Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy

　　Written during the winter of 1857-8, the Grundrisse was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, it both develops the arguments outlined in theCommunist Manifesto (1848) and explores the themes and theses that were to dominate his great later work Capital. Here, for the first time, Marx set out his own version of Hegel’s dialectics and developed his mature views on labour, surplus value and profit, offering many fresh insights into alienation, automation and the dangers of capitalist society. Yet while the theories in Grundrisse make it a vital precursor to Capital, it also provides invaluable descriptions of Marx’s wider-ranging philosophy, making it a unique insight into his beliefs and hopes for the foundation of a communist state.

　　TABLE OF CONTENTS

　　Introduction (Notebook M)1. Production in general
　　2. General relation between production, distribution, exchange and consumption
　　3. The method of political economy
　　4. Means (forces) of production and relations of production, relations of production and relations of circulation
　　The Chapter on Money (Notebooks I and II, pp. 1-7)Darimon’s theory of crises
　　Gold export and crises
　　Convertibility and note circulation
　　Value and price
　　Transformation of the commodity into exchange value; money
　　Contradictions in the money relation:
　　(1) Contradiction between commodity as product and commodity as exchange value
　　(2) Contradiction between purchase and sale
　　(3) Contradiction between exchange for the sake of exchange and exchange for the sake of commodities
　　(4) Contradiction between money as particular commodity and money as general commodity (The Economist and the Morning Star on money)
　　Attempts to overcome the contradictions by the issue of time-chits
　　Exchange value as mediation of private interests
　　Exchange value (money) as social bond
　　Social relations which create an undeveloped system of exchange
　　The product becomes a commodity; the commodity becomes exchange value; the exchange value of the commodity becomes money
　　Money as measure
　　Money as objectification of general labour time (Incidental remark on gold and silver)
　　Distinction between particular labor time and general labour time
　　Distinction between planned distribution of labour time and measurement of exchange values by labour time (Strabo on money among the Albanians)
　　The precious metals as subjects of the money relation:
　　(a) Gold and silver in relation to the other metals
　　(b) Fluctuations in the value-relations between the different metals
　　(c) and (d) (headings only): Sources of gold and silver; money as coin
　　Circulation of money and opposite circulation of commodities
　　General concept of circulation:
　　(a) Circulation circulates exchange values in the form of prices (Distinction between real money and accounting money)
　　(b) Money as the medium of exchange (What determines the quantity of money required for circulation) (Comment on (a))
　　Commodity circulation requires appropriation through alienation
　　Circulation as an endlessly repeated process
　　The price as external to and independent of the commodity: Creation of general medium of exchange; exchange as a special business
　　Double motion of circulation: C-M; M-C, and M-C; C-M
　　Three contradictory functions of money:
　　(1) Money as general material of contracts, as measuring unit of exchange values
　　(2) Money as medium of exchange and realizer of prices
　　(Money, as representative of price, allows commodities to be exchanged at equivalent prices)
　　(An example of confusion between the contradictory functions of money)
　　(Money as particular commodity and money as general commodity)
　　(3) Money as money: as material representative of wealth (accumulation of money)
　　(Dissolution of ancient communities through money)
　　(Money, unlike coin, has a universal character)
　　(Money in its third function is the negation #negative unity# of its character as medium of circulation and measure)
　　(Money in its metallic being; accumulation of gold and silver)
　　(Headings on money, to be elaborated later)
　　The Chapter on Capital (Notebooks II pp. 8-28, III, IV, V, VI and VII)The Chapter on Money as Capital:
　　Difficulty in grasping money in its fully developed character as money
　　Simple exchange: relations between the exchangers (Critique of socialists and harmonizers: Bastiat, Proudhon)
　　Section One: The Production Process of Capital
　　Nothing is expressed when capital is characterized merely as a sum of values
　　Landed property and capital
　　Capital comes from circulation; its content is exchange value; merchant capital, money capital, and money interest
　　Circulation presupposes another process; motion between presupposed extremes
　　Transition from circulation to capitalist production
　　“Capital is accumulated labour (etc.)”
　　“Capital is a sum of values used for the production of values”
　　Circulation, and exchange value deriving from circulation, the presupposition of capital
　　Exchange value emerging from circulation, a presupposition of ciruclation, 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
　　Capital, as regards substance, objectified labour. Its antithesis, living, productive labour
　　Productive labour and labour as performance of a service
　　Productive and unproductive labour. A. Smith etc.
　　The two different processes in the exchange of capital with labour
　　Capital and modern landed property
　　The market
　　Exchange between capital and labour. Piecework wages
　　Value of labour power
　　Share of the wage labourer in general wealth determined only quantitatively
　　Money is the worker’s equivalent; he thus confronts capital as an equal
　　But the aim of his exchange is satisfaction of his need. Money for him is only medium of circulation
　　Savings, self-denial as means of the worker’s enrichment
　　Valuelessness and devaluation of the worker a condition of capital
　　(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
　　The worker relates to his labour as exchange value, the capitalist as use value
　　The worker divests himself of labour as the wealth-producing power; capital appropriates it as such
　　Tranformation of labour into capital
　　Realization process
　　(Costs of production)
　　Mere self-preservation, non-multiplication of value contradicts the essence of capital
　　Capital enters the cost of production as capital. Interest bearing capital (Parentheses on: original accumulation of capital, historic presuppositions of capital, production in general)
　　Surplus value. Surplus labour time
　　Value of labour. How it is determined
　　Conditions for the self-realization of capital
　　Capital is productive as creator of surplus labour
　　But this is only a historical and transitory phenomenon
　　Theories of surplus value (Ricardo; the Physiocrats; Adam Smith; Ricardo again)
　　Surplus value and productive force. Relation when these increase
　　Result: 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 material and instrument, but rather preserves it by relating to them in the labour process as to their objective conditions
　　Absolute surplus labour time. Relative
　　It is not the quantity of living labour, but rather its quality as labour which preserves the labour time already contained in the material
　　The change of form and substance in the direct production process
　　It is inherent in the simple production process that the previous stage of production is preserved through the subsequent one
　　Preservation of the old use value by new labour
　　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 moments of existence is suspended. But in this process labour is already incorporated in capital
　　The capitalist obtains surplus labour free of charge together with the maintenance of the value of material and instrument
　　Through the appropriation of present labour, capital already possesses a claim to the appropriation of future labour
　　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
　　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
　　Multiplication of simultaneous working days
　　Machinery
　　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 in general) rests on the 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)
　　Transition from the process of the production of capital into the process of circulation
　　Section Two: The Circulation Process of Capital
　　Devaluation of capital itself owing to increase of productive forces
　　(Competition)
　　Capital as unity and contradiction of the production process and the realization process
　　Capital as limit to production. Overproduction
　　Demand by the workers themselves
　　Barriers to capitalist production
　　OVerproduction; Proudhon
　　Price of the commodity and labour time
　　The capitalist does not sell too dear; but still above what the thing costs him
　　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 into capital)
　　The determination of value and of prices
　　The general rate of profit
　　If the capitalist merely sells at his own cost of production, then it is a transfer to another capitalist. The 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
　　(Parenthesis on capital in general)

　　Surplus Labour or Surplus Value Becomes Surplus Capital
　　All the determinants of capitalist production now appear as the result of (wage) labour itself
　　The realization process of labour at the same time its de-realization process
　　Formation of surplus capital I
　　Surplus capital II
　　Inversion of the law of appropriation
　　Chief result of the production and realization process

　　Original accumulation of capital
　　Once 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 the worker to his product, division of labour, machinery)
　　Forms which precede capitalist production. (Concerning the process which precedes the formation of the capital relation or of original accumulation)
　　Exchange of labour for labour rests on the worker’s propertylessness
　　Circulation of capital and circulation of money
　　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
　　The four moments in the turnover of capital
　　Moment II to be considered here: transformation of the product into money; duration of this operation. Transport costs. Circulation costs. Means of communication and transport
　　Division of the branches of labour
　　Concentration of many workers; productive force of this concentration
　　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
　　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, propagandistic nature)
　　(Capital itself is the contradiction)
　　Circulation and creation of value
　　Capital not a source of value-creation
　　Continuity of production presupposes suspension of circulation time

　　Theories of Surplus Value
　　Ramsay’s view that capital is its own source of profit
　　No surplus value according to Ricardo’s law
　　Ricardo’s theory of value. Wages and profit
　　Quincey
　　Ricardo
　　Wakefield. Conditions of capitalist production in colonies
　　Surplus value and profit. Example (Malthus)
　　Difference between labour and labour capacity
　　Carey’s theory of the cheapening of capital for the worker
　　Carey’s theory of the decline of the rate of profit
　　Wakefield on the contradiction between Ricardo’s theories of wage labour and of value
　　Bailey on dormant capital and increase of production without previous increase of capital
　　Wade’s explanation of capital. Capital, collective force. Capital, civilization.
　　Rossi. What is capital? Is raw material capital? Are wages necessary for it?
　　Malthus. Theory of value and of wages
　　Aim of capitalist production value (money), not commodity, use value etc. Chalmers
　　Difference in return. Interruption of the production process. Total duration of the production process. Unequal periods of production
　　The concept of the free labourer contains the pauper. Population and overpopulation
　　Necessary labour. Surplus labour. Surplus population. Surplus capital
　　Adam Smith: work as sacrifice
　　Adam Smith: the origin of profit
　　Surplus labour. Profit. Wages
　　Immovable capital. Return of capital. Fixed capital. John Stuart Mill
　　Turnover of capital. Circulation process. Production process. Circulation costs. Circulation time
　　Capital’s change of form and of substance; different forms of capital; circulation capital as general character of capital
　　Fixed (tied down) capital and circulating capital
　　Constant and variable capital
　　Competition
　　Surplus value. Production time. Circulation time. Turnover time
　　Competition (continued)
　　Part of capital in production time, part in circulation time
　　Surplus value and production phase. Number of reproductions of capital = number of turnovers
　　Change of form and of matter in the circulation of capital. C-M-C. M-C-M
　　Difference between production time and labour time
　　Formation of a mercantile estate; credit
　　Small-scale circulation. The process of exchange between capital and labour capacity generally
　　Threefold character, or mode, of circulation
　　Fixed capital and circulating capital
　　Influence of fixed capital on the total turnover time of capital
　　Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine
　　Transposition of powers of labour into powers of capital both in fixed and in circulatin capital
　　To what extent fixed capital (machine) creates value
　　Fixed capital and continuity of the production process. Machinery and living labour.
　　Contradiction between the foundation of bourgeois production (value as measure) and its development
　　Significance of the development of fixed capital (for the development of capital generally)
　　The chief role of capital is to create disposable time; contradictory form of this in capital
　　Durability of fixed capital
　　Real saving (economy)=saving of labour time=development of productive force
　　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
　　Is money fixed capital or circulating capital?
　　Turnover time of capital consisting of fixed capital and circulating capital. Reproduction time of fixed capital
　　The same commodity sometimes circulating capital, sometimes fixed capital
　　Every moment which is a presupposition of production is at the same time its result, in that it reproductes its own conditions
　　The counter-value of circulating capital must be produced within the year. Not so for fixed capital. It engages the production of subsequent years
　　Maintanence costs of fixed capital
　　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 and immovable, fixed and circulating
　　Connection of circulation and reproduction
　　Section Three: Capital as Fructiferous. Tranformation of Surplus Value into Profit
　　Rate of profit. Fall of the rate of profit
　　Surplus value as profit always expresses a lesser proportion
　　Wakefield, Carey and Bastiat on the rate of profit
　　Capital and revenue (profit). Production and distribution. Sismondi
　　Transformation of surplus value into profit
　　Laws of this and transformation
　　Surplus value=relation of surplus labour to necessary labour
　　Value of fixed capital and its productive power
　　Machinery and surplus labour. Recapitulation of the doctrine of surplus value generally
　　Relation between the objective conditions of production. Change in the proportion of the component parts of capital
Miscellaneous
　　Money and fixed capital: presupposes a certain amount of wealth. Relation of fixed capital and circulating capital (Economist)
　　Slavery and wage labour; profit upon alienation (Steuart)
　　Steuart, Montanari and Gouge on money
　　The wool industry in England since Elizabeth; silk-manufacture; iron; cotton
　　Origin of free wage labour. Vagabondage. (Tuckett)
　　Blake on accumulation and rate of profit; dormant capital
　　Domestic agriculture at the beginning of the sixteenth century. (Tuckett)
　　Profit. Interest. Influence of machinery on the wage fund. (Westminster Review)
　　Money as measure of values and yardstick of prices. Critique of theories of the standard measure of money
　　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
　　Capital, not labour, determines the value of money (Torrens)
　　The minimum of wages
　　Cotton machinery and working men in 1826. (Hodgskin)
　　How the machine creates raw material. (Economist)
　　Machinery and surplus labour
　　Capital and profit. Relation of the worker to the conditions of labour in capitalist production. All parts of capital bring a profit
　　Tendency of the machine to prolong labour
　　Cotton factories in England. Example for machinery and surplus labour
　　Examples from Glasgow for the rate of profit
　　Alienation of the conditions of labour with the development of capital. Inversion
　　Merivale. Natural dependence of the worker in colonies to be replaced by artificial restrictions
　　How the machine saves material. Bread. Dureau de la Malle
　　Development of money and interest
　　Productive consumpion. Newman. Transformations of capital. Economic cycle
　　Dr. Price. Innate power of capital
　　Proudhon. Capital and simple exchange. Surplus
　　Necessity of the worker’s propertylessness
　　Galiani
　　Theory of savings. Storch
　　MacCulloch. Surplus. Profit
　　Arnd. Natural interest
　　Interest and profit. Carey
　　How merchant takes the place of master
　　Merchant wealth
　　Commerce with equivalents impossible. Opdyke
　　Principal and interest
　　Double standard
　　On money
　　James Mill’s false theory of prices
　　Ricardo on currency
　　On money
　　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
　　Money in its third role, as money
　　(I) Value (This section to be brought forward)
　　Bastiat and Carey
　　Bastiat’s economic harmonies
　　Bastiat on wages