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Karl MarxOverproduction; ProudhonPrice of the commodity and labour timeThe capitalist does not sell too dear; but still above what the thing costs himPrice can fall below value without damage to capitalNumber and unit (measure) important in the multiplication of pricesSpecific accumulation of capital. (Transformation of surplus labour intocapital)The determination of value and of pricesThe general rate of profitThe capitalist merely sells at his own cost of production, then it is a transfer toanother capitalist. The worker gains almost nothing therebyBarrier of capitalist production. Relation of surplus labour to necessary labour.Proportion of the surplus consumed by capital to that transformed into capitalDevaluation during crisesCapital coming out of the production process becomes money again(Parenthesis on capital in general)Surplus Labour or Surplus Value Becomes Surplus CapitalAll the determinants of capitalist production now appear as the result of(wage) labour itselfThe realization process of labour at the same time its de-realization processFormation of surplus capital ISurplus capital IIInversion of the law of appropriationChief result of the production and realization processOriginal Accumulation of CapitalOnce developed historically, capital itself creates the conditions of its existence(Performance of personal services, as opposed to wage labour)(Parenthesis on inversion of the law of property, real alien relation of theworker to his product, division of labour, machinery)Forms which precede capitalist production. (Concerning the process whichprecedes the formation of the capital relation or of original accumulation)Exchange of labour for labour rests on the worker’s propertylessnessCirculation of capital and circulation of moneyProduction process and circulation process moments of production. Theproductivity of the different capitals (branches of industry) determines that ofthe individual capitalCirculation period. Velocity of circulation substitutes for volume of capital.Mutual dependence of capitals in the velocity of their circulation– 10 –

GrundrisseThe four moments in the turnover of capitalMoment II to be considered here: transformation of the product into money;duration of this operationTransport costsCirculation costsMeans of communication and transportDivision of the branches of labourConcentration of many workers; productive force of this concentrationGeneral as distinct from particular conditions of productionTransport to market (spatial condition of circulation) belongs in the productionprocessCredit, the temporal moment of circulationCapital is circulating capitalInfluence of circulation on the determination of value; circulation time timeof devaluationDifference between the capitalist mode of production and all earlier ones(universality, propagandistic nature)(Capital itself is the contradiction)Circulation and creation of valueCapital not a source of value-creationContinuity of production presupposes suspension of circulation timeTheories of Surplus ValueRamsay’s view that capital is its own source of profitNo surplus value according to Ricardo’s lawRicardo’s theory of value. Wages and profitQuinceyRicardoWakefield. Conditions of capitalist production in coloniesSurplus value and profit. Example (Malthus)Difference between labour and labour capacityCarey’s theory of the cheapening of capital for the workerCarey’s theory of the decline of the rate of profitWakefield on the contradiction between Ricardo’s theories of wage labour andof valueBailey on dormant capital and increase of production without previousincrease of capitalWade’s explanation of capital. Capital, collective force. Capital, civilizationRossi. What is capital? Is raw material capital? Are wages necessary for it?– 11 –

Karl MarxMalthus. Theory of value and of wagesAim of capitalist production value (money), not commodity, use value etc.ChalmersDifference in return. Interruption of the production process. Total duration ofthe production process. Unequal periods of productionThe concept of the free labourer contains the pauper. Population andoverpopulationNecessary labour. Surplus labour. Surplus population. Surplus capitalAdam Smith: work as sacrificeAdam Smith: the origin of profitSurplus labour. Profit. WagesImmovable capital. Return of capital. Fixed capital. John Stuart MillTurnover of capital. Circulation process. Production processCirculation costs. Circulation timeCapital’s change of form and of substance; different forms of capital;circulating capital as general character of capitalFixed (tied down) capital and circulating capitalConstant and variable capitalCompetitionSurplus value. Production time. Circulation time. Turnover timeCompetition (continued)Part of capital in production time, part in circulation timeSurplus value and production phase. Number of reproductions of capital number of turnoversChange of form and of matter in the circulation of capital C–M–C. M–C–MDifference between production time and labour timeFormation of a mercantile estate; creditSmall-scale circulation. The process of exchange between capital and labourcapacity generallyThreefold character, or mode, of circulationFixed capital and circulating capitalInfluence of fixed capital on the total turnover time of capitalFixed capital. Means of labour. MachineTransposition of powers of labour into powers of capital both in fixed and incirculating capitalTo what extent fixed capital (machine) creates valueFixed capital & continuity of the production process. Machinery & livinglabour– 12 –

GrundrisseContradiction between the foundation of bourgeois production (value asmeasure) and its developmentSignificance of the development of fixed capital (for the development of capitalgenerally)The chief role of capital is to create disposable time; contradictory form of thisin capitalDurability of fixed capitalReal saving (economy) saving of labour time development of productiveforceTrue conception of the process of social productionOwen’s historical conception of industrial (capitalist) productionCapital and value of natural agenciesScope of fixed capital indicates the level of capitalist productionIs money fixed capital or circulating capital?Turnover time of capital consisting of fixed capital and circulating capital.Reproduction time of fixed capitalThe same commodity sometimes circulating capital, sometimes fixed capitalEvery moment which is a presupposition of production is at the same time itsresult, in that it reproduces its own conditionsThe counter-value of circulating capital must be produced within the year. Notso for fixed capital. It engages the production of subsequent yearsMaintenance costs of fixed capitalRevenue of fixed capital and circulating capitalFree labour latent pauperism. EdenThe smaller the value of fixed capital in relation to its product, the more usefulMovable and immovable, fixed and circulatingConnection of circulation and reproductionSECTION THREE: CAPITAL AS FRUCTIFEROUS.TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS VALUE INTO PROFITRate of profit. Fall of the rate of profitSurplus value as profit always expresses a lesser proportionWakefield, Carey and Bastiat on the rate of profitCapital and revenue (profit). Production and distribution. SismondiTransformation of surplus value into profitLaws of this transformationSurplus value relation of surplus labour to necessary labourValue of fixed capital and its productive powerMachinery and surplus labour. Recapitulation of the doctrine of surplus value– 13 –

Karl MarxgenerallyRelation between the objective conditions of production. Change in theproportion of the component parts of capitalMISCELLANEOUSMoney and fixed capital: presupposes a certain amount of wealth. Relation offixed capital and circulating capital. (Economist)Slavery and wage labour; profit upon alienation (Steuart)Steuart, Montanari and Gouge on moneyThe wool industry in England since Elizabeth; silk-manufacture; iron; cottonOrigin of free wage labour. Vagabondage. (Tuckett)Blake on accumulation and rate of profit; dormant capitalDomestic agriculture at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (Tuckett)Profit. Interest. Influence of machinery on the wage fund. (WestminsterReview)Money as measure of values and yardstick of prices. Critique of theories of thestandard measure of moneyTransformation of the medium of circulation into money. Formation oftreasures. Means of payment. Prices of commodities and quantity ofcirculating money. Value of moneyCapital, not labour, determines the value of money. (Torrens)The minimum of wagesCotton machinery and working men in 1826. (Hodgskin)How the machine creates raw material. (Economist)Machinery and surplus labourCapital and profit. Relation of the worker to the conditions of labour incapitalist production. All parts of capital bring a profitTendency of the machine to prolong labourCotton factories in England. Example for machinery and surplus labourExamples from Glasgow for the rate of profitAlienation of the conditions of labour with the development of capital.InversionMerivale. Natural dependence of the worker in colonies to be replaced byartificial restrictionsHow the machine saves material. Bread. D’eau de la MalleDevelopment of money and interestProductive consumption. Newman. Transformations of capital. Economic cycleDr Price. Innate power of capitalProudhon. Capital and simple exchange. Surplus– 14 –

GrundrisseNecessity of the worker’s propertylessnessGalianiTheory of savings. StorchMacCulloch. Surplus. ProfitArnd. Natural interestInterest and profit. CareyHow merchant takes the place of masterMerchant wealthCommerce with equivalents impossible. OpdykePrincipal and interestDouble standardOn moneyJames Mill’s false theory of pricesRicardo on currencyOn moneyTheory of foreign trade. Two nations may exchange according to the law ofprofit in such a way that both gain, but one is always defraudedMoney in its third role, as money(I) VALUE (This section to be brought forward)BASTIAT AND CAREYBastiat’s economic harmoniesBastiat on wages– 15 –

Karl Marx– 16 –

GrundrisseIntroductionLate August – Mid-September 18571. Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange(Circulation)(1) PRODUCTIONIndependent Individuals. Eighteenth-century IdeasThe object before us, to begin with, material production.Individuals producing in society – hence socially determined individualproduction – is, of course, the point of departure. The individual and isolatedhunter and fisherman, with whom Smith and Ricardo begin, belongs among theunimaginative conceits of the eighteenth-century Robinsonades, [1] which in noway express merely a reaction against over-sophistication and a return to amisunderstood natural life, as cultural historians imagine. As little asRousseau’s contrat social, which brings naturally independent, autonomoussubjects into relation and connection by contract, rests on such naturalism. Thisis the semblance, the merely aesthetic semblance, of the Robinsonades, greatand small. It is, rather, the anticipation of ‘civil society’, in preparation since thesixteenth century and making giant strides towards maturity in the eighteenth.In this society of free competition, the individual appears detached from thenatural bonds etc. which in earlier historical periods make him the accessory ofa definite and limited human conglomerate. Smith and Ricardo still stand withboth feet on the shoulders of the eighteenth-century prophets, in whoseimaginations this eighteenth-century individual – the product on one side of thedissolution of the feudal forms of society, on the other side of the new forces ofproduction developed since the sixteenth century – appears as an ideal, whoseexistence they project into the past. Not as a historic result but as history’spoint of departure. As the Natural Individual appropriate to their notion ofhuman nature, not arising historically, but posited by nature. This illusion has– 17 –

Karl Marxbeen common to each new epoch to this day. Steuart [2] avoided this simplemindedness because as an aristocrat and in antithesis to the eighteenth century,he had in some respects a more historical footing.The more deeply we go back into history, the more does the individual, andhence also the producing individual, appear as dependent, as belonging to agreater whole: in a still quite natural way in the family and in the familyexpanded into the clan [Stamm]; then later in the various forms of communalsociety arising out of the antitheses and fusions of the clan. Only in theeighteenth century, in ‘civil society’, do the various forms of socialconnectedness confront the individual as a mere means towards his privatepurposes, as external necessity. But the epoch which produces this standpoint,that of the isolated individual, is also precisely that of the hitherto mostdeveloped social (from this standpoint, general) relations. The human being isin the most literal sense a ζῶον πολιτιχόν, [3] not merely a gregarious animal,but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.Production by an isolated individual outside society – a rare exception whichmay well occur when a civilized person in whom the social forces are alreadydynamically present is cast by accident into the wilderness – is as much of anabsurdity as is the development of language without individuals living togetherand talking to each other. There is no point in dwelling on this any longer. Thepoint could go entirely unmentioned if this twaddle, which had sense andreason for the eighteenth-century characters, had not been earnestly pulledback into the centre of the most modern economics by Bastiat, [4] Carey, [5]Proudhon etc. Of course it is a convenience for Proudhon et al. to be able togive a historico-philosophic account of the source of an economic relation, ofwhose historic origins he is ignorant, by inventing the myth that Adam orPrometheus stumbled on the idea ready-made, and then it was adopted, etc.Nothing is more dry and boring than the fantasies of a locus communis. [6]Eternalization of historic relations of production. – Productionand distribution in general. – PropertyWhenever we speak of production, then, what is meant is always production ata definite stage of social development – production by social individuals. It– 18 –

Grundrissemight seem, therefore, that in order to talk about production at all we musteither pursue the process of historic development through its different phases,or declare beforehand that we are dealing with a specific historic epoch such ase.g. modern bourgeois production, which is indeed our particular theme.However, all epochs of production have certain common traits, commoncharacteristics. Production in general is an abstraction, but a rationalabstraction in so far as it really brings out and fixes the common element andthus saves us repetition. Still, this general category, this common elementsifted out by comparison, is itself segmented many times over and splits intodifferent determinations. Some determinations belong to all epochs, others onlyto a few. [Some] determinations will be shared by the most modern epoch andthe most ancient. No production will be thinkable without them; however eventhough the most developed languages have laws and characteristics in commonwith the least developed, nevertheless, just those things which determine theirdevelopment, i.e. the elements which are not general and common, must beseparated out from the determinations valid for production as such, so that intheir unity – which arises already from the identity of the subject, humanity, andof the object, nature – their essential difference is not forgotten. The wholeprofundity of those modern economists who demonstrate the eternity andharmoniousness of the existing social relations lies in this forgetting. Forexample. No production possible without an instrument of production, even ifthis instrument is only the hand. No production without stored-up, past labour,even if it is only the facility gathered together and concentrated in the hand ofthe savage by repeated practice. Capital is, among other things, also aninstrument of production, also objectified, past labour. Therefore capital is ageneral, eternal relation of nature; that is, if I leave out just the specific qualitywhich alone makes ‘instrument of production’ and ‘stored-up labour’ intocapital. The entire history of production relations thus appears to Carey, forexample, as a malicious forgery perpetrated by governments.If there is no production in general, then there is also no general production.Production is always a particular branch of production – e.g. agriculture,cattle-raising, manufactures etc. – or it is a totality. But political economy is nottechnology. The relation of the general characteristics of production at a givenstage of social development to the particular forms of production to be– 19 –

Karl Marxdeveloped elsewhere (later). Lastly, production also is not only a particularproduction. Rather, it is always a certain social body, a social subject, which isactive in a greater or sparser totality of branches of production. Nor does therelationship between scientific presentation and the real movement belong hereyet. Production in general. Particular branches of production. Totality ofproduction.It is the fashion to preface a work of economics with a general part – andprecisely this part figures under the title ‘production’ (see for example J. St.Mill) [7] – treating of the general preconditions of all production. This generalpart consists or is alleged to consist of (1) the conditions without whichproduction is not possible. I.e. in fact, to indicate nothing more than theessential moments of all production. But, as we will see, this reduces itself infact to a few very simple characteristics, which are hammered out into flattautologies; (2) the conditions which promote production to a greater or lesserdegree, such as e.g. Adam Smith’s progressive and stagnant state of society.While this is of value in his work as an insig

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 .