The German Ideology

“Thus they say, e.g., that no production is possible without some instrument of production, let that instrument be only the hand; that none is possible without past accumulated labor, even if that labor consist of mere skill which has been accumulated and concentrated in the hand of the savage by repeated exercise. Capital is, among other things, also an instrument of production, also past impersonal labor. Hence capital is a universal, eternal natural phenomenon; which is true if we disregard the specific properties which turn an ‘instrument of production’ and ‘stored-up labor’ into capital.” 

The critical phrase in this quote is “capital is a universal, eternal natural phenomenon.” Marx argues that for capital to be understood as an instrument of production, the specific properties that allow it to become “capital” must be ignored. Marx spends the rest of the book criticizing this belief. He introduces his historical materialist theory of history to argue that no economic system is universal or eternal. Rather, change is the only constant.

“Production is thus at the same time consumption, and consumption is at the same time production. Each is directly its own counterpart.”

The “Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy” begins with an analysis of production and consumption. By opening the book with a rigorous analysis of the connection between production, distribution, and consumption, Marx establishes “all material production by individuals” (1) as the critical hinge that his argument rests on. Production is an important area of study in political economy.

“But this very condition of being assigned to wage-labor is the result of the existence of capital and landed property as independent agents of production.” 

Earlier, Marx argues that capital is not an eternal, universal category. He also argues that wage-labor is not a natural category. Instead, wage-labor developed through historical change. For wage-labor to be possible, private property and capital must exist. If wage-labor isn’t a natural state of affairs, then it can be abolished, meaning the classless society that Marx advocates for is possible.