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The publication of the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung" in 1848 and 1849, and the events which took place later on, interrupted my economic studies which I could not resume before 1850 in London. The enormous material on the history of political economy which is accumulated in the British Museum; the favorable view which London offers for the observation of bourgeois society; finally, the new stage of development upon which the latter seemed to have entered with the discovery of gold in California and Australia, led me to the decision to resume my studies from the very beginning and work up critically the new material. These studies partly led to what might seem side questions, over which I nevertheless had to stop for longer or shorter periods ofPg 15 time. Especially was the time at my disposal cut down by the imperative necessity of working for a living. My work as contributor on the leading Anglo-American newspaper, the "New York Tribune," at which I have now been engaged for eight years, has caused very great interruption in my studies, since I engage in newspaper work proper only occasionally. Yet articles on important economic events in England and on the continent have formed so large a part of my contributions that I have been obliged to make myself familiar with practical details which lie outside the proper sphere of political economy.
This account of the course of my studies in political economy is simply to prove that my views, whatever one may think of them, and no matter how little they agree with the interested prejudices of the ruling classes, are the result of many years of conscientious research. At the entrance to science, however, the same requirement must be put as at the entrance to hell:
Karl Marx.
London, January, 1859.
| PAGE. | |
| Translator's Preface | 3 |
| Author's Preface | 9 |
| BOOK I. CAPITAL IN GENERAL. | |
| Chapter I. Commodities | 19 |
| A. Notes on the History of the Theory of Value | 56 |
| Chapter II. Money or Simple Circulation | 73 |
| 1. The Measure of Value | 74 |
| B. Theories of the Unit of Measure of Money | 91 |
| 2. The Medium of Circulation | 107 |
| a. The Metamorphosis of Commodities | 108 |
| b. The Circulation of Money | 125 |
| c. Coin and Symbols of Value | 138 |
| 3. Money | 162 |
| a. Hoarding | 166 |
| b. Means of Payment | 185 |
| c. World Money | 201 |
| 4. The Precious Metals | 208 |
C. Theories of the Medium of Circulation and of Money | 215 |
Appendix. Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy | 264 |
| 1. Production in General | 265 |
2. The General Relation of Production to Distribution, change, and Consumption | 274 |
| 3. The Method of Political Economy | 292 |
4. Production, Means of Production, and Conditions of Production | 306 |
| Index | 313 |
At first sight the wealth of society under the capitalist system presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities, its unit being a single commodity. But every commodity has a twofold aspect, that of use value and exchange value.2
A commodity is first of all, in the language of English Pg 20economists, "any thing necessary, useful or pleasant in life," an object of human wants, a means of existence in the broadest sense of the word. This property of commodities to serve as use-values coincides with their natural palpable existence. Wheat e. g. is a distinct use-value differing from the use-values cotton, glass, paper, etc. Use-value has a value only in use and is realized only in the process of consumption. The same use-value may be utilized in various ways. But the extent of its possible applications is circumscribed by its distinct properties. Furthermore, it is thus limited not only qualitatively but also quantitatively. According to their natural properties the various use-values have different measures, such as a bushel of wheat, a quire of paper, a yard of linen, etc.
Whatever the social form of wealth may be, use-values always have a substance of their own, independent of that form. One can not tell by the taste of wheat whether it has been raised by a Russian serf, a French peasant, or an English capitalist. Although the object of social wants and, therefore, mutually connected in society, use-values do not bear any marks of the relations of social production. Suppose, we have a commodity whose use-value is that of a diamond. We can not tell by looking at the diamond that it is a commodity. When it serves as a use-value, aesthetic or mechanical, on the breast of a harlot, or in the hand of a glasscutter, it is a diamond and not a commodity. It is the necessary pre-requisite of a commodity to be a use-value, but it is immaterial to the use-value whether it is a commodity or not. Use-value in thisPg 21 indifference to the nature of its economic destination, i. e. use-value as such lies outside the sphere of investigation of political economy.3 It falls within the sphere of the latter only in so far as it forms its own economic destination. It forms the material basis which directly underlies a definite economic relation called exchange value.
