Summary

In "Capital, Volume 1," Karl Marx embarks on a rigorous exploration of the capitalist mode of production, beginning with the commodity as its elementary form. He intricately dissects the dual nature of commodities, highlighting the interplay between use-value and exchange-value, and reveals how labor, too, possesses a dual character, being both the creator of use-values and the substance of value. This initial analysis lays the groundwork for understanding how surplus value—the engine of capitalist accumulation—is generated.

Marx meticulously traces the evolution of money from a mere medium of circulation to a self-valorizing entity, capital, and uncovers the historical conditions that led to the emergence of the free worker, separated from the means of production. The book delves into the intricacies of the labor process and the valorization process, revealing how the capitalist appropriates surplus labor, and thus surplus value, while the worker is alienated from the fruits of their toil. This extraction is shown to be inherent in the system, driven by capital's insatiable drive for self-expansion.

The text further differentiates between absolute and relative surplus value, elaborating how the capitalist system revolutionizes the mode of production through machinery and technology. This transformation leads to an intensification of labor, the exploitation of women and children, and the creation of a disposable industrial reserve army. These machinations, coupled with the inherent contradictions of the capitalist mode, lay the ground for the progressive immiseration of the working class, even amidst increasing social wealth.

Concluding with an analysis of primitive accumulation and the historical forces that expropriated the agricultural population from the land, Marx uncovers the violent and often brutal origins of capitalist production. He explores the role of the state in facilitating this process and its consequences for the working class. In sum, "Capital, Volume 1" offers a profound critique of the capitalist system, exposing its inherent contradictions and laying bare the mechanisms through which capital accumulates and perpetuates itself, all while fundamentally reshaping the social relations of production.