XI
Volume 33 of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels contains the continuation of Marx's Economic Manuscript of 1861-63 (Notebooks XV to XX, pp. 944-1251 of the manuscript, and the continuation of Notebook V, pp. 211-19). The preceding part of the manuscript will be found in volumes 30 to 32. The whole manuscript is presented here in accordance with its new publication in the languages of the original in Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), Zweite Abteilung, Bd. 3 (Teile 1-6), Berlin, 1976-1982. In the text contained in this volume Marx continues his analysis of the capitalist economy, concentrating, in particular, on the theory of surplus value and its relation to profit, and proceeds with his critique of earlier political economists (Thomas Hodgskin, Sir George Ramsay, Antoine Elisée Cherbuliez, Richard Jones).
Obvious slips of the pen in Marx's text have been corrected by the editors without comment. The proper and geographical names and other words abbreviated by the author are given in full. Defects in the manuscript are indicated in footnotes, places where the text is damaged or illegible are marked by dots. Where possible, editorial reconstructions are given in square brackets.
Foreign words and phrases are given as used by Marx, with the translation supplied in footnotes where necessary. English phrases and individual words occurring in the original are set in small caps. Longer passages and quotations in English are given in asterisks. Some of the words are now somewhat archaic or have undergone changes in usage. For example, the term "nigger", which has acquired generally — and especially in the USA — a more profane and unacceptable status than it had in Europe during the 19th century. The passages from English economists quoted by Marx in French or German are given according to contemporary English editions. In all cases the form of quoting used by Marx is respected. The language in which Marx quotes is indicated unless it is German.
The text and apparatus to Volume 33 were prepared by Alexander Chepurenko and Lyubov Zalunina (Institute of Marx-ism-Leninism of the CC CPSU). Svetlana Kiseleva (IML) took part in compiling the Name Index and the Index of Quoted and Mentioned Literature. The bulk of the text in this volume was translated by Ben Fowkes (Lawrence & Wishart) and edited by Victor Schnittke and Andrei Skvarsky. The translation of pp. 1084-1157 of Marx's manuscript was taken from the three-volume edition of Marx's Theories of Surplus Value, issued by Progress Publishers, Moscow. It was made by Emile Burns, Renate Simpson and Jack Cohen and edited by Salo Ryazanskaya. This section was editorially checked with the new MEGA edition by Natalia Karmanova and Alia Varavitskaya (Progress Publishers). The volume was prepared for the press by Svetlana Gerasimenko (Progress Publishers).
The scientific editor for this volume was Larisa Miskievich (Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CC CPSU).
ECONOMIC WORKS
1861-1863
ECONOMIC MANUSCRIPT OF 1861-63
(Continuation)
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY1
[MARX'S SUMMARY OF CONTENTS]
XV
5) Theories of Surplus Value
I) Proletarian opposition on the basis of Ricardo
(Compound interest; fall in the rate of profit based on this.) So-called amassment as a mere phenomenon of circulation. (Stocks, etc.—circulation reservoirs.) 2) Ravenstone. Conclusion[2]
3) and 4) Hodgskin (Interest-bearing capital. Existing wealth in relation to the movement of production.) (Interest-bearing capital and commercial capital in relation to industrial capital. Older forms. Derivative forms.) (Development of interest-bearing capital on the basis of capitalist production.) ( Usury. Luther, etc.) Vulgar political economy[5]
XVI
Third Chapter. Capital and Profit[4]
1) Surplus value and profit[5]
2) Profit always expresses surplus value too small 3) The ratio is altered numerically and in form 4) The same surplus value may be expressed in very different rates of profit; the same rate of profit may express very different surplus values 5) Relation of surplus value and profit=relation of variable capital to total capital[6]
6) Production costs, a) Profit equals the excess of the value of the product over the value of the production costs. Does
2* not belong to the production costs of the individual capital, b) Profit belongs to the production costs of capitalist production in general, c) Commodities can be sold at a profit below their value, d) If the surplus value is given, the rate of profit rises if the value of the constant capital falls, through economy in its employment, e) A definite quantity of capital — 100 — as yardstick of profit, f) Profit, not surplus value, [determines] the rate of accumulation of total capital and, hence, of the capitalists' real gain, g) Rate of profit and amount of profit. Profit in relation to the magnitude of capital or the average rate of profit, h) Fixed capital and labour time 7) General law of the fall in the rate of profit with the progress of capitalist production XVII
Miscellanea. Labour process and valorisation process. Diminution in the rate of profit. Constant capital: absolute quantity of capital. Decline in the rate of profit. Accumulation
Continuation of Notebook XV[1]
Mercantile capital. Money-dealing capital I) Episode. REFLUX movements of money in the circulation of capital. (Reproduction process)[8]
II) Episode. Growth of the absolute amount of the individual capital or rise of the scale of production XIX[9]
Continuation of Notebook V[10]
3) Relative surplus value y) Machinery, etc. X X "
3) Relative surplus value 7) Machinery, etc. h) Relative and absolute surplus value. Correlations of wages and surplus value. Converted form of the value of labour capacity in the value or price of labour. Derivative formulas for the ratio of surplus value to variable capital, and of surplus to necessary labour Intermezzo. Hume and Massie. Interest
Endnotes
[2] The section on Ravenstone begins on p. XIV — 861 of the manuscript (see present edition, Vol. 32, p. 392). Preceding it in Notebook XIV and numbered "1)" is a section devoted to the anonymous pamphlet The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties.— 7
[4] By the "third chapter" or "third section" Marx means the entire third part of the investigation of "capital in general" (see Note 1). The title "Third Chapter. Capital and Profit", and also the draft plan of this chapter, are to be found on the inside front cover of Notebook XVI (originally Marx called this notebook, dated December 1861-January 1862, "Notebook Ultimum"). This title is also reproduced on p. XVI — 973. A slightly changed and extended version of the plan for this section of his study is given by Marx on p. XVIII — 1139 (see this volume, pp. 346-47). In mid-1863, when embarking on a new, third, version of the work which was later to become Capital, Marx concluded that the chapters, or sections,in his study of "capital in general" would actually represent separate books that would be comprised in Capital. From this time on, the third chapter began to figure as Book III (later Volume III) of Capital.—7, 346, 380, 478
[6] Marx evidently meant the ratio between the rate of profit and the rate of surplus value, which is in inverse proportion to the ratio of variable to total capital. On the importance of distinguishing between the rate of surplus value and the rate of profit see p. Ill — 124e of the manuscript (see present edition, Vol. 30, p. 229).—7, 77
[1] Having completed the economic manuscript of 1857-58 (see present edition, vols 28 and 29), Marx embarked on a substantial economic work which, as he planned, was to encompass all aspects of life in capitalist society. The first step was the publication, in 1859, of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Part One. In the preface to this work, Marx sets out the plan of his ambitious project: "I examine the system of bourgeois economy in the following order: capital, landed property, wage-labour; the State, foreign trade, world market... The first part of the first book, dealing with Capital, comprises the following chapters: 1. The commodity; 2. Money or simple circulation; 3. Capital in general. The present part consists of the first two chapters" (see present edition, Vol. 29, p. 261). The extant correspondence (see present edition, Vol. 40) shows that after the publication of Part One Marx intended to start immediately on the second part, dealing with capital in general. However, certain circumstances, his preoccupation with Herr Vogt among them, prevented him from immediately carrying out this intention. Preparatory work (drafting plans, reviewing the 1857-58 manuscript and excerpts dealing with capital — see present edition, Vol. 29 — as well as making new excerpts, etc.), continued up to the summer of 1861, and in August 1861 Marx began writing. Viewed as the second part of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, the new manuscript originally bore the same title, and on the covers of the first two notebooks he wrote the subtitle "Third Chapter. Capital in General" (see present edition, Vol. 30, p. 6). But soon the size of the manuscript grew considerably and reached 23 notebooks, 1,472 large pages in all. In the present edition it is published in vols 30-34.—5
[8] The "Episode" is to be found on pp. XVII— 1038-1065aand XVIII —1068-1074 (see this volume, pp. 171-222 and 226-38). In the draft plan for the third section (the future Volume III) of Capital it has a somewhat different title, namely "Reflux Movements of Money in the Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole" (see this volume, pp. 346-47).—8
[9] The cover of Notebook XVIII has not survived. The notes given below were made on the inside front cover of Notebook XIX of the manuscript of 1861-63. Besides the table of contents there are references here to Factories. Returns for various years. The front cover of Notebook XIX is dated: "Jan. 1863".— 8, 387
[10] In March 1862 Marx interrupted his successive analysis of relative surplus value and embarked on a detailed examination of bourgeois theories of surplus value. As a result, part of Notebook V was not filled in. In late 1862-early 1863 Marx returned to his analysis of the use of machinery in capitalist production and made records in notebooks V, XIX and XX, as is testified by his letters to Engels of January 24 and 28, 1863 (see present edition, Vol. 41, pp. 446 and 449-51). Part of Notebook V has therefore been included in this volume in accordance with the time it was written. The text on pp. 372-501 of this volume thus represents the continuation of subsection "y) Machinery. Utilisation of the Forces of Nature and of Science" of section "3) Relative Surplus Value", the beginning of which is published in Volume 30 of the present edition. Marx did not write the table of contents for Notebook V on the inside front cover, which he did for other notebooks of the manuscript of 1861-63 beginning with Notebook VI.—8, 372, 489
[5] Marx drew attention to the need for a special examination of the relation between surplus value and profit on p. Ill — 98 of the manuscript (see present edition, Vol. 30, p. 178).—7