I find interesting Jerry's proposal for "revisiting" the issue of the
different Marx's plans. The exercise seems to have "heuristic"
valuable properties: to rethink a plan devoted to reach a *global*
understanding of capitalist society is stimulating in itself.
I have never studied this matter carefully, so I have a couple of
questions.
1. In ope-l 4291 Jerry writes referring to the 6-book plan:
> I. Capital
> II. Landed Property ("After capital, landed property would be dealt
> with").
> III. Wage-Labour ("After that [landed property, JL] wage-labour"
>
> ["All three [I-III, JL] presupposed, the *movement of prices*, as
> circulation now defined in its inner totality. On the other side,
as
> production posited in its three basic forms and presuppositions of
> circulation"]
[...]
> (b) How do you interpret the meaning of the quote [that I
> placed in brackets] following Wage-Labour, i.e.
> "All three presupposed, the *movement of prices*,
> ...."?
I am not sure, but this "movement of prices" may correspond to the
"analysis of competition". I dont know if in this plan the book of
"capital" was splited in "capital in general" an "competition".
2. In ope-l 4380 Jerry writes:
> Cant the above be read as the very clear suggestion that these
> questions have to be answered "next"? Doesnt this suggest that
> at the time that Marx wrote the VIII drafts he thought
> that the next topics which should be addressed were "Landed
> Property" and "Wage-Labour" (the subjects of Books 2-3 in
> the 6-book-plan)? Doesnt this, in turn, cast doubt on the
> the 6-book-plan)? Doesnt this, in turn, cast doubt on the
> Rosdolsky interpretation that these subjects were incorporated
> into _Capital_ (and support Mike Ls interpretation). Indeed, if
> one planned to write about "landed-property" and "wage-
> labour" next, what better way would there have been to
> introduce these topics than the way in which he ended
> Capital_?
Im wondering what would be the content of "Landed Property" after the
section On Ground Rent already contained in Capital.
Alejandro Ramos M.
13.3.97