M 201 Three contradictory functions of money 201 (1) Money as general material of contracts, as measuring unit of exchange values 203 (2) Money as medium of exchange and realizer of prices 208 (Money, as representative of price, allows commodities to be exchanged at equivalent prices) 211 (An example of confusion between the contradictory functions of money) (Money as particular commodity and money as general commodity) 213 (3) Money as money: as material representative of wealth (accumulation of money) 215 (Dissolution of ancient communities through money) 223 (Money, unlike coin, has a universal character) 226 (Money in its third function is the negation (negative unity) of its character as medium of circulation and measure) 228 (Money in its metallic being; accumulation of gold and silver) 229 (Headings on money, to be elaborated later) 237 THE CHAPTER ON CAPITAL (Notebooks II pp. 8-28, III-VII)
239 The Chapter on Money as Capital 239 Difficulty in grasping money in its fully developed character as money 239 Simple exchange: relations between the exchangers 240 (Critique of socialists and harmonizers: Bastiat, Proudhon) 247 SECTION ONE: THE PRODUCTION PROCESS OF CAPITAL
250 Nothing is expressed when capital is characterized merely as a sum of values 251 Landed property and capital 252 Capital comes from circulation; its content is exchange value; merchant capital, money capital, and money interest 253 Circulation presupposes another process; motion between presupposed extremes 254 Transition from circulation to capitalist production 256 Capital is accumulated labour (etc.) 257 'Capital is a sum of values used for the production of values' 258 Circulation, and exchange value deriving from circulation, the presupposition of capital 259 Exchange value emerging from circulation, a presupposition of circulation, preserving and multiplying itself in it by means of labour 262 Product and capital. Value and capital. Proudhon 264 Capital and labour. Exchange value and use value for exchange value 266 Money and its use value (labour) in this relation capital Self-multiplication of value is its only movement 269 Capital, as regards substance, objectified labour. Its antithesis living, productive labour 271 Productive labour and labour as performance of a service 272 Productive and unproductive labour. A. Smith etc. 273 The two different processes in the exchange of capital with labour 274 Capital and modern landed property 275 The market 279 Exchange between capital and labour. Piecework wages 281 Value of labour power 282 Share of the wage labourer in general wealth determined only quantitatively 283 Money is the worker's equivalent; he thus confronts capital as an equal 284 But the aim of his exchange is satisfaction of his need. Money for him is only medium of circulation 284 Savings, self-denial as means of the worker's enrichment 284 Valuelessness and devaluation of the worker a condition of capital 289 (Labour power as capital!) 293 Wages not productive 294 The exchange between capital and labour belongs within simple circulation, does not enrich the worker 295 Separation of labour and property the precondition of this exchange 295 Labour as object absolute poverty, labour as subject general possibility of wealth 296 Labour without particular specificity confronts capital 296 Labour process absorbed into capital 297 (Capital and capitalist) 303 Production process as content of capital 304 The worker relates to his labour as exchange value, the capitalist as use value 306 The worker divests himself of labour as the wealth-producing power; capital appropriates it as such 307 Transformation of labour into capital 308 Realization process 310 (Costs of production) 315 Mere self-preservation, non-multiplication of value contradicts the essence of capital 316 Capital enters the cost of production as capital. Interest-bearing capital 318 (Parentheses on: original accumulation of capital, historic presuppositions of capital, production in general) 319 Surplus value. Surplus labour time 321 Value of labour. How it is determined 322 Conditions for the self-realization of capital 324 Capital is productive as creator of surplus labour 325 But this is only a historical and transitory phenomenon 325 Theories of surplus value (Ricardo; the Physiocrats; Adam Smith; Ricardo again) 326 Surplus value and productive force. Relation when these increase 333 Result: in proportion as necessary labour is already diminished, the realization of capital becomes more difficult 340 Concerning increases in the value of capital 341 Labour does not reproduce the value of material and instrument, but rather preserves it by relating to them in the labour process as to their objective conditions 354 Absolute surplus labour time. Relative 359 It is not the quantity of living labour, but rather its quality as labour which preserves the labour time already contained in the material 359 The change of form and substance in the direct production process 360 It is inherent in the simple production process that the previous stage of production is preserved through the subsequent one 361 Preservation of the old use value by new labour 362 The quantity of objectified labour is preserved because contact with living labour preserves its quality as use value for new labour 363 In the real production process, the separation of labour from its objective moments of existence is suspended. But in this process labour is already incorporated in capital 364 The capitalist obtains surplus labour free of charge together with the maintenance of the value of material and instrument 365 Through the appropriation of present labour, capital already possesses a claim to the appropriation of future labour 367 Confusion of profit and surplus value. Carey's erroneous calculation 373 The capitalist, who does not pay the worker for the preservation of the old value, then demands remuneration for giving the worker permission to preserve the old capital 374 Surplus Value and profit 376 Difference between consumption of the instrument and of wages. The former consumed in the production process, the latter outside it 378 Increase of surplus value and decrease in rate of profit 381 Multiplication of simultaneous working days 386 Machinery 389 Growth of the constant part of capital in relation to the variable part spent on wages = growth of the productivity of labour 389 Proportion in which capital has to increase in order to employ the same number of workers if productivity rises 390 Percentage of total capital can express very different relations 395 Capital (like property in general) rests on the productivity of labour 397 Increase of surplus labour time. Increase of simultaneous working days. (Population) 398 (Population can increase in proportion as necessary labour time becomes smaller) 400 Transition from the process of the production of capital into the process of circulation 401 SECTION TWO: THE CIRCULATION PROCESS OF CAPITAL
401 Devaluation of capital itself owing to increase of productive forces 402 (Competition) 413 Capital as unity and contradiction of the production process and the realization process 414 Capital as limit to production. Overproduction 415 Demand by the workers themselves 419 Barriers to capitalist production 422 Overproduction; Proudhon 423 Price of the commodity and labour time 424 The capitalist does not sell too dear; but still above what the thing costs him 430 Price can fall below value without damage to capital 432 Number and unit (measure) important in the multiplication of prices 432 Specific accumulation of capital. (Transformation of surplus labour into capital) 433 The determination of value and of prices 433 The general rate of profit 434 the capitalist merely sells at his own cost of production, then it is a transfer to another capitalist. The worker gains almost nothing thereby 436 Barrier of capitalist production. Relation of surplus labour to necessary labour. Proportion of the surplus consumed by capital to that transformed into capital 443 Devaluation during crises 446 Capital coming out of the production process becomes money again 447 (Parenthesis on capital in general) 449 Surplus Labour or Surplus Value Becomes Surplus Capital 450 All the determinants of capitalist production now appear as the result of (wage) labour itself 450 The realization process of labour at the same time its de-realization process 452 Formation of surplus capital I 456 Surplus capital II 456 Inversion of the law of appropriation 458 Chief result of the production and realization process 458 Original Accumulation of Capital 459 Once developed historically, capital itself creates the conditions of its existence 459 (Performance of personal services, as opposed to wage labour) 465 (Parenthesis on inversion of the law of property, real alien relation of the worker to his product, division of labour, machinery) 469 Forms which precede capitalist production. (Concerning the process which precedes the formation of the capital relation or of original accumulation) 471 Exchange of labour for labour rests on the worker's propertylessness 514 Circulation of capital and circulation of money 516 Production process and circulation process moments of production. The productivity of the different capitals (branches of industry) determines that of the individual capital 517 Circulation period. Velocity of circulation substitutes for volume of capital. Mutual dependence of capitals in the velocity of their circulation 518 The four moments in the turnover of capital 520 Moment II to be considered here: transformation of the product into money; duration of this operation 521 Transport costs 521 Circulation costs 524 Means of communication and transport 525 Division of the branches of labour 527 Concentration of many workers; productive force of this concentration 528 General as distinct from particular conditions of production 533 Transport to market (spatial condition of circulation) belongs in the production process 533 Credit, the temporal moment of circulation 534 Capital is circulating capital 536 Influence of circulation on the determination of value; circulation time = time of devaluation 537 Difference between the capitalist mode of production and all earlier ones (universality, propagandistic nature) 540 (Capital itself is the contradiction) 543 Circulation and creation of value 544 Capital not a source of value-creation 547 Continuity of production presupposes suspension of circulation time 548 Theories of Surplus Value
549 Ramsay's view that capital is its own source of profit 549 No surplus value according to Ricardo's law 551 Ricardo's theory of value. Wages and profit 553 Quincey 557 Ricardo 559 Wakefield. Conditions of capitalist production in colonies 563 Surplus value and profit. Example (Malthus) 564 Difference between labour and labour capacity 576 Carey's theory of the cheapening of capital for the worker 579 Carey's theory of the decline of the rate of profit 580 Wakefield on the contradiction between Ricardo's theories of wage labour and of value 581 Bailey on dormant capital and increase of production without previous increase of capital 582 Wade's explanation of capital. Capital, collective force. Capital, civilization 584 Rossi. What is capital? Is raw material capital? Are wages necessary for it? 591 Malthus. Theory of value and of wages 595 Aim of capitalist production value (money), not commodity, use value etc. Chalmers 600 Difference in return. Interruption of the production process. Total duration of the production process. Unequal periods of production 602 The concept of the free labourer contains the pauper. Population and overpopulation 604 Necessary labour. Surplus labour. Surplus population. Surplus capital 608 Adam Smith: work as sacrifice 610 Adam Smith: the origin of profit 614 Surplus labour. Profit. Wages 616 Immovable capital. Return of capital. Fixed capital. John Stuart Mill 616 Turnover of capital. Circulation process. Production process 618 Circulation costs. Circulation time 633 Capital's change of form and of substance; different forms of capital; circulating capital as general character of capital 637 Fixed (tied down) capital and circulating capital 640 Constant and variable capital 649 Competition 649 Surplus value. Production time. Circulation time. Turnover time 652 Competition (continued) 657 Part of capital in production time, part in circulation time 658 Surplus value and production phase. Number of reproductions of capital = number of turnovers 663 Change of form and of matter in the circulation of capital C – M – C. M – C – M 667 Difference between production time and labour time 668 Formation of a mercantile estate; credit 671 Small-scale circulation. The process of exchange between capital and labour capacity generally 673 Threefold character, or mode, of circulation 678 Fixed capital and circulating capital 679 Influence of fixed capital on the total turnover time of capital 684 Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine 690 Transposition of powers of labour into powers of capital both in fixed and in circulating capital To what extent fixed capital (machine) creates value 701 Fixed capital & continuity of the production process. Machinery & living labour 702 Contradiction between the foundation of bourgeois production (value as measure) and its development 704 Significance of the development of fixed capital (for the development of capital generally) 707 The chief role of capital is to create disposable time; contradictory form of this in capital 708 Durability of fixed capital 710 Real saving (economy) = saving of labour time = development of productive force 711 True conception of the process of social production 712 Owen's historical conception of industrial (capitalist) production 712 Capital and value of natural agencies 714 Scope of fixed capital indicates the level of capitalist production 715 Is money fixed capital or circulating capital? 716 Turnover time of capital consisting of fixed capital and circulating capital. Reproduction time of fixed capital 717 The same commodity sometimes circulating capital, sometimes fixed capital 723 Every moment which is a presupposition of production is at the same time its result, in that it reproduces its own conditions 726 The counter-value of circulating capital must be produced within the year. Not so for fixed capital. It engages the production of subsequent years 727 Maintenance costs of fixed capital 732 Revenue of fixed capital and circulating capital 732 Free labour = latent pauperism. Eden 735 The smaller the value of fixed capital in relation to its product, the more useful 737 Movable and immovable, fixed and circulating 739 Connection of circulation and reproduction 741 SECTION THREE: CAPITAL AS FRUCTIFEROUS.
Transformation Of Surplus Value into Profit745 Rate of profit. Fall of the rate of profit 745 Surplus value as profit always expresses a lesser proportion 753 Wakefield, Carey and Bastiat on the rate of profit 754 Capital and revenue (profit). Production and distribution. Sismondi 758 Transformation of surplus value into profit 762 Laws of this transformation 762 Surplus value = relation of surplus labour to necessary labour 764 Value of fixed capital and its productive power 765 Machinery and surplus labour. Recapitulation of the doctrine of surplus value generally 767 Relation between the objective conditions of production. Change in the proportion of the component parts of capital 771 MISCELLANEOUS
778 Money and fixed capital: presupposes a certain amount of wealth. Relation of fixed capital and circulating capital. (Economist) 778 Slavery and wage labour; profit upon alienation (Steuart) 778 Steuart, Montanari and Gouge on money 781 The wool industry in England since Elizabeth; silk- manufacture; iron; cotton 783 Origin of free wage labour. Vagabondage. (Tuckett) 785 Blake on accumulation and rate of profit; dormant capital 786 Domestic agriculture at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (Tuckett) 788 Profit. Interest. Influence of machinery on the wage fund. (Westminster Review ) 789 Money as measure of values and yardstick of prices. Critique of theories of the standard measure of money 789 Transformation of the medium of circulation into money. Formation of treasures. Means of payment. Prices of commodities and quantity of circulating money. Value of money 805 Capital, not labour, determines the value of money. (Torrens) 816 The minimum of wages 817 Cotton machinery and working men in 1826. (Hodgskin) 818 How the machine creates raw material. (Economist) 818 Machinery and surplus labour 819 Capital and profit. Relation of the worker to the conditions of labour in capitalist production. All parts of capital bring a profit 821 Tendency of the machine to prolong labour 825 Cotton factories in England. Example for machinery and surplus labour 826 Examples from Glasgow for the rate of profit 828 Alienation of the conditions of labour with the development of capital. Inversion 831 Merivale. Natural dependence of the worker in colonies to be replaced by artificial restrictions 833 How the machine saves material. Bread. D'eau de la Malle 834 Development of money and interest 836 Productive consumption. Newman. Transformations of capital. Economic cycle 840 Dr Price. Innate power of capital 842 Proudhon. Capital and simple exchange. Surplus 843 Necessity of the worker's propertylessness 845 Galiani 846 Theory of savings. Storch 848 MacCulloch. Surplus. Profit 849 Arnd. Natural interest 850 Interest and profit. Carey 851 How merchant takes the place of master 855 Merchant wealth 856 Commerce with equivalents impossible. Opdyke 861 Principal and interest 862 Double standard 862 On money 864 James Mill's false theory of prices 867 Ricardo on currency 870 On money 871 Theory of foreign trade. Two nations may exchange according to the law of profit in such a way that both gain, but one is always defrauded 872 Money in its third role, as money 872 (I) VALUE (This section to be brought forward)
881 BASTIAT AND CAREY 883 Bastiat's economic harmonies 883 Bastiat on wages 889