The Poverty of Philosophy

Written in the winter of 1846–7 as a response to Proudhon’s Système des Contradictions Economique ou Philosophie de la Misère, this is essential background for appreciating Marx’s later work, including Capital and his Communist Manifesto. Here, Marx begins to explore such concepts as constituted or synthetic value, the division of labor and machinery, competition and monopoly, strikes and the combination of workmen, and free trade, all of which would later come to play important roles in hi...