A Contribution To The Critique of Political Economy - Introduction

 

A Contribution To The Critique of Political Economy

Introduction

Marx's Critique was first published in 1859, eight years before the first volume of Capital. It is a summary of parts of The Grundrisse, the writings which formed the groundwork of Capital, and written between 1857-8. Some of those ideas had been discussed in The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, when Marx was first engaging in his study of political economy, and so before his theory was properly formulated, or the evidence in support of it collated.

In his Preface to Capital I, Marx speaks of the Critique as “the first small book”, and Capital as the continuation of it. In my earlier works on Capital, I referenced the Critique extensively, whilst not having previously given it the same treatment as Capital and Theories of Surplus Value. That was because much of what is contained in the Critique is also contained in the first three chapters of Capital.

However, the extent of QE, in the last decade or so, and the confusion in relation to money, as against money tokens and money-capital, which is vital in understanding both Marx's analysis of the rate of interest and inflation, leads me now to give it the same treatment as previously given to Capital and Theories of Surplus Value.

I am working from the 1977 Progress Publishers Edition, and all page references refer to it.

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