Marx: Capital (Volume 1)

Author: Works of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: The author now hands over this volume to the readers. This work is a continuation of the "Critique of Political Economy" published by the author in 1859. The content of the previous book has been summarized in the chapters of this volume. This approach not only ensures coherence and completeness but also improves the narrative style. Within the limits of the situation, many arguments briefly mentioned in the previous book are further elaborated here, while those already thoroughly discussed in the previous book are only briefly touched upon. The historical part of the value theory and monetary theory has now been completely omitted. However, readers of the previous book can find new historical materials on both theories in the notes of the chapters in this book.
As the saying goes, "It is difficult to make a beginning, and this is true for every science." Therefore, the chapters of this book, especially the analysis of commodities, are difficult to understand. The author has done his best to make the analysis of the value substance and value magnitude as accessible as possible. The value form in its completed state as money is extremely empty and extremely simple. However, over two thousand years of human wisdom in exploring this aspect have yielded little result, while the analysis of more substantial and complex forms has at least approached success. Why is this the case? Because a developed body is easier to study than its cells. Moreover, analyzing economic forms cannot be done with a microscope or chemical reagents. Both require the use of abstract thought to replace them. For bourgeois society, the commodity form of labor products or the value form of commodities is the cellular form of the economy. To the superficial observer, analyzing this form seems like a trivial matter. Indeed, it is a trivial matter, but it is the kind of trivial matter that microscopic anatomy must address. Therefore, apart from the part on value forms, this book cannot be considered difficult to understand. Of course, the author refers to readers who wish to learn something new and are willing to think for themselves.