KARL MARX

THE 'ECONOMICS' 281
much richer content in terms of economic history means that the Grundrisse,
while continuing the themes central to the '1844 Manuscripts', treats
them in a much more sophisticated way than was possible before Marx
had achieved a synthesis of his ideas on philosophy and economics. Thus
to take the '1844 Manuscripts' as his central work - as many interpreters
have done - is to exaggerate their significance.
As regards economics, the Grundrisse contains the first elaboration of
Marx's mature theory. There are two key changes of emphasis. Firsdy,
instead of analysing the market mechanisms of exchange (as he had done
in 1844), he now started from a consideration of production. Secondly, he
now said that what the worker sold is not his labour, but his labour-power.
It was a combination of these two views that gave rise to the doctrine of
surplus-value. For, according to Marx, surplus-value was not created by
exchange but by the fact that the development of the means of production
under capitalism enabled the capitalist to enjoy the use-value of the
worker's labour-power and with it to make products that far exceeded
the mere exchange-value of labour-power which amounted to no more
than what was minimal for the worker's subsistence. In fact, virtually all
the elements of Marx's economic theory were elaborated in the Grundrisse.
Since, however, these elements were to be dealt with at greater length in
Capital, the Grundrisse is more interesting for the discussions that were
not taken up again in the completed fragments of his vast enterprise.
These discussions took place around the central theme of man's alienation
in capitalist society and the possibilities of creating an unalienated
- communist - society. What was new in Marx's picture of alienation in
the Grundrisse was that it attempted to be firmly rooted in history. Capital,
as well as being obviously an 'alienating' force, had fulfilled a very positive
function. Within a short space of time it had developed the productive
forces enormously, had replaced natural needs by ones historically created
and had given birth to a world market. After the limitations of the past,
capital was the turning point to untold riches in the future:
The universal nature of this production with its generality creates an
estrangement of the individual from himself and others, but also for
the first time the general and universal nature of his relationships and
capacities. At early stages of development the single individual appears
to be more complete, since he has not yet elaborated the wealth of his
relationships, and has not established them as powers and autonomous
social relationships, that are opposed to himself. It is as ridiculous to
wish to return to that primitive abundance as it is to believe in the
necessity of its complete depletion. The bourgeois view has never got
beyond opposition to this romantic outlook and thus will be