Marx’s Capital PDF
Preview Marx’s Capital
Editors' Preface toMacmillan Studies inEconomics The rapid growth of academic literature in the field of economics has posed serious problems for both students and teachers of the subject. The latter find it difficult to keep pace with more than a few areas of the subject so that an inevitable trend towards specialism emerges. The student quickly loses perspective as the maze of theories and models grows, particularly at a time when so much reappraisal of the establishedparadigmsistakingplace. The aim ofthe 'Macmillan Studies in Economics' is to offer students, and perhapssome teachers as well, short, reasonably critical overviews of developments in selected areas of econ ornics, particularlythose in which current controversies are to be found. As far as possible the titles have been selected to form an integrated whole, although inevitably entire areas have beenneglectedas beingunsuited to the style, format and lengthofthe titlesin theseries. In some cases the volumes are rather more like essays than surveys. In mostcases,however, the aim isto survey the salient literature in a critical fashion. The level of understanding required to read the volumes varies with the complexityofthe subject, but they have been generally written to suit the second- and third-year undergraduate seeking to place his reading ofthe detailed literature in an over-all context. They are not textbooks. Instead they seek to give the kind of perspectivethatmightwellbe lost by readinglonger textbooks on their own, or by reading articles in journals. In particular, they should be most suited to pre-examination revision periods. They are not intended to substitute for the essential readingand assimilationoftheoriginalworks that theyseek to survey and assess. MACMILLAN STUDIES IN ECONOMICS General Editors: D. C. ROWAN and G. R. FISHER Executive Editor: D. W. PEARCE Marx's Capital BEN FINE Lecturer inEconomics, Birkbeck College, Universiry ofLondon M © Ben Fine 1975 All rights reserved. No partofthis publicationmaybe reproduced or transmitted,inanyform or by anymeans, withoutpermission. First edition 1975 Reprinted 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-17845-4 ISBN 978-1-349-02485-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-02485-8 Thisbook issold subject to the condition that it shall not, by wayof trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher'spriorconsent inanyform ofbindingorcoverotherthanthatinwhich it is published and without a similar condition including thiscondition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Contents Ackrwwledgements 7 1 Introduction 11 2 Method 13 The materialist conception ofhistory 13 Marx's economics 18 3 Commodity Production 20 The labour theory ofvalue 20 Labour and labour-power 23 The fetishism ofcommodities 25 4 Capital and Exploitation 27 Exchange 27 Capital 28 Exploitation 30 5 Accumulation 34 The coercive force of competition 34 The processofcompetition 36 The development of the proletariat 37 6 The Transition to Capitalism 41 7 The Circuit ofIndustrial Capital 45 The money circuit ofcapital 45 The circuit as a whole 7 8 Crises 51 The nature of crises 51 Thelaw ofthe tendencyofthe rateofprofittofall 55 9 Notes on Theory ofDistribution 59 Wages and profits 59 Merchant's capital 62 Interest-bearing capital 64 Rent ofland 66 Distributional and class relations 68 10 Marx's Economics and Contemporary Capitalism 71 6 Acknowledgements This bookispreparedfromcoursesgiven at Birkbeck Collegeon 'Marxist Economics' and 'The Distribution of Income and Wealth'. I have been influenced by those who taught arid attendedthosecourses.BobRaeandSimon Mohun read earlier versions and have made many suggestions that I have incor porated. I thank those who have given help, but retain sole responsibilityforthe contents. MARX TO ENGELS 'The best points in my book are: (1) the double character of labour, according to whether it is expressed in use value or exchange value...(2) the treatment of surplus value indepen dently ofitsparticularforms as profit, interest, ground rent, etc.' SelectedCorrespondence, Letter99 (Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1934). J. MARX TO WEYDEMEYER 'And now to myself, no creditis due to me for discovering the existence ofclassesin modern society or the struggle between them. Long before the bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this class struggle and bourgeois economists the economic anatomy of the classes. What I did that was new was to prove: (1) that the existence ofclassesis only bound up with particular historicalphasesin the development ofproduction, (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship ofthe proletariat, (3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition ofall classes and to a classless society.' Marx and Engels, Selected Works (Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1968) p. 679. Introduction I This book is both an introduction to and an interpretation of Marx's three volumes of Capital. On neither count could it be a substitute for reading Capital, but hopefully it will stimulate and help some to study it. Nevertheless, although faced by the constraints ofspace, I have undertaken an ambitious task and this has some important consequences. The text here isvery condensedin orderto obtainmaximum coverage. This means that it may be necessary to read some sections more than once and give careful thought to the arguments presented. Naturally I have attempted to include the most significant aspects of Capital, but inevitably many important problems have been omitted. Throughout the book I have refrainedfrom quoting Marx directly. This has imposed the discipline of putting his argument in my own words. However, Marx's style is so powerful, that I apologise in advance if my own wording has closely echoed his own in places. After a brief discussion of Marx's method I have followed Volume I of Capital fairly closely. I include a chapter on the genesis of capitalism, with which Marx concluded Volume I. This interrupts the flowof argument from the general analysis ofcapital to crisis and distribution theory. Unfortunately this cannot be avoided, since theory, unlike history, cannot always unfold chronologically. The remainder of the book, whilst covering Volumes II and ill, contains more ofmy own invention. The industrial circuit ofcapital is explicitly used to describe crises, and the largest chapter is devoted to unravelling Marx's lengthy treatment of 11
The list of books you might like
