A Critique of Political Economy The Process of Production of Capital
Capital A Critique of Political Economy
Volume I Book One: The Process of Production of Capital
First published: in German in 1867, English edition first published in 1887; Source: First English edition of 1887 (4th German edition changes included as indicated) with some modernisation of spelling; Publisher: Progress Publishers, Moscow, USSR; Translated: Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, edited by Frederick Engels; Transcribed: Zodiac, Hinrich Kuhls, Allan Thurrott, Bill McDorman, Bert Schultz and Martha Gimenez (1995-1996); Proofed: by Andy Blunden and Chris Clayton (2008), Mark Harris (2010), Dave Allinson (2015).
Table of Contents
Preface to the First German Edition (Marx, 1867)...................................................................... 6
Preface to the French Edition (Marx, 1872) ................................................................................ 9
Afterword to the Second German Edition (1873)...................................................................... 10
Afterword to the French Edition (1875) .................................................................................... 16
Preface to the Third German Edition (1883) ............................................................................. 17
Preface to the English Edition (Engels, 1886)........................................................................... 19
Preface to the Fourth German Edition (Engels, 1890) .............................................................. 22
Part 1: Commodities and Money ............................................................................................... 26
Chapter 1: Commodities............................................................................................................ 27
Section 1: The Two Factors of a Commodity: Use-Value and Value (The Substance of Value and the Magnitude of Value)................................................................................................. 27
Section 2: The Two-fold Character of the Labour Embodied in Commodities..................... 30
Section 3: The Form of Value or Exchange-Value ............................................................... 33
Section 4: The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof ....................................... 47
Chapter 2: Exchange.................................................................................................................. 60
Chapter 3: Money, Or the Circulation of Commodities ............................................................ 67
Section 1: The Measure of Values......................................................................................... 67
Section 2: The Medium of Circulation.................................................................................. 71
Section 3: Money................................................................................................................... 84
Part 2: Transformation of Money into Capital....................................................................... 103
Chapter 4: The General Formula for Capital........................................................................... 104
Chapter 5: Contradictions in the General Formula of Capital................................................. 111
Chapter 6: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power ............................................................. 119
Part 3: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value ............................................................... 126
Chapter 7: The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value........................ 127
Section 1: The Labour-Process or the Production of Use-Values ....................................... 127
Section 2: The Production of Surplus-Value....................................................................... 131
Chapter 8: Constant Capital and Variable Capital................................................................... 142
Chapter 9: The Rate of Surplus-Value .................................................................................... 150
Section 1: The Degree of Exploitation of Labour-Power.................................................... 150
Section 2: The Representation of the Components of the Value of the Product by Corresponding Proportional Parts of the Product Itself....................................................... 154
Section 3: Senior’s “Last Hour” .......................................................................................... 156
Section 4: Surplus-Produce ................................................................................................. 159
Chapter 10: The Working day ................................................................................................. 162
Section 1: The Limits of the Working day .......................................................................... 162
Section 2: The Greed for Surplus-Labor, Manufacturer and Boyard .................................. 164
Section 3: Branches of English Industry Without Legal Limits to Exploitation................. 168
Section 4: Day and Night Work. The Relay System........................................................... 175
Section 5: The Struggle for a Normal Working Day. Compulsory Laws for the Extension of the Working Day from the Middle of the 14th to the End of the 17th Century ................. 178
Section 6: The Struggle for a Normal Working Day. Compulsory Limitation by Law of the Working-Time. English Factory Acts, 1833 ...................................................................... 184
Section 7: The Struggle for a Normal Working Day. Reaction of the English Factory Acts on Other Countries .............................................................................................................. 194
Chapter 11: Rate and Mass of Surplus-Value ......................................................................... 213
Part 4: Production of Relative Surplus-Value ........................................................................ 219
Chapter 12: The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value .............................................................. 220
Chapter 13: Co-operation ........................................................................................................ 227
Chapter 14: Division of Labour and Manufacture................................................................... 237
Section 1: Two-Fold Origin of Manufacture....................................................................... 237
Section 2: The Detail Labourer and his Implements ........................................................... 238
Section 3: The Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture: Heterogeneous Manufacture, Serial Manufacture .............................................................................................................. 240
Section 4: Division of Labour in Manufacture, and Division of Labour in Society............ 244
Section 5: The Capitalistic Character of Manufacture ........................................................ 248
Chapter 15: Machinery and Modern Industry ......................................................................... 261
Section 1 : The Development of Machinery........................................................................ 261
Section 2: The Value Transferred by Machinery to the Product ........................................ 268
Section 3: The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman..................................... 271
Section 4: The Factory......................................................................................................... 284
Section 5: The Strife Between Workman and Machine ...................................................... 287
Section 6: The Theory of Compensation as Regards the Workpeople Displaced by Machinery............................................................................................................................ 293
Section 7: Repulsion and Attraction of Workpeople by the Factory System. Crises in the Cotton Trade........................................................................................................................ 298
Section 8: Revolution Effected in Manufacture, Handicrafts, and Domestic Industry by Modern Industry.................................................................................................................. 304
Section 9: The Factory Acts. Sanitary and Educational Clauses of the same. Their General Extension in England........................................................................................................... 315
Section 10: Modern Industry and Agriculture..................................................................... 329
Part 5: Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value................................................. 358
Chapter 16: Absolute and Relative Surplus-Value.................................................................. 359
Chapter 17: Changes of Magnitude in the Price of Labour-Power and in Surplus-Value....... 367
Section 1: Length of the Working day and Intensity of Labour Constant. Productiveness of Labour Variable................................................................................................................... 367
Section 2: Working day Constant. Productiveness of Labour Constant. Intensity of Labour Variable ............................................................................................................................... 370
Section 3: Productiveness and Intensity of Labour Constant. Length of the Working day Variable ............................................................................................................................... 370
Section 4: Simultaneous Variations in the Duration, Productiveness, and Intensity of Labour ............................................................................................................................................. 372
Chapter 18: Various Formula for the rate of Surplus-Value ................................................... 375
Part 6: Wages............................................................................................................................. 378
Chapter 19: The Transformation of the Value (and Respective Price) of Labour-Power into Wages ...................................................................................................................................... 379
Chapter 20: Time-Wages......................................................................................................... 384
Chapter 21: Piece Wages......................................................................................................... 390
Chapter 22: National Differences of Wages............................................................................ 396
Part 7: The Accumulation of Capital....................................................................................... 400
Chapter 23: Simple Reproduction ........................................................................................... 401
Chapter 24: Conversion of Surplus-Value into Capital........................................................... 410
Section 1: Capitalist Production on a Progressively Increasing Scale. Transition of the Laws of Property that Characterise Production of Commodities into Laws of Capitalist Appropriation ...................................................................................................................... 410
Section 2: Erroneous Conception, by Political Economy, of Reproduction on a Progressively Increasing Scale................................................................................................................... 415
Section 3: Separation of Surplus-value into Capital and Revenue. The Abstinence Theory ............................................................................................................................................. 417
Section 4: Circumstances that, Independently of the Proportional Division of Surplus-value into Capital and Revenue, Determine the Amount of Accumulation. Degree of Exploitation of Labour-Power. Productivity of Labour. Growing Difference in Amount Between Capital Employed and Capital Consumed. Magnitude of Capital Advanced.................................. 421
Section 5: The So-Called Labour Fund ............................................................................... 426
Chapter 25: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation ..................................................... 434
Section 1: The Increased Demand for labour power that Accompanies Accumulation, the Composition of Capital Remaining the same ...................................................................... 434
Section 2: Relative Diminution of the Variable Part of Capital Simultaneously with the Progress of Accumulation and of the Concentration that Accompanies it.......................... 438
Section 3: Progressive Production of a Relative surplus population or Industrial Reserve Army.................................................................................................................................... 442
Section 4: Different Forms of the Relative surplus population. The General Law of Capitalistic Accumulation ................................................................................................... 449
Section 5: Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation............................. 453
Part 8: Primitive Accumulation ............................................................................................... 506
Chapter 26: The Secret of Primitive Accumulation ................................................................ 507
Chapter 27: Expropriation of the Agricultural Population From the Land.............................. 510
Chapter 28: Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated, from the End of the 15th Century. Forcing Down of Wages by Acts of Parliament...................................................................... 522
Chapter 29: Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer.......................................................................... 528
Chapter 30: Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry. Creation of the Home-Market for Industrial Capital................................................................................................................ 530
Chapter 31: The Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist............................................................... 533
Chapter 32: Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation................................................. 541
Chapter 33: The Modern Theory of Colonisation1 .................................................................. 543
