An Unfinished Project

Abstract

In this chapter, we follow the path taken by Marx and Engels after the first volume of Capital had been published in the autumn of 1867. In 1872, with the completion and publication of the second German edition and with the publication of the first instalment of the French edition, Marx had made a lot of progress, but his work on Capital was far from finished. During the last ten years of his life, Marx continued to work not only on the manuscripts of Volumes II and III but also on the first volume. Several times, he announced major revisions and reworkings of its text. Preparing for further editions, a third German edition and a planned American edition, and advising about a second Russian edition, he produced a large number of instructions for alterations and additions to the text, including marginalia in his own copies of Capital, many of them referring to the French edition of 1872–75. His notes on Adolph Wagner’s textbook on political economy also belong to his continuing work on Capital. As Marx and Engels had many conversations, in personal encounters or in letters, on the merits of the different editions of the book, Engels was well prepared when he took over as editor of Capital after Marx’ death. Editing the third and fourth German editions of the book, Engels followed many, but not all, of the instructions Marx had left for him. In this chapter, we will also look at the critique of Engels’s work as an editor and at his reservations he had against the French edition. Whether there can be a final version of the first volume of Marx’s Capital and which edition could be regarded as the last edition from Marx’s hands are discussed at length. In the end, the author argues Marx’s Capital, including Volume I, remains an unfinished masterpiece.