From Mercantilism to Marx: The Historical Process of the Discovery of Surplus Value

Author: Wang Yufen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-07-01
Features: From mercantilism to Marx, this is the founding, formation, and development stage of political economy. Its main problem is the revelation and demonstration of the law of surplus value. This book elaborates on mercantilism's "transfer of profit," the Physiocrats' understanding of surplus value from agriculture, Smith's preliminary systematic definition of surplus value from generality, Ricardo's adherence to examining surplus value through the labor theory of value, and the denial of surplus value by bourgeois vulgar political economy, as well as the early socialist thinkers' preliminary systematic understanding of capital and surplus value. Marx demonstrated capital and surplus value and their specific forms with a clear conceptual system. This book systematically summarizes and studies the historical process of the formation of the theory of surplus value, which holds significant importance for researching modern capitalist economics and the history of political economy, as well as socialist political economy.