A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Manuscripts of 1861-63)
Preface to Marx-Engels Collected Works Volume (32)
XV. Ricardo’s Theory of Surplus-Value.
[A. The Connection Between Ricardo's Conception of Surplus-Value and his Views on Profit and Rent]
[1. Ricardo's Confusion of the Laws of Surplus-Value with the Laws of Profit]
[2. Changes in the Rate of Profit Caused by Various Factors]
[3. The Value of Constant Capital Decreases While That of Variable Capital Increases and Vice Versa, and the Effect of These Changes on the Rate of Profit]
[4. Confusion of Cost-Prices with Value in the Ricardian Theory of Profit]
[5. The General Rate of Profit and the Rate of Absolute Rent in Their Relation to Each Other. The Influence on Cost-Prices of a Reduction in Wages]
[B. Ricardo on the Problem of Surplus-Value]
1. Quantity of Labour and Value of Labour. [As Presented by Ricardo the Problem of the Exchange of Labour for Capital Cannot Be Solved]
2. Value of Labour-Power. Value of Labour. [Ricardo's Confusion of Labour with Labour-Power. Concept of the "Natural Price of Labour"]
3. Surplus-Value. [An Analysis of the Source of Surplus-Value Is Lacking in Ricardo's Work. His Concept of Working-Day as a Fixed Magnitude]
4. Relative Surplus-Value. [The Analysis of Relative Wages Is One of Ricardo's Scientific Achievements]
XVI. Ricardo’s Theory of Profit
[1. Individual Instances in Which Ricardo Distinguishes Between Surplus-Value and Profit]
[2.] Formation of the General Rate of Profit. (Average Profit or "Usual Profit")
[a) The Starting-Point of the Ricardian Theory of Profit Is the Antecedent Predetermined Average Rate of Profit]
[b) Ricardo's Mistakes Regarding the Influence of Colonial Trade, and Foreign Trade in General, on the Rate of Profit]
[3.] Law of the Diminishing Rate of Profit
[a) Wrong Presuppositions in the Ricardian Conception of the Diminishing Rate of Profit]
[b) Analysis of Ricardo's Thesis that the Increasing Rent Gradually Absorbs the Profit]
[c) Transformation of a Part of Profit and a Part of Capital into Rent. The Magnitude of Rent Varies in Accordance with the Amount of Labour Employed in Agriculture]
[d) Historical Illustration of the Rise in the Rate of Profit with a Simultaneous Rise in the Prices of Agricultural Products. The Possibility of an Increasing Productivity of Labour in Agriculture]
[e) Ricardo's Explanation for the Fall in the Rate of Profit and Its Connection with His Theory of Rent]
XVII. Ricardo’s Theory of Accumulation and a Critique of it. (The Very Nature of Capital Leads to Crises)
[1. Adam Smith's and Ricardo's Error in Failing to Take into Consideration Constant Capital. Reproduction of the Different Parts of Constant Capital]
[2. Value of the Constant Capital and Value of the Product]
[3. Necessary Conditions for the Accumulation of Capital. Amortisation of Fixed Capital and Its Role in the Process of Accumulation]
[4. The Connection Between Different Branches of Production in the Process of Accumulation. The Direct Transformation of a Part of Surplus-Value into Constant Capital—a Characteristic Peculiar to Accumulation in Agriculture and the Machine-building Industry]
[5. The Transformation of Capitalised Surplus-Value into Constant and Variable Capital]
[6. Crises (Introductory Remarks)]
[7. Absurd Denial of the Over-production of Commodities, Accompanied by a Recognition of the Over-abundance of Capital]
[8. Ricardo's Denial of General Over-production. Possibility of a Crisis Inherent in the Inner Contradictions of Commodity and Money]
[9. Ricardo's Wrong Conception of the Relation Between Production and Consumption under the Conditions of Capitalism]
[10. Crisis, Which Was a Contingency, Becomes a Certainty. The Crisis as the Manifestation of All the Contradictions of Bourgeois Economy]
[11. On the Forms of Crisis]
[12. Contradictions Between Production and Consumption under Conditions of Capitalism. Over-production of the Principal Consumer Goods Becomes General Over-production]
[13. The Expansion of the Market Does Not Keep in Step with the Expansion of Production. The Ricardian Conception That an Unlimited Expansion of Consumption and of the Internal Market Is Possible]
[14. The Contradiction Between the Impetuous Development of the Productive Powers and the Limitations of Consumption Leads to Over-production. The Theory of the Impossibility of General Over-production Is Essentially Apologetic in Tendency]
[15. Ricardo's Views on the Different Types of Accumulation of Capital and on the Economic Consequences of Accumulation]
XVIII. Ricardo’s Miscellanea. John Barton
[A.] Gross and Net Income
[B.] Machinery [Ricardo and Barton on the Influence of Machines on the Conditions of the Working Class]
[1. Ricardo's Views]
[a) Ricardo's Original Surmise Regarding the Displacement of Sections of the Workers by Machines]
[b) Ricardo on the Influence of Improvements in Production on the Value of Commodities. False Theory of the Availability of the Wages Fund for the Workers Who Have Been Dismissed]
[c) Ricardo's Scientific Honesty, Which Led Him to Revise His Views on the Question of Machinery. Certain False Assumptions Are Retained in Ricardo's New Formulation of the Question]
[d) Ricardo's Correct Determination of Some of the Consequences of the Introduction of Machines for the Working Class. Apologetic Notions in the Ricardian Explanation of the Problem]
[2. Barton's Views]
[a) Barton's Thesis that Accumulation of Capital Causes a Relative Decrease in the Demand for Labour. Barton's and Ricardo's Lack of Understanding of the Inner Connection Between This Phenomenon and the Domination of Capital over Labour]
[b) Barton's Views on the Movement of Wages and the Growth of Population]
XIX. Thomas Robert Malthus
[1. Malthus's Confusion of the Categories Commodity and Capital]
[2. Malthus's Vulgarised View of Surplus-Value]
[3. The Row Between the Supporters of Malthus and Ricardo in the Twenties of the 19th Century. Common Features in Their Attitude to the Working Class]
[4. Malthus's One-sided Interpretation of Smith's Theory of Value. His Use of Smith's Mistaken Theses in His Polemic Against Ricardo]
[5. Smith's Thesis of the Invariable Value of Labour as Interpreted by Malthus]
[6. Malthus's Use of the Ricardian Theses of the Modification of the Law of Value in His Struggle Against the Labour Theory of Value]
[7. Malthus's Vulgarised Definition of Value. His View of Profit as Something Added to the Price. His Polemic Against Ricardo's Conception of the Relative Wages of Labour]
[8. Malthus on Productive Labour and Accumulation]
[a)] Productive and Unproductive Labour
[b)] Accumulation
[9.] Constant and Variable Capital [According to Malthus]
[10.] Malthus's Theory of Value [Supplementary Remarks]
[11.] Over-Production, "Unproductive Consumers", etc.
[12. The Social Essence of Malthus's Polemic Against Ricardo. Malthus's Distortion of Sismondi's Views on the Contradictions in Bourgeois Production]
[13. Critique of Malthus's Conception of "Unproductive Consumers" by Supporters of Ricardo]
[14. The Reactionary Role of Malthus's Writings and Their Plagiaristic Character. Malthus's Apologia for the Existence of "Upper" and "Lower" Classes]
[15. Malthus's Principles Expounded in the Anonymous "Outlines of Political Economy"]
XX. Disintegration of the Ricardian School
1. [Robert Torrens]
[a) Smith and Ricardo on the Relation Between the Average Rate of Profit and the Law of Value]
[b) Torrens's Confusion in Defining the Value of Labour and the Sources of Profit]
[c) Torrens and the Conception of Production Costs]
2. James Mill [Futile Attempts to Resolve the Contradictions of the Ricardian System]
[a) Confusion of surplus-value with Profit]
[b) Mill's Vain Efforts to Bring the Exchange Between Capital and Labour into Harmony with the Law of Value]
[c) Mill's Lack of Understanding of the Regulating Role of Industrial Profit]
[d)] Demand, supply, Over-Production
[e)] Prévost [Rejection of some of the Conclusions of Ricardo and James Mill. Attempts to Prove That a Constant Decrease of Profit Is Not Inevitable]
3. Polemical Writings
a) ["Observations on certain Verbal Disputes". Scepticism in Political Economy]
b) "An Inquiry into those Principles…" [The Lack of Understanding of the Contradictions of the capitalist Mode of production Which Cause Crises]
c) Thomas De Quincey [Failure to Overcome the Real Flaws in the Ricardian Standpoint]
d) Samuel Bailey
[α) Superficial Relativism on the Part of the Author of "Observations on certain Verbal Disputes" and on the Part of Bailey in Treating the Category of Value. The Problem of the Equivalent. Rejection of the Labour Theory of Value as the Foundation of Political Economy]
[β) Confusion with Regard to Profit and the Value of Labour]
[γ) Confusion of Value and Price. Bailey's Subjective Standpoint]
4. McCulloch
[a) Vulgarisation and Complete Decline of the Ricardian System under the Guise of Its Logical Completion. Cynical Apologia for Capitalist Production. Unprincipled Eclecticism]
[b) Distortion of the Concept of Labour Through Its Extension to Processes of Nature. Confusion of Exchange-Value and Use-Value]
5. Wakefield [Some Objections to Ricardo's Theory Regarding the "Value of Labour" and Rent]
6. Stirling [Vulgarised Explanation of Profit by the Interrelation of Supply and Demand]
7. John Stuart Mill [Unsuccessful Attempts to Deduce the Ricardian Theory of the Inverse Proportionality Between the Rate of Profit and the Level of Wages Directly from the Law of Value]
[a) Confusion of the Rate of Surplus-value with the Rate of Profit. Elements of the Conception of "Profit upon Alienation". Confused Conception of the "Profits Advanced" by the Capitalist]
[b) Apparent Variation in the Rate of Profit Where the Production of Constant Capital Is Combined with Its Working Up by a single Capitalist]
[c) On the Influence a Change in the value of Constant Capital Exerts on surplus-value, Profit and Wages]
[8. Conclusion]
XXI. Opposition to the Economists (Based on the Ricardian Theory)
1. [The Pamphlet] "The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties"
[a) Profit, Rent and Interest Regarded as Surplus Labour of the Workers. The Interrelation Between the Accumulation of Capital and the so-called "Labour Fund"]
[b) On the Exchange Between Capital and Revenue in the Case of Simple Reproduction and of the Accumulation of Capital]
[c) The Merits of the Author of the pamphlet and the Theoretical Confusion of His Views. The Importance of the Questions He Raises about the Role of Foreign Trade in Capitalist society and of "Free Time" as Real Wealth]
2. Ravenstone. [The View of Capital as the Surplus Product of the Worker. Confusion of the Antagonistic Form of Capitalist Development with Its Content. This Leads to a Negative Attitude Towards the Results of the Capitalist Development of the Productive Forces]
3. Hodgskin
[a) The Thesis of the Unproductiveness of Capital as a Necessary Conclusion from Ricardo's Theory]
[b) Polemic against the Ricardian Definition of Capital as Accumulated Labour. The Concept of Coexisting Labour. Underestimation of the Importance of Materialised Past Labour. Available Wealth in Relation to the Movement of Production]
[c)] So-called Accumulation as a Mere Phenomenon of Circulation. (Stock, etc.—Circulation Reservoirs)
[d) Hodgskin's Polemic Against the conception that the Capitalists "store Up" Means of Subsistence for the Workers. His Failure to Understand the Real causes of the Fetishism of Capital]
[e)] Compound Interest: Fall in the Rate of Profit Based on This
[f) Hodgskin on the Social Character of Labour and on the Relation of Capital to Labour]
[g) Hodgskin's Basic Propositions as Formulated in His Book—"Popular Political Economy"]
[h) Hodgskin on the Power of Capital and on the Upheaval in the Right of Property]
[4.] Bray as an Opponent of the Economists
Addenda to Part 3. Revenue and its Sources. Vulgar Political Economy
[1.] The Development of Interest-Bearing Capital on the Basis of Capitalist Production.
[2.] Interest-Bearing Capital and Commercial Capital in Relation to Industrial Capital. Older Forms. Derived Forms
[3. The Separation of Individual Parts of Surplus-Value in the Form of Different Revenues. The Relation of Interest to Industrial Profit. The Irrationality of the Fetishised Forms of Revenue]
[4. The Process of Ossification of the Converted Forms of Surplus-Value and Their Ever Greater Separation from Their Inner Substance—Surplus Labour. Industrial Profit as "Wages for the Capitalist"]
[5. Essential Difference Between Classical and Vulgar Economy. Interest and Rent as Constituent Elements of the Market Price of Commodities. Vulgar Economists Attempt to Give the Irrational Forms of Interest and Rent a Semblance of Rationality]
[6. The Struggle of Vulgar Socialism Against Interest (Proudhon). Failure to Understand the Inner Connection Between Interest and the System of Wage-Labour]
[7. Historical Background to the Problem of Interest. Luther's Polemic Against Interest Is Superior to That of Proudhon. The Concept of Interest Changes as a Result of the Evolution of Capitalist Relations]
Addenda to Part 2
[1. Early Formulation of the Thesis That the Supply of Agricultural Products Always Corresponds to Demand. Rodbertus and the Practicians among the Economists of the Eighteenth Century]
[2. Nathaniel Forster on the Hostility Between Landowners and Traders]
[3. Hopkins's Views on the Relationship Between Rent and Profit]
[4. Carey, Malthus and James Deacon Hume on Improvements in Agriculture]
[5. Hodgskin and Anderson on the Growth of Productivity in Agricultural Labour]
[6. Decrease in the Rate of Profit]