Fowkes Ben - Capital: a critique of political economy. Vol. 1

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This edition first published in Pelican Books 1976

Edition and notes copyright New Left Review, 1976
Introduction copyright Ernest Mandel, 1976
Translation copyright Ben Fowkes, 1976
Appendix translation copyright Rodney Livingstone, 1976

Cover: Detail from The Forge (A Modern Cyclops) (1875) by Adolph von Menzel, in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (photo: BPK/SMPK, Berlin)

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-141-92060-3

PENGUIN CLASSICS

VOLUME 1

Karl Marx was born at Trier in 1818 of a German-Jewish family converted to Christianity. As a student in Bonn and Berlin he was influenced by Hegels dialectic, but he later reacted against idealist philosophy and began to develop his theory of historical materialism. He related the state of society to its economic foundations and mode of production, and recommended armed revolution on the part of the proletariat. In Paris in 1844 Marx met Friedrich Engels, with whom he formed a life-long partnership. Together they prepared the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) as a statement of the Communist Leagues policy. In 1848 Marx returned to Germany and took an active part in the unsuccessful democratic revolution. The following year he arrived in England as a refugee and lived in London until his death in 1883. Helped financially by Engels, Marx and his family nevertheless lived in great poverty. After years of research (mostly carried out in the British Museum), he published in 1867 the first volume of his great work, Capital. From 1864 to 1872 Marx played a leading role in the International Working Mens Association, and his last years saw the development of the first mass workers parties founded on avowedly Marxist principles. Besides the two posthumous volumes of Capital compiled by Engels, Karl Marxs other writings include The German Ideology, The Poverty of Philosophy, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, The Civil War in France, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy and Theories of Surplus-Value.

Ernest Mandel was born in 1923. He was educated at the Free University of Brussels, where he was later Professor for many years, and the cole Pratique des Hautes tudes in Paris. He gained his Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin. He was a Member of the Economic Studies Commission of FGTB (Belgian TUC) from 1954 to 1963 and was chosen for the annual Alfred Marshall Lectures by Cambridge University in 1978. His many books include The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx, Late Capitalism, The Long Waves of Capitalist Development, The Second Slump and The Marxist Theory of Bureaucracy. His influential pamphlet, An Introduction to Marxist Economics, sold over half a million copies and was translated into thirty languages. Ernest Mandel died in July 1995. In its obituary the Guardian described him as one of the most creative and independent-minded revolutionary Marxist thinkers of the post-war world.

Part One

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COMMODITIES AND MONEY

Part Two

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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MONEY INTO CAPITAL

Part Three

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THE PRODUCTION OF ABSOLUTE SURPLUS-VALUE

Part Four

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THE PRODUCTION OF RELATIVE SURPLUS-VALUE

Part Five

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THE PRODUCTION OF ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE SURPLUS-VALUE

Part Six

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WAGES

Part Seven

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THE PROCESS OF ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL