Summary

In one part of his discussion of simple reproduction in the reproduction schemes at the end of Capital II Marx discusses the replacement of fixed capital. Marx paints a numerical picture of some complexity, and Engels, his editor, at one point feels himself compelled to intervene in the text to point out an error in Marx’s numbers. Surprisingly, Marx’s discussion of this question in Capital II has received scant commentary in the literature. Here, basing myself on the final published version of Capital II as well as manuscripts that have more recently emerged in the second Abteilung of the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe, I comment on Marx’s text, and make the argument that, given a few minor interpretative assumptions, his account, both conceptual and numerical, is both coherent and error free. Finally, I make note of some of the omissions in Marx’s description, so they may serve as a pointer for future work.

More (pdf, 1,449 KB): “Eine große Schwierigkeit”: Marx’s Representation of the Circulation of Fixed Capital in the Reproduction Schemes