Capital

A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 3

Author Karl Marx
Introduction by Ernest Mandel
Translated by David Fernbach
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The third volume of a political treatise that changed the world

Unfinished at the time of Marx’s death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of Capital strives to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx controversially asserts that—regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists—any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But he also offers an inspirational and compelling prediction; that the end of capitalism will culminate in the birth of a far greater form of society.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a philosopher, social scientist, historian, and revolutionary. He is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the nineteenth century. Although he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic, and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death. In Paris, Marx developed his lifelong partnership with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). View titles by Karl Marx
Introduction by Ernest Mandel
Preface (Frederick Engels)
BOOK III: THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE

PART ONE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO PROFIT, AND OF THE RATE OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 1: Cost Price and Profit

Chapter 2: The Rate of Profit

Chapter 3: The Relationship between Rate of Profit and Rate of Surplus-Value

Chapter 4: The Effect of the Turnover on the Rate of Profit

Chapter 5: Economy in the Use of Constant Capital
1. General Considerations
2. Saving on the Conditions of Work at the Workers' Expense
3. Economy in the Generation and Transmission of Power, and on Buildings
4. Utilization of the Refuse of Production
5. Economy through Inventions

Chapter 6: The Effect of Changes in Price
1. Fluctuations in the Price of Raw Material; Their Direct Effects on the Rate of Profit
2. Revaluation and Devaluation of Capital; Release and Tying-Up of Capital
3. General Illustration: The Cotton Crisis 1861-5

Chapter 7: Supplementary Remarks

PART TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROFIT INTO AVERAGE PROFIT

Chapter 8: Different Compositions of Capital in Different Branches of Production, and the Resulting Variation in Rates of Profit

Chapter 9: Formation of a General Rate of Profit (Average Rate of Profit), and Transformation of Commodity Values into Prices of Production

Chapter 10: The Equalization of the General Rate of Profit through Competition. Market Prices and Market Values. Surplus Profit

Chapter 11: The Effects of General Fluctuations in Wages on the Prices of Production

Chapter 12: Supplementary Remarks
1. The Causes of a Change in the Price of Production
2. The Production Price of Commodities of Average Composition
3. The Capitalist's Grounds for Compensation

PART THREE: THE LAW OF THE TENDENTIAL FALL IN THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 13: The Law Itself

Chapter 14: Counteracting Factors
1. More Intense Exploitation of Labour
2. Reduction of Wages below their Value
3. Cheapening of the Elements of Constant Capital
4. The Relative Surplus Population
5. Foreign Trade
6. The Increase in Share Capital

Chapter 15: Development of the Law's Internal Contradictions
1. General Considerations
2. The Conflict between the Extension of Production and Valorization
3. Surplus Capital alongside Surplus Population
4. Supplementary Remarks

PART FOUR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMODITY CAPITAL AND MONEY CAPITAL INTO COMMERCIAL CAPITAL AND MONEY-DEALING CAPITAL (MERCHANT'S CAPITAL)

Chapter 16: Commercial Capital

Chapter 17: Commercial Profit

Chapter 18: The Turnover of Commercial Capital. Prices

Chapter 19. Money-Dealing Capital

Chapter 20: Historical Material on Merchant's Capital

PART FIVE: THE DIVISION OF PROFIT INTO INTEREST AND PROFIT OF ENTERPRISE

Chapter 21: Interest-Bearing Capital

Chapter 22: Division of Profit. Rate of Interest. "Natural" Rate of Interest

Chapter 23: Interest and Profit of Enterprise

Chapter 24: Interest-Bearing Capital as the Superficial Form of the Capital Relation

Chapter 25: Credit and Fictitious Capital

Chapter 26: Accumulation of Money Capital, and its Influence on the Rate of Interest

Chapter 27: The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production

Chapter 28: Means of Circulation and CApital. The Views of Tooke and Fullarton

Chapter 29: Banking Capital's Component Parts

Chapter 30: Money Capital and Real Capital: I

Chapter 31: Money Capital and Real Capital: II (Continuation)
1. Transformation of Money into Loan Capital
2. Transformation of Capital or Revenue into Money that is Transformed into Loan Capital

Chapter 32: Money Capital and Real Capital: III (Conclusion)

Chapter 33: The Means of Circulation under the Credit System

Chapter 34: The Currency Principle and the English Bank Legislation of 1844

Chapter 35: Precious Metal and Rate of Exchange
1. The Movement of the Gold Reserve
2. The Exchange Rate

Chapter 36: Pre-Capitalist Relations

PART SIX: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS PROFIT INTO GROUND-RENT

Chapter 37: Introduction

Chapter 38: Differential Rent in General

Chapter 39: The First Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent I)

Chapter 40: The Second Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent II)

Chapter 41: Differential Rent II - First Case: Price of Production Constant

Chapter 42: Differential Rent II - Second Case: Price of Production Falling
1. With the Productivity of the Extra Capital Investment Remaining Constant
2. A Falling Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital
3. A Rising Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital

Chapter 43: Differential Rent II - Third Case: Rising Price of Production. Results

Chapter 44: Differential Rent Even on the Poorest Land Cultivated

Chapter 45: Absolute Ground-Rent

Chapter 46: Rent of Buildings. Rent of Mines. Price of Land

Chapter 47: The Genesis of Capitalist Ground-Rent
1. Introduction
2. Labour Rent
3. Rent in Kind
4. Money Rent
5. Share-Cropping and Small-Scale Peasant Ownership

PART SEVEN: THE REVENUES AND THEIR SOURCES

Chapter 48: The Trinity Formula

Chapter 49: On the Analysis of the Production Process

Chapter 50: The Illusion Created by Competition

Chapter 51: Relations of Distribution and Relations of Production

Chapter 52: Classes

Supplement and Addendum to Volume 3 of Capital (Frederick Engels)
1. Law of Value and Rate of Profit
2. The Stock Exchange

Quotations in Languages Other than English and German
Index of Authorities Quoted
General Index
Note on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and Engels
Chronology of Works by Marx and Engels

About

The third volume of a political treatise that changed the world

Unfinished at the time of Marx’s death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of Capital strives to combine the theories and concepts of the two previous volumes in order to prove conclusively that capitalism is inherently unworkable as a permanent system for society. Here, Marx controversially asserts that—regardless of the efforts of individual capitalists, public authorities or even generous philanthropists—any market economy is inevitably doomed to endure a series of worsening, explosive crises leading finally to complete collapse. But he also offers an inspirational and compelling prediction; that the end of capitalism will culminate in the birth of a far greater form of society.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a philosopher, social scientist, historian, and revolutionary. He is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the nineteenth century. Although he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic, and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death. In Paris, Marx developed his lifelong partnership with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). View titles by Karl Marx

Table of Contents

Introduction by Ernest Mandel
Preface (Frederick Engels)
BOOK III: THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE

PART ONE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO PROFIT, AND OF THE RATE OF SURPLUS-VALUE INTO THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 1: Cost Price and Profit

Chapter 2: The Rate of Profit

Chapter 3: The Relationship between Rate of Profit and Rate of Surplus-Value

Chapter 4: The Effect of the Turnover on the Rate of Profit

Chapter 5: Economy in the Use of Constant Capital
1. General Considerations
2. Saving on the Conditions of Work at the Workers' Expense
3. Economy in the Generation and Transmission of Power, and on Buildings
4. Utilization of the Refuse of Production
5. Economy through Inventions

Chapter 6: The Effect of Changes in Price
1. Fluctuations in the Price of Raw Material; Their Direct Effects on the Rate of Profit
2. Revaluation and Devaluation of Capital; Release and Tying-Up of Capital
3. General Illustration: The Cotton Crisis 1861-5

Chapter 7: Supplementary Remarks

PART TWO: THE TRANSFORMATION OF PROFIT INTO AVERAGE PROFIT

Chapter 8: Different Compositions of Capital in Different Branches of Production, and the Resulting Variation in Rates of Profit

Chapter 9: Formation of a General Rate of Profit (Average Rate of Profit), and Transformation of Commodity Values into Prices of Production

Chapter 10: The Equalization of the General Rate of Profit through Competition. Market Prices and Market Values. Surplus Profit

Chapter 11: The Effects of General Fluctuations in Wages on the Prices of Production

Chapter 12: Supplementary Remarks
1. The Causes of a Change in the Price of Production
2. The Production Price of Commodities of Average Composition
3. The Capitalist's Grounds for Compensation

PART THREE: THE LAW OF THE TENDENTIAL FALL IN THE RATE OF PROFIT

Chapter 13: The Law Itself

Chapter 14: Counteracting Factors
1. More Intense Exploitation of Labour
2. Reduction of Wages below their Value
3. Cheapening of the Elements of Constant Capital
4. The Relative Surplus Population
5. Foreign Trade
6. The Increase in Share Capital

Chapter 15: Development of the Law's Internal Contradictions
1. General Considerations
2. The Conflict between the Extension of Production and Valorization
3. Surplus Capital alongside Surplus Population
4. Supplementary Remarks

PART FOUR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMODITY CAPITAL AND MONEY CAPITAL INTO COMMERCIAL CAPITAL AND MONEY-DEALING CAPITAL (MERCHANT'S CAPITAL)

Chapter 16: Commercial Capital

Chapter 17: Commercial Profit

Chapter 18: The Turnover of Commercial Capital. Prices

Chapter 19. Money-Dealing Capital

Chapter 20: Historical Material on Merchant's Capital

PART FIVE: THE DIVISION OF PROFIT INTO INTEREST AND PROFIT OF ENTERPRISE

Chapter 21: Interest-Bearing Capital

Chapter 22: Division of Profit. Rate of Interest. "Natural" Rate of Interest

Chapter 23: Interest and Profit of Enterprise

Chapter 24: Interest-Bearing Capital as the Superficial Form of the Capital Relation

Chapter 25: Credit and Fictitious Capital

Chapter 26: Accumulation of Money Capital, and its Influence on the Rate of Interest

Chapter 27: The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production

Chapter 28: Means of Circulation and CApital. The Views of Tooke and Fullarton

Chapter 29: Banking Capital's Component Parts

Chapter 30: Money Capital and Real Capital: I

Chapter 31: Money Capital and Real Capital: II (Continuation)
1. Transformation of Money into Loan Capital
2. Transformation of Capital or Revenue into Money that is Transformed into Loan Capital

Chapter 32: Money Capital and Real Capital: III (Conclusion)

Chapter 33: The Means of Circulation under the Credit System

Chapter 34: The Currency Principle and the English Bank Legislation of 1844

Chapter 35: Precious Metal and Rate of Exchange
1. The Movement of the Gold Reserve
2. The Exchange Rate

Chapter 36: Pre-Capitalist Relations

PART SIX: THE TRANSFORMATION OF SURPLUS PROFIT INTO GROUND-RENT

Chapter 37: Introduction

Chapter 38: Differential Rent in General

Chapter 39: The First Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent I)

Chapter 40: The Second Form of Differential Rent (Differential Rent II)

Chapter 41: Differential Rent II - First Case: Price of Production Constant

Chapter 42: Differential Rent II - Second Case: Price of Production Falling
1. With the Productivity of the Extra Capital Investment Remaining Constant
2. A Falling Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital
3. A Rising Rate of Productivity for the Extra Capital

Chapter 43: Differential Rent II - Third Case: Rising Price of Production. Results

Chapter 44: Differential Rent Even on the Poorest Land Cultivated

Chapter 45: Absolute Ground-Rent

Chapter 46: Rent of Buildings. Rent of Mines. Price of Land

Chapter 47: The Genesis of Capitalist Ground-Rent
1. Introduction
2. Labour Rent
3. Rent in Kind
4. Money Rent
5. Share-Cropping and Small-Scale Peasant Ownership

PART SEVEN: THE REVENUES AND THEIR SOURCES

Chapter 48: The Trinity Formula

Chapter 49: On the Analysis of the Production Process

Chapter 50: The Illusion Created by Competition

Chapter 51: Relations of Distribution and Relations of Production

Chapter 52: Classes

Supplement and Addendum to Volume 3 of Capital (Frederick Engels)
1. Law of Value and Rate of Profit
2. The Stock Exchange

Quotations in Languages Other than English and German
Index of Authorities Quoted
General Index
Note on Previous Editions of the Works of Marx and Engels
Chronology of Works by Marx and Engels