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 |
(Aphorisms) |
(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 labour 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–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 circulation, 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 |
Transformation 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 |
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; circulating 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 circulating capital |
To what extent fixed capital (machine) creates value |
Fixed capital & continuity of the production process. Machinery & 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 reproduces 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 |
Maintenance 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. TRANSFORMATION 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 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. D’eau de la Malle |
Development of money and interest |
Productive consumption. 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 |