Il Capitale (I)

Karl Marx

Lingua:

inglese

Stato:

Complete work

Autorialità:

Written by the author

I.- — T O THE FIRST EDITION. THE work, the first volume of wbicli I now submit to the public, forms the continuation of my '' Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie " (A contribution to the criticism of Political Economy) published in 1859. The long pause between the first part and the continu- ation is due to an illness of many years' duration that again and again interrupted my work. The substance of that earlier work is summarised in the first three chapters of this volume. This is done not merely for the sake of connection and completeness. The presentation of the subject-matter is improved. As far as circumstances in any way permit, many points only hinted at in the earlier book are here worked out more fully, whilst, conversely, points worked out fully there are only touched upon in this volume. The sections on the history of the theories of value and of money are now, of course, left out altogether. The reader of the earlier work will find, however, in the notes to the first chapter additional sources of reference relative to the history of those theories. Every beginning is difficult, holds in all sciences. To understand the first chapter, especially the section that contains the analysis of commodities, will, therefore, pre- sent the greatest difficulty. That which concerns more xvi Authors Prefaces. especially the analysis of the substance of value and the magnitude of value, I have, as much as it was possible, popularised/ The value-form, whose fully developed shape is the money form, is very elementary and simple. Nevertheless, the human mind has for more than 2000 years sought in vain to get to the bottom of it, whilst on the other hand, to the successful analysis of much more composite

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