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Grundrisse
Author	Karl Marx
Language	German
Genre	Political economy, philosophy, social theory
Publisher	Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow (first full publication)
Publication date	1939–1941 (full publication)
Publication place	German Confederation (written in London)
Published in English	1973
Media type	Manuscript notebooks

Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie (German: [ˈɡʁʊntˌʁɪsə deːɐ̯ kʁiˈtiːk deːɐ̯ poˈliːtɪʃən økonoˈmiː]; "Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy"), or simply the Grundrisse, is a lengthy, unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx, written primarily in 1857–1858. The work consists of seven notebooks of economic notes and rough drafts, which Marx did not intend for publication and which remained largely unknown until the mid-20th century.^[1]^[2] It is considered a crucial text for understanding the development of Marx's thought, particularly the formation of his economic theories, his method of analysis, and his relationship to Hegel.^[3]

The Grundrisse covers a wide range of topics, including the production process, circulation, the theory of value and surplus value, money, capital, alienation, pre-capitalist economic formations, and the impact of technology and automation.^[4]^[5] It is notable for its detailed engagement with Hegelian philosophy, its exploration of capital as an evolving totality, and its reformulation of the concept of alienation.^[6]^[7] Marx also sketched out several plans within these notebooks for his larger, uncompleted six-volume work on "Economics."^[8]^[5]

Written during a period of intense economic study spurred by the financial crisis of 1857,^[9] the manuscript was first published in German in Moscow in 1939–1941, with a more accessible single-volume German edition appearing from Dietz Verlag in East Berlin in 1953.^[10] A full English translation by Martin Nicolaus was published in 1973.^[11] The Grundrisse is often seen as a vital link between Marx's early writings, such as the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and his mature work, Das Kapital.^[12]

Background and writing

Karl Marx began his intensive studies of political economy in the early 1840s, but his work on a comprehensive critique was frequently interrupted. By 1850, he had obtained a reader's ticket to the British Museum library in London and, particularly in 1851, immersed himself in reading classical political economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, as well as writers on money, credit, and economic crises.^[13] Throughout the early 1850s, Marx filled numerous notebooks with excerpts and commentaries, but his plans for a major work on economics remained unfulfilled due to journalistic commitments, political activities, and personal hardships.^[14]

The financial crisis of 1857, which had global repercussions, acted as a significant catalyst for Marx to synthesize his economic studies.^[9] Believing that the crisis might herald a revolutionary period, he worked intensively from August 1857 to May 1858 on a series of seven notebooks.^[15] In a letter to Friedrich Engels in December 1857, Marx wrote: "I am working madly through the nights on a synthesis of my economic studies, so that I at least have the main principles (Grundrisse) clear before the deluge."^[9]

The Grundrisse manuscripts were not intended for direct publication but were, as David Harvey describes, "a set of notes that Marx was frantically writing to himself at a rather frantic time."^[1] This constitutes what Harvey categorizes as Marx's fourth mode of writing: "Marx writing purely for himself, using whatever tools and ideas that he has in his head, prepared to unleash a stream of his own consciousness, to set down possibilities and potential interrelations that may or may not turn out to be important in his more considered studies."^[16] Consequently, the text is often difficult, experimental, and repetitive, but also rich in imaginative insights.^[17] The manuscript runs to about a thousand pages in its original German.^[2]

Publication history

The Grundrisse manuscripts remained largely unknown and unpublished for many decades after Marx's death in 1883. Friedrich Engels, who edited Volumes II and III of Das Kapital, was apparently unaware of their existence.^[2] The first public mention of the manuscript was made by David Riazanov, director of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, in 1923.^[2]

The full text was first published in German by the Foreign Languages Publishing House in Moscow in two volumes, in 1939 and 1941. A supplementary volume of Marx's 1851-53 notebooks was also published in 1941.^[10] Due to the time and place of its initial publication (during World War II), this edition received little scholarly attention. A more accessible single-volume German edition was published by Dietz Verlag in East Berlin in 1953, which made the Grundrisse available to a wider audience in the West.^[10]

A section of the Grundrisse dealing with "Pre-capitalist economic formations" (Formen, die der kapitalistischen Produktion vorhergehn) was translated into English by Jack Cohen and published with an influential introduction by Eric Hobsbawm in 1964.^[18]^[19] The first full English translation of the Grundrisse, by Martin Nicolaus, was published in 1973 by Penguin Books in association with New Left Review.^[11]^[10] This translation, often referred to as the "Penguin Grundrisse", became the standard English edition. David McLellan published a selection of translated passages with commentary in 1971.^[20]

Content and themes

The Grundrisse is a wide-ranging and exploratory work, covering many themes that Marx would later develop in Das Kapital, but often in a more provisional, speculative, and philosophically-inflected manner. It is typically divided into two main parts: a short, uncompleted "Introduction" written in August 1857, and the main body of seven notebooks written between October 1857 and May 1858, which deal primarily with money and capital.^[21]

The "Introduction" (1857)

The text known as the "Introduction" to the Grundrisse is a separate, earlier fragment that Marx ultimately decided not to publish with his A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859), finding it too anticipatory of results yet to be proven.^[22]^[23] It outlines Marx's proposed method for political economy and critiques the starting points of classical economists.

Marx begins by criticizing the "eighteenth-century Robinsonades" – the idea of the isolated individual producer (like Robinson Crusoe) as the natural starting point for economic analysis.^[24] For Marx, the individual is a social product, and "individuals producing in society—hence socially determined individual production—is, of course, the point of departure."^[25] He argues that the concept of the isolated individual only emerges with developed bourgeois society.^[26]

A significant portion of the Introduction is devoted to the method of political economy. Marx advocates for a method that moves from the "imagined concrete" (such as population) through analytical abstraction to the "simplest determinations" (e.g., labor, division of labor, need, exchange value), and then retraces the journey to reconstruct the concrete in thought as "a rich totality of many determinations and relations."^[27] "The concrete is concrete," Marx writes, "because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse."^[28] He also notes that simpler categories, like money or labor, can predate more complex ones historically, but only achieve their full conceptual significance within the context of a developed (capitalist) society.^[29]

The Introduction also discusses the interrelations between production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. Marx critiques classical political economy for treating these as separate spheres, arguing instead that they "all form the members of a totality, distinctions within a unity."^[30] Production is seen as the dominant moment, but all moments are internally related and presuppose each other.^[31]

Finally, the Introduction touches upon the relationship between art and society, noting the "unequal relation between the development of material production and art."^[32] Marx famously ponders why Greek art, despite the "immature social conditions under which the art arose," still affords "artistic pleasure" and serves as a "standard and model beyond attainment."^[33]

Money

The first part of the main manuscript notebooks is dedicated to an extensive discussion of money. Marx critiques contemporary socialist theories of money, particularly those of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his followers like Alfred Darimon, who believed that monetary reforms could resolve the contradictions of capitalism.^[34] Marx argues against the idea that changes in the instrument of circulation could revolutionize the relations of production without fundamentally altering those relations themselves.^[35]

Marx explores the functions of money as a measure of value, a medium of exchange, a representative of commodities, and a universal commodity.^[36] He emphasizes that money is not merely a neutral tool but embodies social relations and contradictions. The development of money facilitates the separation of purchase and sale, creating the possibility of crises.^[37] Marx highlights the "transcendental power of money,"^[38] noting that "In exchange value the social connection between persons is transformed into a social relation between things; personal capacity into objective wealth."^[39] This leads to discussions of commodity fetishism and alienation.

Capital

The bulk of the Grundrisse is concerned with the concept of capital. Marx traces the transition from money to capital, defining capital not as a thing but as a "process, in whose various moments it is always capital."^[40] Capital is value in motion, constantly moving through the spheres of production and circulation.^[41]

A central theme is the origin of surplus value. Marx refutes explanations of profit based on exchange (e.g., buying cheap and selling dear) or interest, insisting that surplus value originates in the production process through the exploitation of labor power.^[42] "The great historic quality of capital," Marx writes, "is to create this surplus labour, superfluous labour from the standpoint of mere use-value, mere subsistence."^[43]

The Grundrisse extensively explores the circulation of capital, including the concepts of turnover time, and fixed and circulating capital.^[44] Marx argues that "the tendency to create the world market is directly given in the concept of capital itself."^[45] He also famously describes capital's drive towards the "annihilation of space by time" through developments in communication and transport.^[46] Capital has a "great civilizing influence," breaking down old barriers and developing productive forces universally, but this development is inherently contradictory.^[47]

The manuscript contains significant discussions on the impact of machinery and automation. Marx analyzes how fixed capital, particularly in the form of machinery, transforms the labor process, reduces the worker to an appendage of the machine, and incorporates "general social knowledge" or the "general intellect" as a direct force of production.^[48] He famously states: "Nature builds no machines, no locomotives, railways, electric telegraphs, self-acting mules etc. These are products of human industry; natural material transformed into organs of the human will over nature, or of human participation in nature. They are organs of the human brain, created by the human hand; the power of knowledge, objectified."^[49] This development, while increasing productive power, also intensifies the alienation of labor and points towards a potential crisis for a system based on labor time as the measure of value.^[50]

The law of the falling rate of profit is introduced and described as "in every respect the most important law of modern political economy."^[51] Marx links this to a rising mass of profit, emphasizing the contradiction between the rate and the mass.

Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations

A distinct section of the Grundrisse, often published separately, deals with "Forms which Precede Capitalist Production" (Formen, die der kapitalistischen Produktion vorhergehn).^[18]^[19] Here, Marx examines various historical modes of social organization and property, including the Asiatic, ancient (Greco-Roman), Germanic, and Slavonic forms.^[52] This section is crucial for understanding Marx's views on historical development, the transition to capitalism, and his concept of different modes of production. It highlights the historical specificity of capitalism by contrasting it with prior socio-economic structures.

Alienation

The concept of alienation, prominent in Marx's early writings like the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, reappears significantly in the Grundrisse, but with a developed and more economically grounded formulation.^[53] Rather than primarily focusing on the alienation of the individual from their "species-being," the Grundrisse emphasizes how "individuals are now ruled by abstractions, whereas earlier they depended on one another. The abstraction, or idea, however, is nothing more than the theoretical expression of those material relations which are their lord and master."^[54] Alienation is rooted in the social relations of capitalist production, where labor and its products, as well as the objective conditions of production (means of production), confront the worker as alien powers embodied in capital.^[55] This alienated labor is the source of capital's self-expansion.^[56]

Methodology

The Grundrisse is a key text for understanding Marx's methodology, often referred to as historical materialism and dialectical method. The Hegelian influence is particularly pronounced in the Grundrisse, more so than in Das Kapital.^[7] This is evident in Marx's use of Hegelian categories (e.g., essence and appearance, universal and particular, the dialectic of contradictions) and his method of developing concepts.^[57]

A central methodological concept employed and explored in the Grundrisse is that of totality. Marx views capital not as a collection of isolated elements but as an "organic system" or an "ecosystemic and constantly expanding organic whole," where all moments (production, circulation, consumption, etc.) are internally related and mutually conditioning.^[58] This totality is historical, constantly "becoming" and transforming its own presuppositions.^[59] Marx's method involves abstracting from the concrete complexity, identifying essential relations, and then theoretically reconstructing the concrete as a "rich totality of many determinations and relations."^[60]

Marx's plans for Economics

Throughout the Grundrisse, Marx refers to a larger, multi-volume work on economics that he planned to write. The most well-known of these plans, outlined in the 1857 Introduction, consisted of six books: Capital, Landed Property, Wage-Labour, The State, International Trade, and The World Market and Crises.^[5]^[61]

The extant manuscripts of the Grundrisse primarily cover material related to the first book, "Capital," and even then, mostly the general concept of capital, money, and the production process.^[5] Marx later modified this plan. Das Kapital, Volume I (1867) was only the first part of the first book of this grand schema. The subsequent volumes of Das Kapital, edited by Engels, also fall within this first book on Capital.^[62] The Grundrisse contains several variations of these plans, indicating Marx's evolving conception of his project.^[63] These outlines reveal the immense scope of Marx's intended critique of political economy, far exceeding what was ultimately published in Das Kapital.^[62]

Significance and interpretation

The Grundrisse is widely regarded by scholars as a pivotal text in the development of Marx's thought, offering profound insights into his economic theories, philosophical underpinnings, and method of inquiry. David McLellan described it as "the centrepiece of his work," arguing that it demonstrates a continuity in Marx's thought from his early writings to his later economic works, particularly in its Hegelianism and its treatment of alienation.^[64] It challenges interpretations that posit a radical break between a "young, humanist" Marx and an "old, economist" Marx.^[2]

David Harvey considers the Grundrisse "by far, the most interesting and the most difficult book by Marx to work with," a "laboratory" where Marx experiments with concepts and methods.^[1] Its significance lies in its detailed exploration of capital as an evolving totality, the interconnections between various economic processes (like production, circulation, and realization), and its prescient analyses of automation, the world market, and the nature of fixed capital.^[65]

The manuscript's unfinished, raw, and often speculative nature makes it a challenging text. However, this also allows readers to witness Marx's thought processes more directly than in his published works.^[16] Its discussion of themes like the "general intellect," the contradictions of capital leading to its potential "dissolution," and the nature of alienation in advanced capitalism have been particularly influential in later Marxist theory and contemporary critical thought.^[66] The Grundrisse is considered indispensable for a deep understanding of Marx's critique of political economy and the foundations of Das Kapital.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Harvey 2023, p. x.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e McLellan 1980, p. 2.
^ McLellan 1980, pp. 3, 12–13.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. xiii–xix.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d McLellan 1980, p. 8. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEMcLellan19808" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^ Harvey 2023, pp. xiv, 55–56.
^ ^a ^b McLellan 1980, pp. 12–13.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 329.
^ ^a ^b ^c McLellan 1980, p. 7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d McLellan 1980, p. 3.
^ ^a ^b Harvey 2023, p. xxii.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 12.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 5.
^ McLellan 1980, pp. 5–7.
^ Harvey 2023, p. xxi.
^ ^a ^b Harvey 2023, p. xi.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. x–xi.
^ ^a ^b McLellan 1980, p. 3, footnote 1.
^ ^a ^b Harvey 2023, p. 149.
^ McLellan, 1980 & frontmatter.
^ McLellan 1980, pp. 3, 7–8.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 16.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 1.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 2–3.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 2(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 83)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 5.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 21–22(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 100)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 22(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 101)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 23–24.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 19(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 99)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 13–14.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 44(quoting Grundrisse, McLellan ed., p. 30)
^ McLellan 1980, p. 45(quoting Grundrisse, McLellan ed., p. 31)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 32–33.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 41.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 60(summarizing Grundrisse, McLellan ed., p. 64, corresponding to Nicolaus ed. p. 146)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 52.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 51.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 54(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 157)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 63(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 258)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 83–84.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 99–101.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 101(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 325)
^ Harvey 2023.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 122(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 408)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 165(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 539)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 123(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., pp. 409-10)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 223–225(discussing Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., pp. 692-706)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 224(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 706)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 227–228.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 264(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 748)
^ McLellan 1980, pp. 195–196(discussing Marx's analysis of Grundrisse, McLellan ed., p. 139ff, corresponding to Nicolaus ed. p. 471ff)
^ Harvey 2023, p. 55.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 56(quoting Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 164)
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 70–71(discussing Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 266)
^ McLellan 1980, pp. 103–104.
^ McLellan 1980, p. 13.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. xiv, 113, 307.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 113, 139.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 21.
^ Harvey 2023, p. 27(citing Grundrisse, Nicolaus ed., p. 108)
^ ^a ^b McLellan 1980, p. 9.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 329–332.
^ McLellan 1980, pp. ix, 3, 12.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. xiii–xiv, 307.
^ Harvey 2023, pp. 224–228.

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