The original plant, as we know, was for six books [Capital, Landed
Property, Wage-Labour, The State, International Trade, World Market and
Crises]. We don't know, from bibliographic evidence [see Oakley,1983),
if Marx ever gave up the 6 book plan. What we do know is that _Capital: A
Critique of Political Economy_ was planned to have 4 volumes [Production
Process, Circulation Process, Process as a Whole, Critical History].
My question for all to consider is the following:
Is the 6 book plan more consistent with the task of understanding
capitalism or can one go to Vol. 3 [the Process as a Whole] and simply
add on new chapters that move one from the more general to the most
concrete levels of abstraction. What is gained and what is lost in each
procedure?
In OPE-L solidarity,
Jerry