[19th / Marx & Engels / M&E writings / Marx writings / Engels writings ]

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859

Zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie. Franz Duncker, Berlin 1859.

Zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie. 1859. In Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), Zweite Abteilung. „Das Kapital“ und Vorarbeiten Band 13. Akademie Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2008.

Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels – Werke, (Karl) Dietz Verlag, Berlin. Band 13, 7. Auflage 1971

Poliittisen taloustieteen arvostelua. Suomentanut Antero Tiusanen. Marx–Engels. Valitut teokset (6 osaa). 4. osa, s. 5–185. Kustannusliike Edistys, Moskova (1979).

Preface

“The anatomy of civil society has to be sought in political economy”. 

In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.

The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.

Part I THE COMMODITY (Die Ware)

Every commodity has a twofold aspect – use-value (Gebrauchswert) and exchange-value (Tauschwert).

Part II MONEY OR SIMPLE CIRCULATION ( Das Geld oder die einfache Zirkulation)