Economic Manuscripts of 1857–1858

Manuscripts of economics formed by Marx for the creation of Capital. Written from October 1857 to May 1858, published in Moscow in 1939 and 1941 under the title Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft).

As early as the 1840s, Marx began his studies in political economy, and planned to write a masterpiece criticizing the capitalist system and bourgeois economics. Later, the 1848 Revolutions in Europe interrupted his economic research. After the defeat of the revolution, Marx settled in London and began a systematic study of political economy, studied a large number of economic works and press materials. In the fall of 1856, believing that, with the emergence of the economic crisis, the high tide of revolution was imminent, Marx intensified his economic research work from 1857 onward. This manuscript is the result of his economic research during this period.

Economics Manuscripts of 1857–1858 is massive in its volume, has over 50 sheets of print in total, and includes six manuscripts: Section One, Bastiat and Carey, Section Two, Introduction, Section Three, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Manuscripts of 1857–1858), Section Four, Gold-Weighing Machines, Section Five, Index to the Seven Notebooks (To the First Part), and Section Six, The Original Text of the Second and the Beginning of the Third Chapter of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (First Instalment). Among them, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Manuscripts of 1857–1858) was the preliminary draft of Capital, thus it is called the first draft of Capital. The contents of each section are as follows:

Bastiat and Carey is an unfinished manuscript written in July 1857. In this manuscript, for the first time, Marx clearly distinguished bourgeois classical economics from bourgeois vulgar economy, revealing the objectivity of the economic laws of capitalism and the antagonistic contradictions immanent in capitalism, marking an important development in Marx’s critique of bourgeois economics.

The Introduction was written at the end of August 1857. In this manuscript, Marx elaborated in detail on the object and method of political economy. He pointed out that the socially determined production of men is the object of inquiry of political economy, and that this production is socially determined production, which is determined by specific socio-historical conditions, and is not something abstract and eternally immutable. The “scientifically correct” method of presentation of political economy is the method of rising from the abstract to the concrete. Moreover, in the Introduction, he drew up a “five-part plan” for his future economic masterpiece, studied certain aspects of the sphere of the superstructure and their dependence on, and reaction upon, the economic base, and expounded the character of art as a form of social consciousness.

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Manuscripts of 1857–1858) includes two parts: Chapter on Money and Chapter on Capital. It was written between October 1857 and May 1858. In the Chapter on Money, Marx put forth the argument of the twofold character of labor in the production of commodities, which is an important theoretical achievement of Marx and the foundation of his labor theory of value. Chapter on Capital takes up most of the space and has three sections in total. Here, Marx has solved the problem of his research, that is, to theoretically and scientifically clarify the essence and mechanism of capitalist exploitation, pointing out that the worker and capitalist, labor and capital, stand opposed to each other and between which exchange takes place, and that their relations determine the essence of capitalist relations. In Section One, The Process of Production of Capital, Marx pointed out that the use-value provided by the worker to the capitalist is the worker’s capacity to work (or labor capacity), not labor. Here, Marx put forth the concept of the “commodity labor-power”, which provided a solid basis for his account of capitalist exploitation according to the law of value. In the process of capitalist production, the worker creates a value that exceeds the value of the labor-power itself, and this surplus in value, i.e., surplus-value, is appropriated by the capitalist without compensation. In the manuscript, Marx introduced the concepts of constant and variable capital and explained the relationship between the two, which was decisive for the political economy of the working class. Marx held that capitalist exploitation was the essence of capitalist relations of production and that the working class could not be liberated from capitalist exploitation under the capitalist system. The study of surplus-value itself, rather than just the various particular forms of surplus value, became one of the most significant achievements of Marx’s economic theory. Marx envisioned the future form of society on the basis of his analysis of pre-capitalist forms of property. Marx attached great importance to the positive role of the productive forces in the process of social development, pointing out that the reason why one form of society is replaced by another, higher form of society is precisely the result of the inevitable development of the productive forces. He believed that the new society of the future would be one in which “free individuality, based on the universal development of the individuals and the subordination of their communal, social productivity, which is their social possession,” would be formed. Section Two is The Process of Circulation of Capital, in which Marx demonstrated the dialectical unity of the process of the production and circulation of capital. In the study of the circulation of capital, Marx expounded the theory of the turnover of capital. When Marx examined the turnover of capital, he made scientific determinations on the categories of fixed and circulating capital on the basis of critical analysis of a large amount of material of bourgeois economics. Marx also paid great attention to machinery and the application of science and technology in production. While discussing the enormous productive forces of machinery, Marx consistently adhered to the labor theory of value. “[Machinery] creates value not because it replaces (living) labor; rather, only in so far as it is a means to increase surplus labor.” Marx also pointed out that under the capitalist system, technological progress is always subordinate to the purpose of capital in pursuit of surplus-value. From the development of machine production, Marx looked forward to a better future for human society. He believed that in the future society, the development of the machinery and the progress of science and technology would bring into play tremendous productive forces, which would benefit the whole society and no longer serve the interests of a few. Section Three is Capital as Fructiferous. Interest. Profit. (Production Costs, etc.). In this section, Marx expounded on profit and rate of profit, and the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The first law is that rate of profit is always less than the rate of surplus-value. The second law is that rate of profit has a tendency to fall as capital develops. This is “the most important law of modern political economy”. At the end of the manuscript, Marx supplemented the beginning part of Chapter One, Value. The last page of the manuscript is an excerpt on issues such as the gold-weighing machines, etc.

Index to the Seven Notebooks (To the First Part) and The Original Text of the Second and the Beginning of the Third Chapter of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (First Instalment) are the preparations for the formal writing of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (First Instalment). Index to Seven Notebooks consists of two manuscripts. The first manuscript includes the entire content of the first instalment in the plan, and the second one is on the detailed conception of the Chapter on Money, and in The Original Text of the Second and the Beginning of the Third Chapter of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (First Instalment), Marx systematically expounded on the conditions for the transformation of money into capital, and established all aspects and scope of the study of the sources of capital to grow.

Economics Manuscripts of 1857–1858 is an important part of the treasure house of Marxist economics research and occupies a very important position in the development history of Marxism, and is the first milestone in the history of the creation of Capital. It is very rich in content, from which one can not only see the process of formulation of many fundamental principles in Capital and the detailed interpretation of some principles, but also see many penetrating ideas not included in Capital. It is “the product the best years of [Marx’s] life”.