Economic Works of Karl Marx 1857-61

Grundrisse der
Kritik der Politischen Ökonomiemarx in 1861

Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy


Written: 1857-61;
Published: In German 1939-41;
Source: Penguin 1973;
Translated by: Martin Liclaus;
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.
ONLINE VERSION: The numerous research notebooks were collected and released in Russian between 1939-41. A German translation was published in Berlin in 1953. The online edition has been transcribed for MEIA from the Penguin edition, transl. Martin Nicolaus, 1973, based on volume 13 of Marx Engels Werke, 1968. 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 Profit

745
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