This book is unfinished. It does not have the polished grandeur of the first volume. But despite that it holds some magnificent insight. I read the middle section in tandem with the second volume of David Harvey's Companion to Marx's Capital. The sections he covers on financial capital are excellent and genuinely speak to the modern world of speculative investor bubbles. Without Harvey for company I found the first section demonstrating the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, and the final section on ground rent less convincing. In each case I thought the case interesting but not made. The volume closes out with a superb section integrating some of this thinking into the wider structure of Marx's thinking. Chapters 48 onwards are worth reading in their own right.

This is not a coherent expansion of Marx's thought, and those who have question the influence of Engels may well have a point. But this is still very much worth the read, especially the sections on finance capital, and particularly when read with David Harvey by your side.

June 2022: second reading, this time on its own. It remains a confused, unfinished, and therefore difficult book to read. But still with insight. I made better headway with understanding the tendency for the rate of profit to decline, and similarly with key concepts like the equalisation of the rate of profit and fictitious capital. But the link between this concepts and the vision set out in volume 1 feels un-thought-through. Chapter 48 ("The Trinity Formula") is as good as it gets at bringing it all together.

Worth reading, but flawed.

Kinda long and protracted, id give it 4.5 if i could because despite it being double the size and a lil more unfinished i found it overall more engaging than volume 2 was mostly because it considers capitalist production and circulation in its totality and forms that more regularly confront us today. if this was finished it would be as damn essential a read as vol 1 was because it answers on the common questions and criticisms ppl have on vol 1 and marxist economics in general that being; law of value in relation to supply and demand; how profit can be derived from non productive capital and labor(stocks retail finance rent etc.); and what the fuck is the stock market

i think marx sums it up pretty well in how and why these related ideas constantly confront us as our general Face and understanding of capital in how it constantly aims to reproduce itself by surface-level diverging from its basis in unpaid labor + expropriation, its just so damn complex because of the anarchy reigning in free market economy which makes it even more tempting to resort to faux generalizations and tautologies.

as always in marx and engels i think there isnt enough attention brought to colonization and its effects on primitive accumulation because of mass murder and expropriation far larger than what they both used as examples centered in western europe. But hey that would be elaborated by like lenin and mao and third world intellectuals so

Overall reading all three volumes were pretty fun to read even if marx's questionable math rolled in every once in a while for the last couple volumes. i wish i could say volume 2 and 3 are essential reads but i dont think theyre complete enough or smooth enough as works to be entirely recommended beyond idk summaries interpretations and references from following economists and revolutionaries. you can kinda get the gist from more concise explanations: this def reads like collected notes that follow marxs thought process more than a general comprehensible presentation beyond some chapters that were just bars after bars. still incredible theory and worth reading to try to Get capitalism even a little

Complex.

Contains Economic Trades; Materials for Capital and in appendices: plans and summaries of Capital, letters on economics, various texts including Malthus and texts by Friedrich Engels.

Contains Economic Trades; Materials for Capital and in appendices: plans and summaries of Capital, letters on economics, various texts including Malthus and texts by Friedrich Engels.