Das Kapital

Das Kapital
Name	Das Kapital
Caption	First edition title page
Author	Karl Marx
Country	United Kingdom
Language	German
Subject	Political economy
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Verlag von Otto Meissner (volume I); Verlag von Dietz (volumes II–III posthumous)
Pub date	1867 (Vol. I); 1885 (Vol. II); 1894 (Vol. III)
Pages	900+ (varies by edition)

Das Kapital is a foundational critique of political economy authored by Karl Marx. The work analyzes production, value, and capitalist social relations through a historical materialist lens and impacted European politics, labor movements, and intellectual history. Its arguments influenced figures in social democracy, anarchism, syndicalism, and communism and provoked responses from economists, statesmen, and philosophers across Europe, North America, and Asia.

Background and Composition

Marx wrote the work while in London after collaborating with Friedrich Engels and corresponding with figures in the First International and the International Workingmen's Association. He drafted manuscripts interacting with sources such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and contemporaries like Bruno Bauer and Ludwig Feuerbach. The project arose from earlier political activity including the Revolutions of 1848 and debates with journalists at newspapers such as the Rheinische Zeitung and Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Engels later edited and prepared posthumous volumes using Marx's Nachlass, drawing on archives held in British Museum and correspondence with publishers like Otto Meissner.

Structure and Contents

The first volume, subtitled "The Process of Production of Capital," centers on commodity, value, and surplus-value, proceeding through chapters on the commodity, the money, and the transformation of money into capital. Volume II, "The Process of Circulation of Capital," treats circuits of capital, turnover, and reproduction, using concepts such as constant and variable capital and engaging with debates exemplified by Jean-Baptiste Say and Thomas Malthus. Volume III, "The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole," addresses profit rates, commercial capital, finance, and landed property, taking up issues raised by critics like Frédéric Bastiat and institutions like the Bank of England. Marx incorporated statistical material from sources including the Prussian and British state reports and cited case material involving enterprises in Birmingham, Manchester, and Leipzig.

Major Themes and Concepts

Marx develops a labor theory of value drawing on David Ricardo and distinguishes exchange-value from use-value while theorizing surplus-value as the source of profit. He formulates concepts of necessary labor, surplus labor, and the rate of exploitation, relating these to class relations between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, with reference to urban centers such as Manchester and events like the Chartist movement. The book analyzes capitalist accumulation, crises of overproduction, concentration and centralization of capital, and phenomena such as commodification, alienation, and the reserve army of labor. Marx dialogues critically with political economists including John Stuart Mill, Nassau William Senior, and Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, and engages intellectual interlocutors like Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Stirner.

Publication History and Editions

Volume I was published in Hamburg by Otto Meissner in 1867; Marx supervised proofs and worked with translators and reviewers in Paris, Brussels, and Geneva. After Marx's death in 1883, Engels compiled Volumes II and III from manuscripts and entrusted publishing to houses such as Verlag von Dietz and later editions in St. Petersburg and Berlin circulated via socialist organizations including the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Notable translations include Friedrich Engels's editorial German editions, the Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling English translation, and later scholarly editions prepared by editors at institutions like the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe and publishers in Moscow and Prague.

Reception and Influence

Contemporaries ranged from enthusiastic readers in Trade union circles and socialist clubs to critical economists at universities such as University of Cambridge and Université de Paris (Sorbonne). Political leaders and theorists including Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, and Leon Trotsky drew on its analyses for strategy, policy, and party doctrine within contexts like the Russian Revolution and the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Intellectuals from Frankfurt School figures such as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to historians at Columbia University debated its relevance. Major labor legislation and institutions from Trade unions to cooperative movements cited its diagnosis of industrial capitalism, while financial authorities at institutions like the Bank of England monitored its political implications.

Criticism and Scholarly Debate

Economists such as Alfred Marshall and Joseph Schumpeter contested Marx's labor theory of value and transformation problem; debates engaged mathematicians like Piero Sraffa and theorists associated with the Cambridge capital controversy. Critics from liberal and conservative circles including John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek challenged its predictions about proletarian revolution and the dynamics of accumulation. Historians and philosophers including Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin criticized methodological aspects and historicism. Marxist and non-Marxist scholars have debated textual variants, editorial interventions by Engels, and manuscript integrity examined by the International Institute of Social History and projects such as the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe.

Category:Works by Karl Marx