A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is Marx’s first published installment of his systematic critique of bourgeois political economy. It lays out his materialist theory of history in the famous 1859 Preface and begins the economic analysis with an examination of the commodity, value, money, and the circulation of commodities. Marx criticizes classical political economists such as Ricardo and Smith for naturalizing historically specific social relations, and instead seeks to reveal the law-governed, historically transient character of capitalist production and exchange. Although formally limited to the sphere of commodities and money, the work provides a methodological and theoretical foundation for Capital, especially by articulating the relation between productive forces and relations of production, the base–superstructure model, and the labor theory of value within a critique of market fetishism.
At a Glance
- Author
- Karl Marx
- Composed
- 1857–1859
- Language
- German
- Status
- original survives
- •Historical materialism and the base–superstructure thesis: In the 1859 Preface, Marx argues that the mode of production in material life (the economic ‘base’) conditions the process of social, political, and intellectual life (the ‘superstructure’). Legal and political institutions and prevailing forms of consciousness are shaped by, and relatively dependent upon, historically specific relations of production that arise from the development of the productive forces.
- •The primacy of economic structure and class struggle in historical change: Marx contends that history progresses through successive modes of production (e.g., ancient, feudal, capitalist), each characterized by specific class antagonisms. These antagonisms intensify as the productive forces develop, eventually producing crises in the existing relations of production and leading to revolutionary transformations in the economic structure and corresponding changes in the superstructure.
- •Critique of classical political economy and the naturalization of capitalism: Marx claims that economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo uncover important laws of value and distribution but treat the social relations specific to capitalism as natural, timeless, and transhistorical. He insists that categories such as commodity, wage, profit, and capital are historically determinate forms of social relations, not universal expressions of human nature or exchange.
- •The commodity, value, and the labor theory of value: Marx argues that commodities have a dual character as use-values and exchange-values, and that the magnitude of value is determined by the socially necessary labor time required for their production. This provides a foundation for explaining how, under capitalism, private labors are socially validated through exchange, and how value becomes a social relation between persons that appears as a relation between things.
- •Money as the necessary form of value-expression: Marx maintains that money arises necessarily out of commodity exchange as the universal equivalent in which all other commodities express their value. Money is not an arbitrary convention but a historical form in which the value relation between commodities is objectified, enabling generalized exchange, the development of credit and hoarding, and the separation between the acts of sale and purchase, with all their attendant contradictions.
The work is historically significant chiefly for its methodological Preface and as a bridge between Marx’s early writings and Capital. The 1859 Preface became one of the canonical texts of Marxism, frequently cited as the clearest statement of historical materialism and the base–superstructure schema. The analysis of the commodity and money anticipates, in a more preliminary form, the more elaborate treatment in Capital, Volume I. For later Marxist theory, the book served as a key reference in debates on the relation between economics and ideology, the nature of historical laws, and the status of Marx’s critique of political economy as a scientific theory of capitalism.
1. Introduction
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) is Karl Marx’s first published installment of a projected multi-volume critique of political economy. It occupies an intermediate place between his early philosophical writings and the later, more extensive Capital, and is often treated as the first mature statement of his economic and historical theory.
The work is best known for its Preface, where Marx formulates a programmatic version of historical materialism and the base–superstructure model. Here he outlines the idea that a society’s mode of production fundamentally conditions its legal, political, and intellectual life, and that historical change is driven by structural contradictions within modes of production.
Beyond the Preface, Marx begins the economic analysis with a treatment of commodity, value, and money. He aims to show that seemingly natural market categories are historically specific social relations characteristic of capitalism. This analysis is more schematic than in Capital, but it already presents his labor theory of value and an account of money as a necessary form of value-expression.
Because it combines a methodological manifesto with an initial economic theory, the book has been read both as a freestanding treatise and as a preparatory study for Capital. Much subsequent Marxist and non-Marxist scholarship has treated it as a key reference point for interpreting Marx’s conception of history and his critique of classical political economy.
2. Historical Context
2.1 Intellectual and Political Milieu
Marx composed A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy between 1857 and 1859, during a period marked by industrial expansion, recurrent commercial crises, and the aftermath of the failed 1848 revolutions. The work emerged at the intersection of:
| Sphere | Relevant Context (c. 1850s) |
|---|---|
| Economics | Dominance of classical political economy (Smith, Ricardo), alongside debates on free trade, crises, and the gold standard |
| Politics | Restoration of conservative regimes after 1848; increasing repression of radical movements; consolidation of nation-states (e.g., in Germany and Italy) underway |
| Philosophy | Ongoing reactions against Hegelian idealism and the rise of materialist and positivist approaches |
Marx’s project responds to, and seeks to transform, classical political economy by grounding it in a critical, historical analysis of capitalist social relations.
2.2 Economic Crisis of 1857–1858
The global crisis of 1857, beginning in the United States and spreading to Europe, formed an immediate backdrop. Many commentators argue that this crisis reinforced Marx’s interest in uncovering the inner laws of capitalist instability. His intensive manuscript work in 1857–1858 (later published as the Grundrisse) provided the theoretical groundwork for the 1859 volume.
2.3 Position within 19th-Century Social Thought
Contemporaneous socialist and workers’ movements were developing diverse theoretical orientations, from utopian socialism to Proudhonian mutualism. Marx’s Contribution situated itself against these currents by attempting a “scientific” analysis of capitalism’s economic structure rather than moral critique or reformist proposals. Scholars note that this choice partly explains both the work’s initial limited impact and its later canonical status.
3. Author and Composition
3.1 Marx’s Trajectory up to 1859
By the late 1850s, Karl Marx had moved from journalism and political agitation toward sustained theoretical research in political economy. Earlier works such as the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and The German Ideology had already sketched a materialist approach, but remained unpublished or fragmentary. After the failure of the 1848 revolutions and his exile in London, Marx devoted himself to the systematic study of capitalist economy in the British Museum.
3.2 From the Grundrisse to the 1859 Volume
The immediate precursor to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is the 1857–1858 manuscript known as the Grundrisse. In it, Marx experimented with different plans and sequences for a comprehensive critique of political economy. He initially envisaged multiple “books” (on capital, landed property, wage-labor, the state, foreign trade, and the world market).
Out of this extensive draft material, Marx extracted and reworked the sections on commodities and money for publication in 1859. The Preface, written specifically for the book, summarized his intellectual development and methodological conclusions.
3.3 Publication and Planned Continuation
The work was published in Berlin by Franz Duncker and dedicated to Joseph Weydemeyer. Financial difficulties, Marx’s ongoing research, and political circumstances meant that the projected continuation under the same title never appeared. Instead, Marx later reorganized and expanded the material, culminating in Capital, Volume I (1867). Commentators differ on how far the 1859 work should be seen as an early installment of Capital versus a distinct phase in Marx’s evolving project.
4. Structure and Organization of the Work
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is relatively short but highly architectonic, reflecting Marx’s effort to build a systematic critique from basic categories upward.
4.1 Main Parts
| Part | Title | Core Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Preface | Marx’s intellectual self-account, statement of method, and outline of historical materialism |
| I | The Commodity | Analysis of the commodity form, value, and the role of labor |
| II | Money or Simple Circulation | Derivation and functions of money within commodity circulation |
| III | Concluding Remarks and Plan of the Further Work | Indication of the limits of the present volume and sketch of the intended continuation |
4.2 Logical Progression
The organization follows a movement from the simplest economic form to more complex ones:
- Commodity as the basic “cell-form” of bourgeois wealth.
- Emergence of money from the value-relations among commodities.
- Simple circulation (C–M–C) as a pattern of exchange prior to the developed analysis of capital.
This progression anticipates Marx’s later methodological principle of moving from abstract to concrete determinations.
4.3 Relation to the Projected System
In the brief concluding section, Marx situates the 1859 volume as only the opening of a larger work that would eventually treat capital, wage-labor, profit, and the total process of capitalist production. Later scholars often compare this announced plan with the structure realized in Capital, tracing continuities and shifts in Marx’s organization of his critique.
5. Central Arguments and Key Concepts
5.1 Historical Materialism and Base–Superstructure
In the Preface, Marx formulates a concise version of historical materialism. He proposes that:
“The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general.”
— Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Preface
This is often summarized via the base–superstructure metaphor. Interpretations differ: some read it as a strong economic determinism, others as allowing significant reciprocal influence between superstructural forms and the economic base.
5.2 Modes of Production and Social Change
Marx sketches a sequence of modes of production (e.g., ancient, feudal, capitalist), each characterized by specific relations of production and class antagonisms. He argues that tensions between developing productive forces and existing relations of production lead to periods of social revolution. Later theorists have debated how rigid or flexible this schema is, and how it handles non-European histories.
5.3 Commodity, Value, and Labor
In Part I, Marx develops the dual character of the commodity as use-value and exchange-value, grounding value in socially necessary labor time. The following simplified table captures this conceptual structure:
| Category | Definition in the 1859 Work |
|---|---|
| Use-value | Qualitative utility, tied to material properties and needs |
| Exchange-value | Quantitative relation of equivalence between commodities |
| Value | Socially necessary labor time embodied in a commodity |
Proponents of labor-theory readings emphasize the centrality of abstract labor; value-form theorists focus on how value exists only in exchange-relations mediated by money.
5.4 Money and Simple Circulation
Part II argues that money arises necessarily from commodity exchange as a universal equivalent, enabling prices, circulation, hoarding, and payment. Marx distinguishes functions such as measure of value, means of circulation, hoard, means of payment, and world money. Some commentators stress the continuity with metallic-money systems of his time; others highlight conceptual features that they see as adaptable to credit and modern monetary regimes.
6. Legacy and Historical Significance
6.1 Immediate Reception
Upon publication in 1859, the book had limited circulation and modest critical attention. Contemporary reviewers in German periodicals often regarded it as overly abstract. Within the socialist movement, its technical economic focus contrasted with more agitational literature, though figures like Friedrich Engels quickly considered it crucial for a “scientific” socialism.
6.2 Status within Marx’s Oeuvre
Later scholarship generally views the work as:
| Aspect | Typical Assessment |
|---|---|
| Preface | Canonical statement of historical materialism and the base–superstructure model |
| Economic analysis | Important but preliminary draft of themes later elaborated in Capital |
| Methodological role | Bridge between early philosophical writings and mature critique of political economy |
Some interpreters, such as Louis Althusser, see it as marking a “scientific break” with Marx’s early humanism; others stress continuities.
6.3 Influence on Marxist Theory
The 1859 Preface became central in debates over Marx’s theory of history. Analytical Marxists (e.g., G.A. Cohen) have reconstructed it as a rigorous explanatory framework, while Western Marxists and critical theorists have questioned its apparent economic determinism, proposing more complex models of the interaction between economy, politics, and culture.
The treatment of commodity, value, and money has informed value-theory discussions, especially in works by Isaak Rubin and Roman Rosdolsky, who use it to trace the genesis of Marx’s mature categories.
6.4 Broader Intellectual Impact
Outside Marxism, the book has influenced historical sociology, political theory, and cultural studies through its base–superstructure imagery and account of structural social change. Critics from neo-classical economics, institutionalism, and post-structuralism have challenged its assumptions about value, class, and historical lawfulness, yet continue to engage it as a foundational text in the critique of capitalist political economy.
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