The Grundrisse as a Research Manuscript

1. The Grundrisse as a Research Manuscript Capital in general and many Capitals Michael R. Krätke

2. The Structure of the Grundrisse • A brief chapter on Money (unfinished and badly organized) • A very long chapter on Capital (unfinished) • Focus: The concept of Capital in general • No chapter on Value – only at the very end comes the insight: there shoud be a first chapter on the commodity / the concept of value • A short, unfinished introduction (not for publication)

3. The Grundrisse as a research manuscript • Marx in discussion with himself • Marx criticizing and correcting himself • Marx experimenting with the dialectical form of exposition / presentation • Marx making discoveries (for instance: schemes of reproduction / absolute and relative surplus value) • Marx resuming the critique of the classical economists • Still missing: Crucial parts of his analytical framework (for instance: variable and constant capital)

4. The Grundrisse as a research manuscript • Not one plan, but several versions of the overall plan (6 books) plus • several plans for the first book (on capital) • Long digressions (for instance: on the precapitalist modes of production) • Collections of material (from excerpts, from statistical / historical notebooks)

5. The Grundrisse as a research manuscript • Strongest argument (thesis at this stage): Marx starts changing his original plan for book I (on Capital) already in this ms • Marx uses larger passages of this ms as material in his later ms (in particular in the ms of 1861 – 1863) • The text is full of anticipations – jumping ahead and dealing with topics that should come much later (Marx to himself: all that does not belong here! Has to be presented much later)

6. Development of the Concept of Capital • Marx’ intention: to “develop” the concept of capital – in general • To analyze and “develop” all the inner contradictions of that basic relationship – capital versus labour • To (re)construct the process of the “making” of capital – what is behind the formula of M – C – M’ ? • But how? How useful is the distinction between “capital in general” and “many capitals” as an organizing principle for the development of this crucial concept?

7. Marx’ analysis of capital in the Grundrisse • Starting with the exchange between capital and labour (analyzing the labour contract) • The process of exploitation (immediate production process) • The results of the immediate production process • Capital and labour on the market again - another contradiction: exchange between capital and capital , exchange between capital and wage labourers – its own and those employed by other capitalists/capitals

8. The limits of Capital in general • First limit: The analysis of relative surplus value production • Second limit: The analysis of accumulation • Third limit: The analysis of the reproduction process of capital • Fourth limit: The analysis of competition as a structure and a process • Fifth limit: The analysis of credit

9. The Limits of Capital in General • Because Marx runs into trouble – many times – he has to give up the original organizing concept of Capital in general – many capitals As a matter of fact, he starts introducing “many capitals” / differentiations of capital /capital – capital relations - and develops new concepts

10. Marx runs into trouble • Pursuing his program of research, Marx learns about the inherent limits / deficiencies of his organizing principle – Capital in general / many capitals • Accumulation belongs to the process of capital • but: Accumulation cannot be analyzed without making a difference between capital and capital (original capital and surplus capital)

11. Marx runs into trouble • Accumulation is linked to the reproduction process of capital • Inconceivable without “several capitals” – capitals producing different inputs, capitals in exchange with each other • Accumulation as a process is linked to the process of competition (for instance: the concentration and centralization of capital) • Accumulation is the process of expanded reproduction of capital and of its structural change (development of capital)

12. Marx runs into trouble • Surplus value production – the core precondition of the making of capital • Two central “methods” of surplus production – absolute and relative • Relative surplusproduction can only be explained within the analytical framework of several / many capitals (with differential rates of technological development) – the reduction of necessary labour time (necessary for the reproduction of the worker) depends upon the productivity of labour in the production of consumer goods

13. Changing plans (rebuilding the ship on sea) • Marx learns that he cannot stick to “capital in general” as he thought • He has to deal with the subdivisions of capital • He has to deal with capital – capital relations (exchanges and rivalries) • He has to distinguish “social capital” / “individual capital” / particular forms of capital • Already in the Grundrisse he gives up his first distinction (capital in general / many capitals) and replaces it by another and more complex distinction (general / particular / individual)

14. Marx’ ambition in Grundrisse • Written in 1857/58 – during the first great world crisis (affecting not only the few industrial / industrializing countries but also the “rest of the world”) • Marx’ ambition: refutation of Say’s law, overcoming the fallacies of the “general glut debate” • Discovering the law / inner necessity of crisis in modern capitalism • Discovering / explaining the long term tendencies of capitalism (its historical laws of development)

15. Credit and Crisis • What is the final goal of Marx’ analysis? • To explain why and how capitalism is a self-destructive social system – undermining itself, destroying necessary preconditions which it can not reproduce / replace • To explain the limits of credit (which is a device to overcome many of the restrictions imposed upon capital) • To explain how and why the credit system in the end accelerates and aggravates the crises of capitalism

16. Why Credit? • Credit as a social device – rising from the exchange process • Credit presupposes capital – Capital presupposes credit • Credit links together money as money and money as capital • Credit provides the base for new forms of associated capital (the highest form, according to Marx) • Credit facilitates / accelerates the process of accumulation • Credit provides the most sophisticated form of social regulation of relations of production and exchange which are compatibel with capitalism (and already point beyond the capitalist mode of production, according to Marx)

17. Why Crisis? • The double meaning of crisis – both a symptom of the obsolescence of capitalism / and an element that slows down the decay of capitalism (enables fresh starts again and again – just because of the destruction of large portions of value and capital) • The dynamics of crisis – as a crucial phase in a longer process / as a decisive period of the trade cycle, industrial cycle • The different “forms of crisis” (among others: monetary crisis, credit crisis, financial crisis, industrial crisis …) • The longterm tendency of crisis – to become world-wide, to become more and more severe

18. The range and scope of Marx’ theory of crisis • Crisis means the “explosion” of all contradictions of the capitalist mode of production • Crises are inevitable / necessary in capitalism as a temporary means to create new opportunities for capitalist development • A multifaceted phenomenon – the general crisis comprises several particular crises • Explanation has to be complex as well • Accordingly, there seem to be several Marxian “theories” of crisis (in fact, there are several causal chains that Marx follows and combines)

19. General conclusion – the meaning of the Grundrisse • The Grundrisse are not the “better or richer version” of Capital • They are just one stage in the long learning process of its author (learning how to build the critical theory) – althoug a very important one • The Grundrisse are a first big step towards Capital, no more, no less

20. Conclusion – Lessons that Marx drew • Writing “A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy” (1858, published in 1859) • Two versions (fragmentary “Urtext” and text as published in 1859 • Lesson A: “The dialectical mode of exposition / presentation is only right, if one is aware of its limits” (Urtext) • Lesson B: Analysis of the commodity (form) and the exchange relation (process) is indispensable to develop the concept of money

21. What happens to the new vista’ s opened up by the Grundrisse? • They do not disappear / are not forgotten • Most of them are preserved / remembered in Capital • The later ms show Marx’ efforts to tackle the problems he has run into when writing the Grundrisse for instance: Capital as a self-reproducing system which cannot produce all its prerequesites (as human labour, natural resources, society)

22. Against the conventional view • Capital is not inferior to the Grundrisse • Capital is not narrow and closed – as compared to the Grundrisse • Capital is not less “dialectical” than the Grundrisse • There is no regression – from the Grundrisse to Capital • Marx has learned a lot through the Grundrisse – there is progress from the Grundrisse to Capital / as there is progress from the manuscript “Money, Credit and Crises” of 1856 to the Grundrisse