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Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx

Karl Marx published the first volume of Capital in 1867, emerging from decades of solitary research in the reading room of the British Museum. This treatise…

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
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Runtime: 39 hr 19 min · Watch the full audiobook on YouTube · Subscribe to Ion Books

Karl Marx published the first volume of Capital in 1867, emerging from decades of solitary research in the reading room of the British Museum. This treatise does not merely catalogue economic principles; it dissects the anatomy of a society built on the exchange of commodities. By beginning with the simple object of trade, Marx peels back the surface appearances of market life to reveal the underlying social relations that govern them. He argues that value is not an inherent property of things but a reflection of human labor, obscured by what he termed commodity fetishism. The text moves from abstract theory to the concrete realities of factory floors, tracing how money transforms into capital and how surplus value is extracted. It is a dense, dialectical work that demands patience, yet its prose carries a sharp, satirical edge that animates cold economic laws. As you listen and follow the text, consider how Marx’s critique of nineteenth-century industrial Britain continues to offer a lens for understanding modern labor, alienation, and the relentless drive of accumulation. This is a work to revisit slowly, allowing its complex arguments to unfold layer by layer.

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Public domain & narration

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy was first published in 1867. Works first published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States, so the text is free to read, share and adapt. The text comes from Marxists Internet Archive (Capital, Volume One - Moore/Aveling translation, edited by Engels).

The narration is the LibriVox recording read by 12 volunteer readers, including Sibella Denton, Anna Simon and Carl Manchester. LibriVox volunteers dedicate their recordings to the public domain.

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Chapters

  1. Chapter 1: Editor's Preface -- To the First English Translation (11:14) · watch
  2. Chapter 2: Author's Preface -- I. To the First Edition (11:51) · watch
  3. Chapter 3: Author's Preface -- II. To the Second Edition (22:34) · watch
  4. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 1</b>: The two Factors of a Commodity; Use Value and Value (the Substance of value and the magnitude of value) (19:52) · watch
  5. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Twofold Character of the Labour embodied in Commodities (19:06) · watch
  6. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Form of Value, or Exchange Value -- <b>Introduction and A</b>: Elementary or Accidental Form of Value (45:14) · watch
  7. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Form of Value, or Exchange Value -- <b>B</b>: Total or Expanded Form of Value (7:57) · watch
  8. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Form of Value, or Exchange Value -- <b>C</b>: The General Form of Value <b>and D</b>: The Money Form (17:08) · watch
  9. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter I</b>: Commodities. -- <b>Section 4</b>: The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof (43:04) · watch
  10. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter II</b>: Exchange (38:45) · watch
  11. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Measure of Values (30:09) · watch
  12. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Medium of Circulation -- <b>A</b>: The Metamorphosis of Commodities (33:35) · watch
  13. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Medium of Circulation -- <b>B</b>: The Currency of Money (36:55) · watch
  14. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Medium of Circulation -- <b>C</b>: Coin and symbols of value (20:28) · watch
  15. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 3</b>: Money -- <b>Introduction and A</b>: Hoarding (15:15) · watch
  16. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 3</b>: Money -- <b>B</b>: Means of Payment (22:55) · watch
  17. <b>Part I: Commodities and Money</b> -- <b>Chapter III</b>: Money, or the Circulation of Commodities -- <b>Section 3</b>: Money -- <b>C</b>: Universal Money (8:08) · watch
  18. <b>Part II: The Transformation of Money into Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter IV</b>: The General Formula for Capital (37:15) · watch
  19. <b>Part II: The Transformation of Money into Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter V</b>: Contradictions in the General Formula of Capital (33:16) · watch
  20. <b>Part II: The Transformation of Money into Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter VI</b>: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power (30:36) · watch
  21. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter VII</b>: The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Labour-Process or the Production of use-values (33:19) · watch
  22. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter VII</b>: The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Production of Surplus-Value (46:30) · watch
  23. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter VIII</b>: Constant Capital and Variable Capital (35:48) · watch
  24. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter IX</b>: The Rate of Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Degree of Exploration of Labour-Power (26:08) · watch
  25. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter IX</b>: The Rate of Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Representation of the Components of the Value of the Product by Corresponding Proportional Parts of the Product Itself (9:35) · watch
  26. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter IX</b>: The Rate of Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 3</b>: Senior's "Last Hour" (18:25) · watch
  27. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter IX</b>: The Rate of Surplus-Value -- <b>Section 4</b>: Surplus-Produce (2:56) · watch
  28. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Limits of the Working-Day (13:50) · watch
  29. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Greed for Surplus-Labour. Manufacturer and Boyard (26:56) · watch
  30. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 3</b>: Branches of English Industry Without Legal Limits to Exploitation (41:19) · watch
  31. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 4</b>: Day and Night Work. The Relay System. (26:36) · watch
  32. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 5</b>: The Struggle for a Normal Working-Day. Compulsory Laws for the Extension of the Working-Day from the Middle of the 14th to the End of the 17th Century (44:49) · watch
  33. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 6</b>: The Struggle for the Normal Working-Day. Compulsory Limitation by Law of the Working-Time. The English Factory Acts, 1833 to 1864 (1:01:35) · watch
  34. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter X</b>: The Working-Day -- <b>Section 7</b>: The Struggle for the Normal Working-Day. Re-action of the English Factory Acts on Other Countries (17:37) · watch
  35. <b>Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XI</b>: Rate and Mass of Surplus Value (31:00) · watch
  36. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XII</b>: The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value (33:43) · watch
  37. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIII</b>: Co-Operation (41:08) · watch
  38. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIV</b>: Division of Labour and Manufacture -- <b>Section 1</b>: Two-Fold Origin of Manufacture (12:44) · watch
  39. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIV</b>: Division of Labour and Manufacture -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Detail Labourer and his Implements (12:51) · watch
  40. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIV</b>: Division of Labour and Manufacture -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Two Fundamental Forms of Manufacture: Heterogeneous Manufacture, Serial Manufacture (34:33) · watch
  41. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIV</b>: Division of Labour and Manufacture -- <b>Section 4</b>: Division of Labour in Manufacture, and Division of Labour in Society (33:10) · watch
  42. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XIV</b>: Division of Labour and Manufacture -- <b>Section 5</b>: The Capitalistic Character of Manufacture (33:03) · watch
  43. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Development of Machinery (47:39) · watch
  44. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 2</b>: The Value Transferred by Machinery to the Product (27:03) · watch
  45. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman Part 1 (48:52) · watch
  46. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 3</b>: The Proximate Effects of Machinery on the Workman Part 2 (42:33) · watch
  47. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 4</b>: The Factory (30:34) · watch
  48. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 5</b>: The Strife Between Workman and Machine (31:34) · watch
  49. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 6</b>: The Theory of Compensation as Regards the Workpeople Displaced by Machinery (29:29) · watch
  50. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 7</b>: Repulsion and Attraction Of Workpeople by the Factory System. Crises in the Cotton Trade (36:29) · watch
  51. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 8</b>: Revolution Effected in Manufacture, Handicrafts, and Domestic Industry by Modern Industry (1:03:32) · watch
  52. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 9</b>: The Factory Acts Sanitary and Educational Clauses of the Same Their General Extension in England (1:00:46) · watch
  53. <b>Part IV: Production of Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XV</b>: Machinery and Modern Industry -- <b>Section 10</b>: Modern Industry and Agriculture (10:36) · watch
  54. <b>Part V: The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XVI</b>: Absolute and Relative Surplus Value (29:00) · watch
  55. <b>Part V: The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XVII</b>: Changes Of Magnitude in the Price of Labour Power and in Surplus Value (31:02) · watch
  56. <b>Part V: The Production of Absolute and Relative Surplus Value</b> -- <b>Chapter XVIII</b>: Various Formulae for the Rate of Surplus Value (11:47) · watch
  57. <b>Part VI: Wages</b> -- <b>Chapter XIX</b>: The Transformation of the Value (and Respectively the Price) of Labour Power into Wages (21:28) · watch
  58. <b>Part VI: Wages</b> -- <b>Chapter XX</b>: Time Wages (22:23) · watch
  59. <b>Part VI: Wages</b> -- <b>Chapter XXI</b>: Piece Wages (26:23) · watch
  60. <b>Part VI: Wages</b> -- <b>Chapter XXII</b>: National Differences of Wages (14:00) · watch
  61. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIII</b>: Simple Reproduction (41:51) · watch
  62. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIV</b>: Conversion of Surplus Value into Capital -- <b>Section 1</b>: Capitalist Production on a Progressively Increasing Scale. Transition of the Laws of Property that Characterise Production of Commodities into Laws of Capitalist Appropriation (26:04) · watch
  63. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIV</b>: Conversion of Surplus Value into Capital -- <b>Section 2</b>: Erroneous Conception, by Political Economy, of Reproduction on a Progressively Increasing Scale (10:07) · watch
  64. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIV</b>: Conversion of Surplus Value into Capital -- <b>Section 3</b>: Separation of Surplus Value into Capital and Revenue. The Abstinence Theory (23:26) · watch
  65. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIV</b>: Conversion of Surplus Value into Capital -- <b>Section 4</b>: Circumstances that, Independently of the Proportional Division Of Surplus Value into Capital and Revenue Determine the Amount of Accumulation. Degree of Exploitation of Labour Power. Productivity of Labour. Growing Difference in Amount Between Capital Employed and Capital Consumed. Magnitude of Capital Advanced (31:49) · watch
  66. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIV</b>: Conversion of Surplus Value into Capital -- <b>Section 5</b>: The So-called Labour Fund (13:01) · watch
  67. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 1</b>: The Increased Demand for Labour Power that Accompanies Accumulation, the Composition of Capital Remaining the Same (29:50) · watch
  68. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 2</b>: Relative Diminution of the Variable Part of Capital Simultaneously with the Progress of Accumulation and of the Concentration that Accompanies it (20:35) · watch
  69. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 3</b>: Progressive Production of a Relative Surplus Population or Industrial Reserve Army (34:23) · watch
  70. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 4</b>: Different Forms of the Relative Surplus Population. The General Law of Capitalistic Accumulation (23:44) · watch
  71. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 5</b>: Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- Parts A-C (1:05:33) · watch
  72. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 5</b>: Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- Part D (16:27) · watch
  73. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 5</b>: Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- Part E (1:12:04) · watch
  74. <b>Part VII: The Accumulation of Capital</b> -- <b>Chapter XXV</b>: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- <b>Section 5</b>: Illustrations of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation -- Part F (36:14) · watch
  75. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXVI</b>: The Secret of Primitive Accumulation (9:42) · watch
  76. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXVII</b>: Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land (52:53) · watch
  77. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXVIII</b>: Bloody Legislation Against the Expropriated, from the End of the 15th Century. Forcing down of Wages by Acts of Parliament (25:47) · watch
  78. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXIX</b>: Genesis of the Capitalist Farmer (10:59) · watch
  79. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXX</b>: Reaction of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry. Creation of the Home Market for Industrial Capital (12:59) · watch
  80. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXXI</b>: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist (30:49) · watch
  81. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXXII</b>: Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation (10:46) · watch
  82. <b>Part VIII: The So-Called Primitive Accumulation</b> -- <b>Chapter XXXIII</b>: The Modern Theory of Colonisation (31:43) · watch

Full text

This work is too long to show on one page. Read it on Marxists Internet Archive (Capital, Volume One - Moore/Aveling translation, edited by Engels) · download ebook.txt

Sources

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