The Marxian Economic Handbook and Glossary with Numerous Corrections, Explanations, and Emendations of the English Version of Vol. I of Capital for the Use of Advanced Students and Beginners

360 Pages·1923·11.902 MB·English

by  William Henry Emmett

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THE MARXIAN ECONOMIC
HANDBOOK AND GLOSSARY

THE MARXIAN
ECONOMIC HANDBOOK
AND
GLOSSARY
WITH
NUMEROUS CORRECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS
AND EMENDATIONS OF THE ENGLISH
VERSION OF VOL. OF "CAPITAL"
I
FOR THE USE OF ADVANCED STUDENTS
AND BEGINNERS
BY
EMMETT
W. H.
INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
Q
MdlEas-
—
(Copyrighl All rights reserved)
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
ROWORTH &
CO.,
102-107 FETTER LANE, E.C.4
PREFACE
The object of the present handbook—is to clarify the English
version of Vol. I of Marx's Capital to popularize as far as
may be its main or general message. It is intended to clarify
and to popularize especially the first three chapters, com-
prising Marx's Part I, which three chapters are herein
summarized, more or less, in three corresponding chapters.
But they are not strictly summarized, for in places I have
not hesitated even to expand a paragraph into a victual
explanation. The present book is designed to simplify the
gist of Marx's economic work, not only for the use of students,
but also in order to rescue as far as possible the definite
meanings of this really marvellous work from the misunder-
standings, both friendly (or unintentional) and hostile, from
the masses of confusion, both innocent and deliberate, that
have unfortunately been crowded around them.
If the science of economics be of any importance, then
such a handbook as the present is designed to be is very
badly needed. Although more than half a century has passed
since Marx's epochal work appeared, it would be a rash
statement to say that many English readers understand it.
"
All sorts and shades of so-called Marxists," from the vilest
decoy or fakir up to the honestly enthusiastic working-class
advocate, very lamentably misunderstand even the very
rudiments of Marx's great work and they therefore in-
;
evitably misunderstand, also, much of the colossal super-
structure.
Early in the twentieth century A. M. Simons advised
that Marx's Chapter I of Vol. I supplied the Marxian
economic " language " or " vocabulary." This is not
absolutely true but it is so far true that, unless a person
;
understand Marx's Chapter I, they will not quite understand
the basis of Capitalist economics, viz, the commodity (with
THE MARXIAN ECONOMIC HANDBOOK
8
its complex of concrete-labour and abst—ract-labour, its use-
value and value, and its exchange-value which latter means
another commodity's body). But how many English-
" "
speaking Marxists could hitherto say honestly that they
have understood this Chapter I ? Despite the more than
fifty years' currency of Marx's work in its many editions,
this firstchapter is now so littleunderstood, and is, moreover,
so grossly misunderstood (in English, at any rate), that to
rescue this Chapter I from such anomalous position, by-
reducing it to a correct and more popular idiom, is practically
equal to exhuming or unearthing the smothered and buried
treasures of Marx's brilliantly simple thought.
This Chapter I is a big book in itself, and a very closely
packed book at that, without any verbiage. The non-
realization of this important fact is partly why the chapter
is not understood. It contains a vastness which is quite
invisible to the unprepared mind (somewhat like the vast
but invisible world of minutiae before the advent of the vision-
assisting microscope). Without some assistance or prepara-
tion, the ordinary understanding does not come into touch
with Marx's thought Marx's Chapter I seems to contain
;
altogether too much in a very little space. And besides, as
Marx warns us in his preface : " Every beginning is difficult ;
[this] holds in all sciences. To understand the first chapter,
especially the section that contains the analysis of commodi-
ties, will, therefore, present the greatest difficulty."
A lot is heard nowadays of " Marx's theories " ; just
as though Marx were some sort of mere theorizer But so
!
far is this from being true that Marx does not bother one with
his theories at all ; it never appears that he has an—y. All
the propositions of his finished work are scientific really
and thoroughly scientific. The propositions of Marx's
Vol, I are scientifically formulated and scientifically stated,
and then thoroughly tested, proved and established. This
is exactly in accordance with the canons of scientific analysis
and presentation and therein we may see that Marx was
" ";
not a theorizer ; he was only a scientist.
Richard A. Proctor quotes De Morgan on how to
differentiate between theorizers (" cranks ") and scientists.
In his Light Science for Leisure Hours (third series, p. 270