資本論 PREFACE TO THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION (ENGELS, 1883)

Marx

was

not

destined

to

get

this,

the

third,edition

ready

for

press

himself.

The

powerful

thinker,

to

whose

greatness

even

his

opponents

now

make

obeisance,

died

on

March

14,

1883.

Upon

me

who

in

Marx

lost

the

best,

the

truest

friend

I

had

–

and

had

for

forty

years

–

the

friend

to

whom

I

am

more

indebted

than

can

be

expressed

in

words

–

upon

me

now

devolved

the

duty

of

attending

to

the

publication

of

this

third

edition,

as

well

as

of

the

second

volume,

which

Marx

had

left

behind

in

manuscript.

I

must

now

account

here

to

the

reader

for

the

way

in

which

I

discharged

the

first

part

of

my

duty.

It

was

Marx's

original

intention

to

re-write

a

great

part

of

the

text

of

Volume

I,

to

formulate

many

theoretical

points

more

exactly,

insert

new

ones

and

bring

historical

and

statistical

materials

up

to

date.But

his

ailing

condition

and

the

urgent

need

to

do

the

final

editing

of

Volume

II

induced

him

to

give

up

this

scheme.

Only

the

most

necessary

alterations

were

to

be

made,

only

the

insertions

which

the

French

edition(\"Le

Capital.\"

Par

Karl

Marx.

Paris,

Lachatre

1873)

already

contained,

were

to

be

put

in.

Among

the

books

left

by

Marx

there

was

a

German

copy

which

he

himself

had

corrected

here

and

there

and

provided

with

references

to

the

French

edition;also

a

French

copy

in

which

he

had

indicated

the

exact

passages

to

be

used.

These

alterations

and

additions

are

confined,

with

few

exceptions,

to

the

last

[Engl.ed.:

second

last]

part

of

the

book:

\"The

Accumulation

of

Capital.\"

Here

the

previous

text

followed

the

original

draft

more

closely

than

elsewhere,

while

the

preceding

sections

had

been

gone

over

more

thoroughly.

The

style

was

therefore

more

vivacious,more

of

a

single

cast,

but

also

more

careless,

studded

with

Anglicisms

and

in

parts

unclear;

there

were

gaps

here

and

there

in

the

presentation

of

arguments,

some

important

particulars

being

merely

alluded

to.

With

regard

to

the

style,

Marx

had

himself

thoroughly

revised

several

sub-sections

and

thereby

had

indicated

to

me

here,

as

well

as

in

numerous

oral

suggestions,

the

length

to

which

I

could

go

in

eliminating

English

technical

terms

and

other

Anglicisms.

Marx

would

in

any

event

have

gone

over

the

additions

and

supplemental

texts

and

have

replaced

the

smooth

French

with

his

own

terse

German;

I

had

to

be

satisfied,

when

transferring

them,

with

bringing

them

into

maximum

harmony

with

the

original

text.

Thus

not

a

single

word

was

changed

in

this

third

edition

without

my

firm

conviction

that

the

author

would

have

altered

it

himself.

It

would

never

occur

to

me

to

introduce

into

\"Das

Kapital\"

the

current

jargon

in

which

German

economists

are

wont

to

express

themselves

–

that

gibberish

in

which,

for

instance,

one

who

for

cash

has

others

give

him

their

labour

is

called

a

labour-giver

(Arbeitgeber)

and

one

whose

labour

is

taken

away

from

him

for

wages

is

called

a

labour-taker(Arbeitnehmer).

In

French,

too,

the

word

\"travail\"

is

used

in

every-day

life

in

the

sense

of

\"occupation.\"But

the

French

would

rightly

consider

any

economist

crazy

should

he

call

the

capitalist

a

donneur

de

travail(a

labour-giver)

or

the

worker

a

receveur

de

travail

(a

labour-taker).

Nor

have

I

taken

the

liberty

to

convert

the

English

coins

and

moneys,

measures

and

weights

used

throughout

the

text

to

their

new-German

equivalents.

When

the

first

edition

appeared

there

were

as

many

kinds

of

measures

and

weights

in

Germany

as

there

are

days

in

the

year.

Besides

there

were

two

kinds

of

marks

(the

Reichsmark

existed

at

the

time

only

in

the

imagination

of

Soetbeer,

who

had

invented

it

in

the

late

thirties),

two

kinds

of

gulden

and

at

least

three

kinds

of

taler,

including

one

called

neues

Zweidrittel.In

the

natural

sciences

the

metric

system

prevailed,in

the

world

market

–

English

measures

and

weights.Under

such

circumstances

English

units

of

measure

were

quite

natural

for

a

book

which

had

to

take

its

factual

proofs

almost

exclusively

from

British

industrial

relations.

The

last-named

reason

is

decisive

even

to-day,

especially

because

the

corresponding

relations

in

the

world

market

have

hardly

changed

and

English

weights

and

measures

almost

completely

control

precisely

the

key

industries,

iron

and

cotton.

In

conclusion

a

few

words

on

Marx's

art

of

quotation,

which

is

so

little

understood.

When

they

are

pure

statements

of

fact

or

descriptions,

the

quotations,from

the

English

Blue

books,

for

example,

serve

of

course

as

simple

documentary

proof.

But

this

is

not

so

when

the

theoretical

views

of

other

economists

are

cited.

Here

the

quotation

is

intended

merely

to

state

where,

when

and

by

whom

an

economic

idea

conceived

in

the

course

of

development

was

first

clearly

enunciated.

Here

the

only

consideration

is

that

the

economic

conception

in

question

must

be

of

some

significance

to

the

history

of

science,

that

it

is

the

more

or

less

adequate

theoretical

expression

of

the

economic

situation

of

its

time.

But

whether

this

conception

still

possesses

any

absolute

or

relative

validity

from

the

standpoint

of

the

author

or

whether

it

already

has

become

wholly

past

history

is

quite

immaterial.

Hence

these

quotations

are

only

a

running

commentary

to

the

text,

a

commentary

borrowed

from

the

history

of

economic

science,

and

establish

the

dates

and

originators

of

certain

of

the

more

important

advances

in

economic

theory.

And

that

was

a

very

necessary

thing

in

a

science

whose

historians

have

so

far

distinguished

themselves

only

by

tendentious

ignorance

characteristic

of

careerists.

It

will

now

be

understandable

why

Marx,

in

consonance

with

the

Afterword

to

the

second

edition,

only

in

very

exceptional

cases

had

occasion

to

quote

German

economists.

There

is

hope

that

the

second

volume

will

appear

in

the

course

of

1884.

Frederick

Engels

London

November

7,

1883