Theories of Surplus Value Vol 3

Karl Marx's Theorien über den Mehrwert, 'Theories of Surplus Value', consists of a massive examination and critique of the development of economic theory which Marx undertook parallel with the writing of Das Kapital and to complete that work. For this reason it is often referred to as 'the Fourth Volume of Capital'.

Not published until long after Marx’s death, Theories of Surplus Value first appeared in 1905-10 in an edition edited by Karl Kautsky. The arrangement of the text adopted by Kautsky differed in various ways from that evidently visualised originally by Marx, and the present English edition is based on the German edition issued by Dietzverlag, Berlin, in 1956-66, on the basis of the German original kept in the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in Moscow.

The whole work consists of three parts. Part One deals mainly with the Physiocrats, Adam Smith and theories of 'Productive and Unproductive Labour'. Part Two deals mainly with David Ricardo and theories of Rent and Profit. Part Three deals mainly with Malthus, with the later development of Ricardo’s school, and with theories of 'Revenue and its Sources'.