Selected Readings from The Capital, 21st Century Economics Series Textbooks

Author: Yang Zhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: This selection aims to highlight the following characteristics: , To enable students and readers to truly understand Marx's broad perspective in observing and recognizing the capitalist mode of production, his scientific methods for researching and analyzing the capitalist economic structure, and his ability to master the capitalist economic system. This selection consistently emphasizes the guiding role of historical materialism in Marx's analysis of the capitalist socio-economic structure in Capital and the revelation of the laws governing its transformation. Second, to allow students and readers to genuinely grasp the intrinsic connections between historical materialism, the labor theory of value, and the theory of surplus value in Capital. Third, to enable students and readers to scientifically recognize the entire process of the movement of the capitalist mode of production, namely the production, realization, and distribution of capital accumulation or surplus value, as well as the reproduction process. Fourth, this selection adheres to the hierarchical analysis of the capitalist mode of production and the corresponding production relations and exchange relations in Capital, emphasizing the view that the capitalist mode of production forms the foundation of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption relationships, as well as overall interest relations in capitalist society. Fifth, this selection highlights the method used by Capital to determine the historical status and destiny of capital in the historical process of social development. Sixth, the regret of this selection is that due to space limitations, it could not include the historical, content, and results of the Factory Acts in Great Britain, which were extensively discussed in the third volume of Capital, as well as the discussions on banking laws and their consequences in the third volume. Seventh, the unselected content in this collection is marked with the original page numbers in brackets. Eighth, finally, I would like to dedicate the following quote by Engels to those students and readers preparing to read this book. "For those who cannot or do not wish to read it, for those who, when reading the third volume, already spend more effort distorting it than correctly understanding it, no matter how much effort you put in, it will be in vain. But for those who hope to truly understand it, the most important thing is the original text itself."