From: Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Sat Jun 26 2004 - 22:30:01 EDT
Recent new listmember Regina Roth (welcome, Regina!) mentioned in her self-introduction that she and I had co-edited an issue of the International Journal of Political Economy on Marx's original manuscript of what later became Volume 3 of Capital, written in 1864-65. > Recently, I wrote some articles on Marx's manuscripts > of the 1870s (in: Studies in Marxism) and on the relationship between > the author Marx and the editor Engels (in: Rethinking Marxism), and, > together with Fred Moseley, I edited an issue of IJPE on "Marx, Engels > and the text of volume 3 of _Capital_" (in print) So I have attached a copy of our introduction to this issue, in case any listmembers might be interested. Most of you probably know that Marx's original manuscript of what later became Volume 3 was published for the first time in the early 1990s in German, as part of the new 150- volume authoritative Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe (MEGA). For the first time, Marxian scholars (who read German) have had the opportunity to examine Marx's actual manuscript, and compare it to Engels' edited version. Unfortunately, this important manuscript has not and will not be included in the English 50-volume Marx-Engels Collected Works (MECW), published by International Publishers (I think obtaining a publisher for an English translation of this crucial volume should be a top priority for English-speaking Marxian scholars). The forthcoming issue of the IJPE presents four articles that discuss Marx's original manuscript, and the differences between Marx's manuscript and Engels' edited version. All four articles are written by past or present editors of the MEGA. Regina herself is now an MEGA editor. I am very glad that she has joined OPEL. My own general conclusion from reading these articles is that, in terms of content, the difference between Marx's manuscript and Engels's edited version is not that great (with a few exceptions). The main difference is that Engels made the manuscript look much more complete and finished than it actually was, especially by breaking the manuscript into chapters and sections, with titles, etc., especially in Part 3 and most of all in Part 5 (much of which is little more than a collection of excerpts); and in addition adding whole paragraphs and pages and even sections (most of which are indicated in the text as Engels' addition, but not all) One interesting thing that I learned from Regina in writing the introduction together is that there are several different versions of Chapter 1 of Volume 3. In addition to the 1864 version, there are also 4 other versions of the beginning of the chapter (ranging from 2 pages to 8 pages long), dating from 1867-68. There is an important conceptual change between the 1864 draft and the 1867-68 drafts - more emphasis is placed on the concept of COST PRICE in the latter draft. Chapter 1 in the 1864 manuscript (and in the previous drafts and outlines of "Volume 3") is entitled "Surplus-value and Profit". The 1867-68 versions are entitled "Cost Price and Profit." Engels selected a mixture of these different drafts, with emphasis on the later drafts, because Marx had emphasized to him the concept of cost price in a letter in April 1868. (This letter by the way is very helpful for an understanding of Volume 3. It lays out the overall logic of the volume, and presents a concise summary of each part) [A question for Regina: exactly when were the 1867-68 manuscripts written? How close were the dates to the date of this important letter of 30 April 1868? I wonder if these drafts of Chapter 1 were the main impetus for Marx's letter? The letter has always seemed to "come out of the blue", because I thought Marx was mainly preoccupied during this period with the publication of Volume 1 in late 1867. I didn't know that Marx was also reworking Chapter 1 of Volume 3 during this period. Regina, was Marx also working on other parts of Volume 3 during 1867-68, or only Chapter 1?] I think Marx decided to emphasize the concept of cost price more, because he had come to realize more clearly its importance for the determination of prices of production (prices of production are equal to cost price + average profit). So this is an interesting and important piece of the development and evolution of Marx's thinking. These alternative beginnings are scheduled to be published in the MEGA (in German) in 2005. Unfortunately again, these alternative beginnings will not be included in the English MECW. Regina and I are trying to figure out a way to have these alternative beginnings translated into English and published. Unfortunately a third time, Paul Mattick is no longer editor of the IJPE, so that outlet is no longer open. If anyone has any suggestion, I would very much appreciate hearing from you. Comradely, Fred
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