Did Engels’ editing of Capital,Volume 3 distort Marx’s analysis of the ‘tendency of the rate of profit to fall’?

Abstract

This article delves into the relationship between Marx’s analysis of the law of the falling rate of profit (LFRP) in Chapter III of his 1864–65 Manuscript and Part III of ‘Capital’, Volume 3, which emerged after Engels’s editing. After presenting Marx’s analysis of the LFRP in his various economic manuscripts, the article examines Engels’ principal interventions in Marx’s text categorizing them into three clusters: interventions regarding the titles and the structure of the text, text insertions, text omissions and other modifications. Furthermore, it underscores some methodological and theoretical perspectives regarding criticisms of Engels’ editing and explores certain aspects of the Marx-Engels relationship pertaining to the completion of ‘Capital’, Volume 3. The archival investigation deploys the material contained in the MEGA edition, whose second section (completed in 2012) includes all manuscripts related to ‘Capital’. This investigation concludes that, despite the necessary interventions, Engels editing remains faithful to Marx’s analysis and, consequently, Part III of ‘Capital’, Volume 3 reflects Marx’s analysis of the LFRP.

Keywords

Engels’ editing law of the falling rate of profit manuscript of 1864-65 Marx MEGA

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