Marx & Engels Collected Works
Volume 28
1857-1861
(Grundrisse, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy)
Contents
Das Kapital
Preface to Marx-Engels Collected Works Volume (28)
Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Grundrisse)
Note from MIA
Addenda to the Chapters on Money and on Capital
Continuation of Notebook VII
Capital and profit. Value makes the product . – Relation of the worker to the conditions of labour in capitalist production. – All parts of capital bring a profit. – Relation of fixed and circulating capital in the cotton mill. Senior's surplus labour and profit. Tendency of the machine to prolong labour. – Influence of transport on circulation etc. – Transport increasingly suspends hoarding. – Absolute surplus labour and machinery. Senior
Cotton factories in England. Workers. Example for machinery and surplus labour. – Example from Symons. Glasgow. Power-loom factory etc. (These examples for the rate of profit.) – Different ways in which machinery diminishes necessary labour. Gaskell. – Labour the immediate market for capital
Alienation of the conditions of labour with the development of capital. (Inversion.) The inversion is the foundation of the capitalist mode of production, not only of its distribution.
Merivale. Natural dependence of the worker in colonies to be replaced by artificial restrictions
How the machine etc. saves material. Bread. Dureau de la Malle
Productive consumption. Newman. – Transformations of capital. Economic cycle. ( Newman )
Dr Price. Innate power of capital
Proudhon. Capital and simple exchange. Surplus. – Necessity of workers' propertylessness. Townsend. Galiani. – The infinito in process. Galiani
Advances. Storch. – Theory of savings. Storch. – MacCulloch. Surplus. – Profit. – Periodical destruction of capital. Fullarton. – Arnd. Natural interest
Interest and profit. – Carey. Pawning in England
How merchant takes the place of master
Merchant wealth
Commerce with equivalents impossible. Opdyke
Principal and interest
Dissolving effect of money. Money a means of cutting up property
Two nations may exchange according to the law of profit in such a way that both gain, but one is always defrauded
(1) Value
Gold-weighing machines
[BASTIAT AND CAREY]
XIV. On Wages
Introduction
I. Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange (Circulation)
(1) Production
Independent Individuals. Eighteenth-century Ideas
Eternalization of historic relations of production. – Production and distribution in general. – Property
(2) The general relation of production to distribution, exchange, consumption
[ Consumption and Production ]
Distribution and production
Exchange and production
(3) The method of political economy
(4) Production. Means of production and relations of production. Relations of production and relations of circulation. Forms of the state and forms of consciousness in relation to relations of production and circulation. Legal relations. Family relations.
II. Chapter on Money
Notebook I (October 1857)
(a) Gold and silver in relation to the other metals
(b) Fluctuations in the value-relation between the different metals
(c) Now to be examined, the sources of gold and silver and their connection with historical development.
(d) Money as coin. Briefly the historical aspect of coins. Depreciation and appreciation, etc.
(c) Money as material representative of wealth (accumulation of money; before that, money as the general material of contracts, etc.)
Notebook II (November 1857)
III. Chapter on Capital - Section 1: Production process of Capital
III. Chapter on Capital
Continuation of Notebook II
Simple exchange. Relations between exchangers. Harmonies of equality, freedom, etc. (Bastiat, Proudhon)
Capital . Sum of values. – Landed property and capital. – Capital comes from circulation. Content exchange value. – Merchant capital, money capital, and money interest. – Circulation presupposes another process. Motion between presupposed extremes
Transition from circulation to capitalist production. – Capital objectified labour etc. – Sum of values for production of values
(1) Circulation, and exchange value deriving from circulation, the presupposition of capital
Exchange value emerging from circulation, a presupposition of circulation, preserving and multiplying itself in it by means of labour
Product and capital. Value and capital. Proudhon
Capital and labour. Exchange value and use value for exchange value. – Money and its use value (labour) in this relation, capital. Self-multiplication of value is its only movement. – The phrase that no capitalist will employ his capital without drawing a gain from it. – Capital, as regards substance, objectified labour. Its antithesis, living, productive (i.e. value-preserving and value-increasing) labour. – Productive labour and labour as performance of a service. – Productive and unproductive labour. A. Smith etc. – Thief in Lauderdale's sense and productive labour
The two different processes in the exchange of capital with labour. (Here the use value of that which is exchanged for capital belongs to the specific economic form etc.)
Capital and modern landed property. – Wakefield
Exchange between capital and labour. Piecework wages. – Value of labour power. – Share of the wage labourer in general wealth determined only quantitatively. – The worker's equivalent, money. Thus confronts capital as equal. – But aim of his exchange satisfaction of his need. Money for him only medium of circulation. – Savings, self-denial as means of the worker's enrichment. – Valuelessness and devaluation of the worker a condition of capital
Notebook III (29 November – mid December 1857)
( Labour power as capital!) – Wages not productive
The exchange between capital and labour belongs within simple circulation, does not enrich the worker. – Separation of labour and property the precondition of this exchange. – Labour as object absolute poverty, labour as subject general possibility of wealth. – Labour without particular specificity confronts capital
Labour process absorbed into capital. (Capital and capitalist)
Production process as content of capital. Productive and unproductive labour (productive labour – that which produces capital). – The worker relates to his labour as exchange value, the capitalist as use value etc. – He divests himself [entäussert sich] of labour as the wealth-producing power. (Capital appropriates it as such.) Transformation of labour into capital etc. Sismondi, Cherbuliez, Say, Ricardo, Proudhon etc.
Realization process [ Verwertungsprozess ]. – (Costs of production.) – (Surplus value not explicable by exchange. Ramsay. Ricardo.) Capitalist cannot live from his wage etc. (Faux frais de production.) – Mere self-preservation, non-multiplication of value contradicts the essence of capital
Capital enters the cost of production as capital. Interest-bearing capital. Proudhon
Surplus value. Surplus labour time. – Bastiat on wages. Value of labour. How determined? – Self-realization is self-preservation of capital. Capitalist may not live merely from his labour etc. Conditions for the self-realization of capital. Surplus labour time etc. – To the extent that capital is productive (as creator of surplus labour etc.), this only historic-transitory. – The free blacks in Jamaica. – Wealth which has gained autonomy requires slave labour or wage labour (forced labour in both cases)
Surplus value. Ricardo. Physiocrats. A. Smith. Ricardo
Surplus value and productive force. Relation when these increase. – Result. – Productive force of labour is productive force of capital. – In proportion as necessary labour is already diminished, the realization of capital becomes more difficult
Concerning increases in the value of capital
Labour does not reproduce the value of the material in which, and of the instrument with which, it works. It preserves their value simply by relating to them in the labour process as to their objective conditions. This animating and preserving force costs capital nothing; appears, rather, as its own force etc.
Absolute surplus labour time. Relative. – It is not the quantity of living labour, but rather its quality as labour which simultaneously preserves the labour time already contained in the material etc. – The change of form and substance in the direct production process. – The preservation of the previous stage of production by the subsequent one is contained in the simple production process etc. – Preservation of the old use value by new labour etc. – Process of production and process of realization. The quantity of objectified labour is preserved because contact with living labour preserves its quality as use value for new labour. – In the real production process, the separation of labour from its objective conditions of existence is suspended. But in this process labour already incorporated in capital etc. Appears as capital's power of self-preservation. Eternalization of value
Capitalist obtains surplus labour free of charge together with the maintenance of the value of material and instrument. Labour, by adding a new value to the old one, at the same time maintains, eternizes [sic] the latter. – The preservation of values in the product costs capital nothing. – By means of the appropriation of ongoing labour, the capitalist already possesses a claim to (and, respectively) appropriation of future labour
Notebook IV (Mid-December 1857 – 22 January, 1858)
Confusion of profit and surplus value. Carey's erroneous calculation. – 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. – Surplus value and profit etc. – Difference between consumption of the instrument and of wages. The former consumed in the production process, the latter outside it. – Increase of surplus value and decrease in rate of profit. (Bastiat)
Multiplication of simultaneous working days. (Accumulation of capital.) – Growth of the constant part of capital in relation to the variable part spent on wages = growth of the productivity of labour. – Proportion in which capital has to increase in order to employ the same number of workers if productivity rises
Percentage of total capital can express very different relations. – Capital (like property) rests on productivity of labour
Increase of surplus labour time. Increase of simultaneous working days (Population). (Population can increase in proportion as necessary labour time becomes smaller, i.e. the time required to produce living labour capacities decreases.) – Surplus capital and surplus population. – Creation of free time for society
III. Chapter on Capital - Section 2: Circulation process of Capital
Continuation of Notebook I
Transition from the process of the production of capital into the process of circulation. – Devaluation of capital itself owing to increase of productive forces. (Competition.) (Capital as unity and contradiction of production process and realization process.) Capital as barrier to production. – Overproduction. (Demand by the workers themselves.) – Barriers to capitalist production
Overproduction. – Proudhon (How is it possible that in the price of the commodity which the worker buys, he pays the profit etc. and still obtains his necessary wages). – Price of the commodity and labour time. Surplus etc. ( Price and value etc.) – Capitalist does not sell too dear; but still above what the thing costs him. – Price (fractional). Bastiat. Decline of the fractional price. – Price can fall below value without damage to capital. Number and unit (measure) important in the multiplication of prices
Specific accumulation of capital (transformation of surplus labour (revenue) into capital). – Proudhon. Value- and price- determination. In antiquity (slaves) not overproduction but over-consumption
The general rate of profit. – If the capitalist merely sells at his own cost of production, then it is a transfer to another capitalist. Worker gains almost nothing thereby
Barrier of capitalist production. – Relation of surplus labour to necessary labour. Proportion of the surplus consumed by capital to that transformed into capital. – Devaluation during crises
Capital coming out of the production process becomes money again
Surplus labour or surplus value becomes surplus capital. All determinants of capitalist production now appear as results of (wage) labour itself. The realization process [Verwirklichungsprozess] of labour at the same time its de-realization process [Entwirklichungsprozess]
Formation of surplus capital I. – Surplus capital II. – Inversion of the law of appropriation. – Chief result of the production and realization process: the reproduction and new production of the relation of capital and labour itself, of capitalist and worker
Original accumulation of capital. (The real accumulation). – Once developed historically, capital itself creates the conditions of its existence (not as conditions for its arising, but as results of its being). – (Performance of personal services, as opposed to wage labour.) – Inversion of the law of appropriation. Real alien relation [Fremdheit] of the worker to his product. Division of labour. Machinery etc.
Forms which precede capitalist production. (Concerning the process which precedes the formation of the capital relation or of original accumulation)
Notebook V (22 January – Beginning of February 1858)
Exchange of labour for labour rests on the worker's propertylessness
Circulation of capital and circulation of money. – Presupposition of value within each single capital (instrument etc.). – Production process and circulation process moments of production. – The productivity of the different capitals (branches of industry) determines that of the individual capital. – Circulation period. Velocity of circulation substitutes for volume of capital. Mutual dependence of capitals in the velocity of their circulation. Circulation a moment of production. Production process and its duration. Transformation of the product into money. Duration of this operation. Retransformation of money into the conditions of production. Exchange of part of the capital with living labour. – Transport costs
Circulation costs. – Means of communication and transport. (Division of the branches of labour.) ( Concentration of many workers. Productive force of this concentration.) ( Mass production.) – General as distinct from particular conditions of production
Transport to market (spatial condition of circulation) belongs in the production process. Credit, the temporal moment of circulation. – Capital is circulating capital. – Money circulation a mere illusion. – Sismondi. Cherbuliez. (Capital. Its various component parts)
Influence of circulation on the determination of value. – Circulation time = time of devaluation. – Difference between the capitalist mode of production and all earlier ones (universality etc.). Propagandistic nature of capital. – Abbreviation of circulation (credit). – Storch. – What the capitalist advances is labour. (Malthus.) – Barriers to capitalist production. (Thompson)
Circulation and creation of value. (Equalization between different capitals in the conditions of circulation.) Capital not a source of value-creation. – Circulation costs. – Continuity of production presupposes suspension of circulation time
Ramsay. Circulation time. Concludes therefore that capital is its own source of profit. – Ramsay. Confusion about surplus value and profit and law of values. (No surplus value according to Ricardo's law.) – Ricardo. Competition. – Quincey. Ricardo's theory of value. Wages and profit. Quincey. – Ricardo. – Wakefield. Conditions of capitalist production [in] colonies
Notebook VI (February 1858)
Dormant capital. Increase of production without previous increase of capital. Bailey
Wade's explanation of capital. Labour as mere agency of capital. Capital, collective force. Civilization, together with my remarks about it. (All social powers of labour as powers of capital. Manufacture. Industry. Division of labour. Formal unification of different branches of labour etc. by capital. Accumulation of capital. Transformation of money into capital. Science. Original accumulation and concentration the same. Free and coerced association. Capital as distinct from earlier forms)
Rossi. What is capital? Is raw material capital? Wages necessary for it? (Approvisionnement, capital?)
Malthus. Theory of value and of wages. ( Capital to do with proportion, labour only with portion. See my remarks on surplus value and profit.) Ricardo's theory. (Carey contra Ricardo.) Malthus: the wage [has] nothing to [do] with proportion. Malthus's theory of value
Aim of capitalist production value (money), not commodity, use value etc. Chalmers. – Economic cycle. – Circulation process. Chalmers
Difference in return. Interruption of the production process (or rather its failure to coincide with the labour process). Total duration of the production process. (Agriculture. Hodgskin.) Unequal periods of production
The concept of the free labourer contains the pauper. Population and overpopulation etc.
Necessary labour. Surplus labour. Surplus population. Surplus capital
A. Smith. Work as sacrifice. (Senior's theory of the capitalist's sacrifice.) (Proudhon's surplus.) – A. Smith. Origin of profit. Original accumulation . Wakefield. – Slave and free labour . – Atkinson. – Profit . – Origin of profit. MacCulloch.
Surplus labour. Profit. Wages. Economists. Ramsay. Wade
Immovable capital. Return of capital. Fixed capital. John St. Mill
Turnover of capital. Circulation process. Production process. Turnover. Capital circulates. Likewise fixed capital. Circulation costs. Circulation time and labour time. (Capitalist's free time.) (Transport costs)
Circulation. Storch. – Metamorphosis of capital and metamorphosis of the commodity. – Capital's change of form and of substance. Different forms of capital. – Turnover in a given period. – Circulating capital as general character of capital. – Year the measure of turnovers of circulating capital. Day the measure of labour time
Fixed (tied down) capital and circulating capital. – (Surplus. Proudhon. Bastiat.) – Mill. Anderson. Say. Quincey. Ramsay. – Difficulty with interest on interest. – Creating market through trade. – Fixed and circulating capital. Ricardo. Money and capital. Eternity of value. – Necessity of rapid or less rapid reproduction. Sismondi. Cherbuliez. Storch. – Capital's advance to labour
Constant and variable capital
Competition
Surplus value. Production time. Circulation time. Turnover time
Competition
Surplus value. Production time. Circulation time. Turnover time. Part of capital in production time, part in circulation time. – Circulation time. – Surplus value and production phase. Number of reproductions of capital = number of turnovers. – Total surplus value etc.
Change of form and of matter in the circulation of capital. – C–M–C. M–C–M.
Difference between production time and labour time. – Storch. Money. Mercantile estate. Credit. Circulation
Small-scale circulation. The process of exchange between capital and labour capacity generally. Capital in the reproduction of labour capacities
Threefold character, or mode, of circulation. – Fixed capital and circulating capital. – Turnover time of the total capital divided into circulating and fixed capital. – Average turnover time of such a capital. – Influence of fixed capital on the total turnover time of capital. – Circulating fixed capital. Say. Smith. Lauderdale. (Lauderdale on the origin of profit)
The labour process. – Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine. – Fixed capital. Transposition of powers of labour into powers of capital both in fixed and in circulating capital. – To what extent fixed capital (machine) creates value. – Lauderdale. Machine presupposes a mass of workers.
Notebook VII (End of February. March. End of May – Beginning of June 1858)
Fixed capital and circulating capital as two particular kinds of capital. Fixed capital and continuity of the production process. – Machinery and living labour. (Business of inventing)
Contradiction between the foundation of bourgeois production (value as measure) and its development. Machines etc.
Significance of the development of fixed capital (for the development of capital generally). Relation between the creation of fixed capital and circulating capital. Disposable time. To create it, chief role of capital. Contradictory form of the same in capital. – Productivity of labour and production of fixed capital. (The Source and Remedy.) – Use and consume: Economist. Durability of fixed capital
Real saving – economy – = saving of labour time = development of productive force. Suspension of the contradiction between free time and labour time. – True conception of the process of social production
Owen's historical conception of industrial (capitalist) production
Capital and value of natural agencies. – Scope of fixed capital indicates the level of capitalist production. – Determination of raw material, product, instrument of production, consumption. – Is money fixed capital or circulating capital? – Fixed capital and circulating capital in regard to individual consumption
Turnover time of capital consisting of fixed capital and circulating capital. Reproduction time of fixed capital. With circulating capital, the only requirement is that the interruption should be not so great as to ruin its use value. With fixed capital, continuity of production absolutely necessary etc. – Unit of labour time the day; for circulating capital, the year. Longer total period as unit with the entry of fixed capital. – Industrial cycle. – Circulation of fixed capital. – The so-called risk. – All parts of capital yield an equal profit – false. Ricardo etc. – The same commodity sometimes fixed capital, sometimes circulating capital. – Sale of capital as capital. – Fixed capital which enters into circulation as use value. – Every moment which a presupposition of production, at the same time its result. Reproduction of its own conditions. Reproduction of capital as fixed capital and circulating capital
Fixed capital and circulating capital. Economist. Smith. Counter-value of circulating capital must be produced within the year. Not so for fixed capital. It engages the production of subsequent years
Maintenance costs
Revenue of fixed capital and circulating capital
Free labour = latent pauperism. Eden
The smaller the value of fixed capital in relation to its product, the more useful. – Movable, immovable, fixed and circulating. – Connection of circulation and reproduction. Necessity of reproducing use value in definite time