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Das Kapital (1867) is a political-economic treatise by Karl Marx. The book is a critical analysis of capitalism and of the political economy
practices during his time. Marx bases his work on that of the classical economists like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and even Benjamin Franklin. However, he applies these authors' ideas critically and carefully, so this das
Kapital is more a critical synthesis than it follows the lead of any one thinker. It also critically reflects the
dialectical methodology of G.W.F. Hegel
and the socialist ideas of French authors such as J.-P.
Proudhon. The central injustice of capitalism, according to Marx, was that employers made their profits by paying labourers less than the true value of their labour. However, his book is not an ethical treatise
as much as an (unfinished) explication of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist system.
Marx died before he could finish the second and third volumes, but a version of the entire work was published posthumously,
edited by his friend Friedrich Engels. The work included a
three-volume appendix, The Theory of Surplus Value. The first
English edition of Das Kapital, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, also edited by
Engels, was published in 1887.
Marx notes in his preface to the French edition of Capital that the beginning of his work is not easy reading as he defines
many terms, but once he has gotten through that it becomes easier to read. Others have subsequently agreed that the very
beginning of Capital is the most difficult part to get through, which puts some people off from reading it.
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