Appendix: Index to the 7 Notebooks

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(TO THE FIRST PART)

Written in June 1858

First published in: Karl Marx, Grundrisse der Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Appendix. Moscow, 1941

Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 29, 1987

This manuscript marks the transitional stage in Marx’s work on a draft version of his economic work in preparing it for publication in parts, as agreed by contract with the German publisher Duncker. In order to develop the rough manuscript further, Marx drew up a kind of index that would help him select material for the first part. In his letter to Engels on May 31, 1858, Marx wrote that his hefty manuscript (308 densely written pages in seven notebooks) was a real hotchpotch, much of it intended for later sections. “So I shall have to make an index,” Marx wrote,”briefly indicating in which notebook and on what page to find the stuff I want to work on first”.

First of all, Marx had to elaborate the material that was to form the first part of the planned work. By the “first part”, Marx then meant that which he soon began to designate as the “first section” of his book “On Capital”, consisting of three chapters: “The Commodity”, “Money”, and “Capital in General”. In the Economic Manuscript of 1857-1858, however, there is no special chapter on the commodity; the beginning of it is only outlined, under the title: “Value”. Individual digressions in other sections of the manuscript also belonged to it.

The Index to the 7 Notebooks (to the first part) consists of two unfinished drafts; in the first one, Marx gathered all the material of his manuscript belonging to the “first part”, up to the section on the circulation of capital, but this section and some other passages preceding it remained without page references; the second draft embraces only the chapter on money and presents a more detailed structure of this chapter.

Marx left big gaps between the main headings of his Index, later to be filled in with additional subheadings and page references.

The Index to the 7 Notebooks (to the first part) fills the last eleven pages in Notebook M (figures in the editorial square brackets denote pages of this notebook), which contains the outline of Marx’s “Introduction” (see MECW, Vol. 28, pp. 17-48). In this edition Marx’s marks in the margins are not reproduced.

In his Index, Marx indicates the numbers of notebooks containing the outlines of the Critique of Political Economy by Roman numerals, and the pages of those notebooks by Arabic numerals.

[First Draft]

[M-23]

I) VALUE

I, 12, 13, 20, 21. RicardoVl, 1. MalthusVl, 13. (A. Smith VI, 17, 18.) Use value and exchange value (Notebook VI, 28 bottom and 29). Steuart (VII, 26) (ibid.) (I.e.) (VII, 39. Torrens) (VII, 49).

(Simple and SJULLED LABOUR.)


II) MONEY

In general Transition from value to money (I, 13) (14). Product of exchange itself (I, 14) I, 15, 17.

The 3 determinations of money VII, 35, 36 (Bailey).


(1) Money as measure

The denomination of paper money in terms of gold and silver, whether it is legally convertible or not, implies that it must be exchangeable for the quantity of gold or silver which it represents. As soon as it is no longer thus exchangeable, it is depreciated, with or without legal CONVERTIBILITY (Notebook I, pp. 8, 9). Gold and silver as money of account do not express any value, but merely fractional parts of their own substance. Their title is not that of a value: they constitute their own denominator (I.e., p. 9). (Hence nominally undepreciable.) Falls and rises in the value of gold and silver (Notebook I, 10) (VII, 29). On the denomination of values directly in labour time (I, 11, 12; 18, 19).

Translation of the commodity into money in the head. Money as money of account, as means of exchange (I, 13). MONEY OF ACCOUNT

(Steuart VII, 26, 27) {Gouge VII, 27) (VII, 30, 31) (32, 33, 34). Bailey (VII, 36). MĂźller (I.e.). The Economist (VII, 38). Assignats (VII, 35). Livres de compte[1] in France (Gamier, I.e.). Money as measure needs no constancy of value, only quantity (Bailey VII, 36). Urquhart VII, 55. Gray (VII, 57). Fullarton VII, 61.

[M-24]

(2) Money as means of exchange or simple circulation (I, 14, 15, 16) (17). Steuart (VII, 26).

Coin (English SILVER TOKENS 1, 18). (Montanari VII, 27). Circulation and STANDARD (VII, 29). Subsidiary coins (VII, 36, 37) (ibid., 38). (Hodgskin VII, 39.)

Privilege of money to circulate at all times (VII, 49). Circulation leading back to itself, in distinction from simple money circulation. Example (The Economist VII, 25). General remarks on this (VII, 29).

Value of money. J. St. Mill VII, 56.

J. Mill’s theory VII, 57, 58. Ricardo VII, 59.

A mere RISE in PRICES is not sufficient to create a DEMAND FOR ADDITIONAL MONEY (VII, 59. Fullarton).

Contradiction between money as means of circulation and equivalent (VII, 61). T h e English definition of when money is no longer full-weight (I.e.). Quantity of money in circulation determined (VII, 61).

The proportions in which the different metals serve as money in England (VII, 52) (The Economist).

M—C is easier to perform than C—M (52, VII, Corbet).


(3) Money as money (Cf. I, 17) (21) (23) (VI, 28). Equivalent (Steuart VII, 25 bottom). Bailey VII, 35, 36. HOARDING (VII, 38). Petition of the Cortes (VII, 44) (VII, 46).

(Gold and silver as UTENSILS. Jacob VII, 59.) Ibid. Fullarton (VII, 59, 60).

Money for payments and (Corbet VII, 52).

Dissolving effect of money (Free Trade[2] VII, 59).


[M-25]

(4) The precious metals as the material of money. Montanari Fantasies about the “invention” of money (VII, 27).

Bailey (VII, 36). Copper, silver, gold (Buchanan VII, 37).

Newman (VII, 47). Galiani (VII, 49). Depreciation of copper in Rome (VII, 35).

Depreciation of different kinds of money. Morrison VII, 55.


(5) The law of appropriation, as it appears in simple circulation [M-26] (6) Transition from money to capital


III) CAPITAL IN GENERAL

Transformation of money into capital

(1) The production process of capital (a) The exchange of capital with labour capacity

[M-27] (b) Absolute surplus value

(Ricardo VI, 12.) (Surplus labour. Steuart VII, 25 and 26.)

(c) Relative surplus value (d) Primitive accumulation

(Presuppositions for the relation of capital and wage labour) [M-28] (e) Inversion of the law of appropriation (Ricardo VI, 1, 2) (VI, 37, 38).

(2) The circulation process of capital


[Second Draft]

[M-29] (1) Money as measure

When paper money is denominated in a metallic (in general, in any) STANDARD, its convertibility is, whether legally or not, an economic law. The controversial questions concerning convertibility therefore become purely technical—how to ensure this convertibility, legal or not, etc. (Notebook I, p. 8). Hence the theory of the ideal standard, i.e. NO STANDARD AT ALL, held by the consistent adherents to CONVERTIBILITY (p. 9, ibid.) (p. 10).

Nominal undepreciability of money, not because it alone expresses an authentic value, but because it expresses no value at all; rather, its price, what is called the mint price, is nothing more than the name for certain quantities of its own substance (I, 9).

Labour money (I, 11) (12) (VII, 57).

Money is the exchange value of the commodities which exists independently alongside them and into which they must be converted (I, 13). Into a qualitatively different element. In this way, they become commensurable (I, 14) (I, 35).

The exchange value of commodities in money is determined by the labour time contained in them (I, 25) (I, 35). (How it actually takes place. Ibid.)

Price (I, 35) (36). As measure, money always serves as money of account, and as price the commodity is always transformed into money only notionally (I, 36) (Gamier I.e.). This notional transformation has nothing to do with the supply of money (I.e.) (38, I, Hubbard). The relation of prices to the value of money (I, 37).

Money as measure differs from money as means of circulation (Gamier, Storch I, 36) (I, 37). (Gouge. Measure in the American colonies VII, 27.) Scotland (VII, 38) (VII, 55. Wilson[3]). (Money among the ancient Germans. Wirth.)[4]

For money as measure its material presence is irrelevant, but it is conceived of as a substance (its material presence is essential in the imagination, not as a determination outside the commodity) (I, 41, 42) (43) (VII, 29 bottom) (30, 31 ibid.) (32, 33) (34) (35). Assignats (35). (Ideal measure.)

IDEAL STANDARD OF MONEY (Steuart VII, 26, 27) (VII, 38). Urquhart (VII, 55).

DOUBLE STANDARD (VII, 29) (VII, 38) (VII, 55).

[M-30] As measure, money does not need to be invariable in value (Bailey VII, 35, 36).

Fixing the money of account (MĂźller VII, 36) (VII, 38). Depreciation of the STANDARD (VII, 55 Morrison).

Causes of the rise in the price of bullion above the mint price (Fullarton VII, 55) (VII, 61) (Macleod 1698), etc., (Notebook [p.] 2) sqq.[5]

(1) Notional transformation of commodities into money. So money is measure. The exchange value of commodities is expressed as price. So money becomes money of account. Labour time is the measure between money and commodity. How this takes place in reality.

(2) A definite quantity of this particular substance, which is as such therefore decisive, but only as imagined. Actual presence is of no consequence for this process; similarly, the quantity of money available. Money as measure can exist independently of money as actual means of exchange.

(3) As money of account, money acquires a universal social existence in the mint price; instead of the actual weight, the reckoning is done with its name. This is the mint price. Apparent non-depreciability of money. Depreciation. Appreciation.

(4) The laws very simple: (a) If the value of money falls or rises, the money prices of commodities conversely rise or fall.

(b) The division must be fixed, i.e. definite quantities must always bear the same name. But if money is used as measure, variations in its value are of no consequence. Its mint price does not express any value, but only a quantity. This is the FIXED STANDARD.

(c) One metal must be the measure. No DOUBLE STANDARD.

(5) Historical survey on the IDEAL STANDARD. Labour money, etc. [M-31] (2) Money as means of exchange

Notebook I, 14, 15, 16 (first, notional transformation into money; then actual). (Transition from money as measure to money as means of exchange.)

Transcendental power of money I, 15. Fortuitousness of the convertibility of commodities into money. (I, 15 bottom and 16). Separation of purchase and sale (I, 16) (16, 17). Exchange value is a quality completely inherent in the commodities, simultaneously outside them.

Separation of purchase and sale (I, 39). (A multitude of apparent transactions is possible I, 40.) (Social estate of merchants I.e.) (Germ of crises I, 39. I, 40.) Absolute division of labour possible (I.e.) (cf. 17, 18) (I, 40). [To obtain the thing required,] MONEY HAS only 1 EXCHANGE to make, commodities 2 (VII, 49). Corbet (VII, 52). Money circulation and commodity circulation are inverse movements (I, 34) (I, 37). Distinction. Money remains in circulation (I, 40) (41)

(47) (marchandise[6] becomes denrĂŠe[7] money as means of circulation does not).

The split-up nature of money circulation (I, 34). (Distinction from bank circulation ibid.) (VII, 25). The quantity of turnovers. In circulation proper, money ceases to be a commodity (ibid. [I, 34]). Turnover of money. Is means of circulation, has a circulation in its own right (I.e.). Commodities and money circulate each other. External moments determining money circulation (I.e.). Circulation as total movement (I, 38). (Here for the first time a social process appears as a social nexus in opposition to the individuals.) Formal character of simple circulation (II, 16, 17) (VII, 29).

The quantity of commodities and prices The commodities as prices are preposited to circulation. As prices, they are imagined as money not merely by the individual, but by all exchangers. We set out from the proposition that only equivalents are exchanged. But the determination of price always precedes the actual circulation process (I, 34). (Quantity of the circulating medium.) Presupposition of circulation: Firstly, fixation of prices. The commodities are assumed as determined in price. Secondly. Totality of exchanges (I, 34 bottom). As price, the commodity appears as a particular existence of exchange value, alongside money as its universal adequate [existence] (I, 37). Properly speaking, money only circulates the titles of ownership (I, 37).

[M-32] Value of money. Money remains a commodity only as means of circulation VII, 56 (J. St. Mill). 57 I.e. Sismondi.

Quantity of the circulating medium (I, 37 bottom). Depends on the level of prices and the number of transactions. On the velocity [of circulation] (Galiani VII, 49) (38, I). A definite quantity is necessary for simultaneous payments, acts of exchange (I, 38). Contraction and expansion of circulation (I, 46). Steuart, etc. Locke, etc. (VII, 26). (W. Blake VII, 29.) James Mill’s theory (VII, 57, 58). A passage on velocity (Galiani VII, 49) (VII, 61 Fullarton) (Ricardo VII, 59).

Money a means to circulate the immovable (Bray, Free Trade[2] etc. VII, 59).

Circulation as a never-ending process (its form determination) (I, 39). (Germ of crises) (1. c ) .

Form of circulation. C—M—C.

M—C—M (I, 40).

In C—M—C, money merely the means for exchanging the commodity (I, 44). As such, indifferent to the material of which it is composed (I, 44). Money becomes a representative of itself

(1. c ) . (Represents in the totality of circulation a greater quantity of silver and gold than it actually contains.) Distinction between money as realisation of prices and means of circulation (1. c.) (represents the prices of commodities in relation to one another). Because of this contradiction: effects of the counterfeiting of money, of merely symbolic money (I, 45, 46). Is money a commodity or not? (1. c.) productive or not? (1. c.) (Ferrier,

A. Smith) (47). (Solly I, 47. BARTER or not?) (Means of production I, 47.)

Money as realising prices. Price exists outside the commodity; the commodity is perhaps not posited as price, etc. (I, 39) (44) (45). Money as means of circulation figures only as something to be alienated. Not for consumption (II, 4).

The wear of coin in circulation VII, 64. VII, 61.

Coin (II, 3). (Marking the material of money; money posited in the form of means of circulation is coin.) (Its use value now coincides with its form determination) (Storch VII, 50).

Changes in the circulating medium (gold, silver, copper; subsidiary coins) VII, 36, 37 (Buchanan 37). Excess of copper (ibid.) (The Economist VII, 52).

Determination of the value of the means of circulation simply by its quantity (VII, 37) (38) (Opdyke VII, 49) VII, 61.

[M-33] Money as money

Money as general commodity (I, 17).

Money as objectified social nexus (I, 21). Social pledge (Aristotle calls it surety) (I, 22).

Money as universal prostitution. Dissolution of relations. Universal relationship of utility (I, 23) (24).

Use of gold as an article of luxury (I, 26, see Jacob, Notebook V, 14[8]). During the Middle Ages, conversion of PLATE into money and conversely.

Jacob. Notebook IV (p. 12, Vol. I I ) (II, 5).

Money an imperishable value through a negative relation to circulation (VI, 28).

“MONEY—...AN ADEQUATE EQUIVALENT FOR ANYTHING ALIENABLE” Steuart 1. c , Vol. I, [1770,] p. 32.

General commodity. Bailey VII, 35.

Material of the GENERAL COMMODITY OF CONTRACTS (Bailey VII, 35). As such, variations in its value are important VII, 36.

HOARDING Vll, 38. Amassing of treasure I, 49[9] (II, 4) (5) (6).

Petition of the Cortes VII, 44.

Dissolving effect of money VII, 46. VII, 59.

Money as international means of payment (Fullarton, etc. VII, 59, 60, 61).

Money as means of payment VII, 52. VII, 50 (II, 7).

M—C—M (I, 40) (41) (I, 47).

Money as t h e unity of measure and means of circulation, comes out of circulation. Material representative of wealth (I, 41) (42). As product of circulation (I, 48).

Money as universal exchange value become independent I, 48. I I , 1. Money as object of the quest for enrichment (II, 1, 2). Individualised exchange value II, 2-3.

Money and community (II, 3).

Money in contrast to coin strips off the local character (II, 3). World coin (1. c.) (II, 4).

Money. Negation of its determination as means of circulation and measure (II, 4, and their unity 1. c ) .

Apocalypse (II, 7).

Difficulty of grasping money in its 3rd determination (II, 8).

“With the exception of Mexican dollars, in which the produce of the South American silver mines is mainly distributed, the IMPERIALS OF RUSSIA, in which the produce of the Asiatic provinces is adding to the GENERAL SUPPLY of the precious metals, and the English sovereigns, on which no SEIGNORAGE is charged, the instances are rare in which, unless depreciated by paper money, COINS are sent abroad to supply foreign payments" (Tooke [A History of Prices, and of the State of the Circulation, from 1839 to 1847 inclusive, London, 1848, p. 226]).

  1. ↑ Livres of account.— Ed.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 [E. Misselden,] Free Trade. Or, the Meanes to Make Trade Florish, p. 21.— Ed.
  3. ↑ Wilson is not mentioned on p. 55 of Marx’s Notebook VII. It was most probably a slip of the pen and instead of Wilson it should be Morrison, who is quoted on this page. Alternatively, Wilson is mentioned here as the editor of The Economist and an author of a series of articles for the magazine, which Marx quotes on this page. In this and other cases, Marx gives the title of the magazine in his references rather than the name of its editor.
  4. ↑ This point of the Index is made in addition to the manuscript of 1857-1858 and refers to the extract from J. G. Wirth, Die Geschichte der Deutschen, 2nd improved edition, Vol. I, Stuttgart, 1846, in one of Marx’s excerpt notebooks of 1858. The extract states that among the ancient Germans, up to the fourth or fifth century, the use of money was rather uncommon and all kinds of monetary duty were often paid in such material values as catde, weapons, or corn. The price of oxen, cows, horses, swords, helmets, shields, spears and other objects accepted in payment instead of guldens was established by law.
  5. ↑ A reference to Macleod’s The Theory and Practice of Banking, Vol. 1, London, 1855, pertains to the manuscript of 1857-1858. The extracts from this book are in Marx’s Excerpt Notebook of 1857. On page 15 of his book, Macleod writes about Josiah Child’s treatise A Discourse upon Trade (this treatise, Macleod alleged, appeared in 1698), which contained a plan for lowering the rate of interest by law.
  6. ↑ Commodity as an object of trade.— Ed.
  7. ↑ Commodity as an object of consumption.— Ed.
  8. ↑ Marx has in mind his Excerpt Notebook V, which he began to compile in January 1851. On pp. 14-17 of this notebook there are excerpts from chapters XXVI-XXX of the second volume of William Jacob’s An Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, London, 1831. Further on Marx has in mind his Excerpt Notebook IV, filled in in November-December 1850. It contains excerpts from chapters IV-XIV of the first volume and from chapters XV-XXV of the second volume of Jacob’s book.
  9. ↑ There is no page 49 in Excerpt Notebook I (see MECW, Vol. 28, p. 153). The notebook has 48 pages. This problem is elucidated in Excerpt Notebook I on p. 47 and in Excerpt Notebook II on p. 1