World of LenidzkyReadings: Capital II, ch. 1-3 At the start of Volume II, Marx introduces the process of circulation of industrial capital, which he divides into three forms: money capital, productive capital and commodity capital. Since this is the first time I am reading this text, I do not know exactly where he is going with this, […]
The section on so-called primitive accumulation (I do not know why it is “so-called”) is Marx’s most historical exposition in Volume I. It traces the period from approximately the 16th century to the early 19th century, which encapsulates the emergence of capitalism in England. As usual, Marx’s history is polemical—his primary focus is to smash […]
Readings: Capital I, ch. 25; Capital III, ch. 5, 6, 13-15 “Finally, the law which always holds the relative surplus population or industrial reserve army in equilibrium with the extent and energy of accumulation rivets the worker to capital more firmly than the wedges of Hephaestus held Prometheus to the rock. It makes an accumulation […]
Readings: Capital I, ch. 23, 24 In these chapters, Marx lays out the concepts of reproduction and accumulation. It is helpful to read them together because the two processes are deeply related, or perhaps two sides of the same phenomenon. Reproduction refers to how the capitalist system is sustained. Accumulation refers to the way in […]
Readings: Capital III, ch. 16, 21, 23, 27, 48, 49, 51; Capital II, ch. 6 This is a bit of divergence from Volume I, but just for one post. In this series of sections, Marx lays out several aspects of the circulation and distribution process of capitalist production. The two that are most salient here […]
Readings: Capital I, ch. 16-18; Grundrisse pp. 398-423, 649-652, 745-758; Capital III, ch. 10, 50; Limits to Capital, pp. 45-54 While the Grundrisse is challenging to read because it is often written just as Marx’s notes to himself, it contains significant theoretical material that complements the more formal presentation of Capital. One point that stands […]
Reading: Capital I, ch. 15, sections 5-10 In class 8, on the first part of chapter 15, Harvey focused considerable attention on footnote 4, on pages 493-4. This footnote contains important theoretical material that situates Marx’s discussion of the technology of large-scale industry in his theory of historical materialism. In order to be succinct, I […]
Reading: Capital I, ch. 15, sections 1-4 In Marx’s time, large-scale machinery was the highest form of development of the means of production, relegating simple cooperation and manufacture to obsolescence. (We will bracket for now the question of how significant subsequent technological revolutions have been for the labor process.) It is characterized by a vast […]
Reading: Capital I, ch. 12-14 Part 4, which covers relative surplus value, begins by first describing the basic economics of relative surplus value and then providing the reader with the historical background for its emergence as a key tool for capitalists to increase surplus value. I will skip the discussion of the economics because, while […]
Reading: Capital I, ch. 10-11 These chapters largely finish off Marx’s discussion of absolute surplus value by bringing us up through early- and late-modern European (mostly British) history into Marx’s period, in which industrial capitalism had established political-economic hegemony over the continent. His hint at the end of chapter 11 is that, while absolute surplus […]
World of Lenidzky 