Capital: Volume 2

A Critique of Political Economy

By: Karl Marx

Narrated by: Derek Le Page

It was the close friendship and professional association between Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that enabled Marx’s full vision presented in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy to come to fruition.

Following Marx’s death in 1883, Engels was able to step into the breach and, drawing on Marx’s extensive notes and writings, complete volume 2 of Capital, leading to its publication in 1885. Here, Marx turns his attention to the money owner, the money lender, the wholesale merchant, the trader and the entrepreneur or 'functioning capitalist.'

The work is divided into three parts: 'The Metamorphosis of Capital and Their Circuits'; 'The Turnover of Capital'; and finally 'The Reproduction and Circulation of the Aggregate Social Capital'. Though more theoretical and perhaps thus more challenging than volume 1, Marx’s intentions in volume 2 were clear: ‘We investigate...the social intertwining of different capitals, of the component parts of capital and of revenue.’ By looking at the ‘movement of commodities and of money’, Marx was able to clarify the patterns involved in the capitalist mode of production.

This is clear in the subtitle of volume 2: The Process of Circulation of Capital.

Translation: Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling.

Public Domain (P)2018 Ukemi Productions Ltd

I disagree with labor value theory but it's....

still a must read. hopefully we can all understand the root of socialism and how it applies to modern era.

Oh so dense

This is very dense with lots of numbers. I highly recommend using a companion book along with this or some other explenation to clarify parts, and bring things into historical context.

Difficult to understand.

Compared to Capital Volume 1, this is very difficult to understand book, unless you have studied economics.

Not ideal as audio book

This book would better be read as a physical book. Discussing calculations in parallel for two different departments is better understood when looking at a page than when walking and listening.

I normally seek Karl Marx's books to hear his views on the plight of the working class and revolutions. This is clearly not that book. It's more of an economics book.

I suspect that if Karl Marx had been alive to finish the book, the end would have been a better conclusion of the whole book. The end was quite abrupt.

I don't think Karl Marx should have devoted so much of the book to criticizing Adam Smith whose book was written almost 100 years earlier. Karl Marx had the benefit of an additional 100 years of industrialization. He could have simply disagreed with Adam Smith's views more politely.