Eventually, Friedrich Engels undertook the laborious work of editing and publishing the second (1885) and third (1894) volumes. Although the main manuscripts for both volumes had already been prepared in the first half of the 1860s, he continued to postpone publication to allow for further research. He never managed to finish the second and third volume of Capital. Marx continued to rewrite Capital for the French edition that came out in series from 1872-1875 and the third German edition that was published just after his death in 1883. The main changes are located in the tough first chapters, in which Marx introduces important concepts such as ‘commodity’, ‘use value’, ‘exchange value’, and his theory of the role of money in a capitalist economy. Most of these changes in pencil were later incorporated in the second German edition of 1872. The corrections that he made in his own copy of Capital, part of the collection of the IISH in Amsterdam, were one of the first steps in this process. Marx immediately started preparing his changes for the next edition. However, he followed this immediately with the exclamation: ‘But how could you leave the outward arrangement of the book as it is!’ To a French publisher who proposed a translation, Marx wrote already in November 1867 that he would like to change certain passages in the text.ĭas Kapital is part of the collection of the IISH in Amsterdam Three weeks before the publication, on 23 August 1867, he complimented Marx with the ‘fabulous’ argumentation behind the book. These doubts were strengthened by the critique of his good friend Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). Even before Capital came off the printing presses of the publisher Meissner in Hamburg, he signaled his dissatisfaction about the way he had presented his arguments in his letters. In 1857, he started writing the first rough draft of the work that after another decade and several further attempts would result in the first volume of Capital. From the mid-1840s onward he engaged in a serious study of economic theory. This edition has now been fully digitized, and has been made available to the general public through the Institute’s website.Īpart from the most important socialist theoretician, Karl Marx (1818-1883) also was a highly (self-) critical scientist.

The International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam possesses a unique first edition, containing Marx’s own handwritten corrections and marginals.

Capital remains one of the most influential books in world history.

Exactly 150 years ago, on 14 September 1867, the first volume of Karl Marx’s Capital was published.

Marx kapital