A vital cornerstone to Marx's overall theory of economics, the second volume of Capital considers in depth the nature of commodity and the marketplace in bourgeois society. Exploring the manner in which capitalist society must lead inevitably to a 'spiralling movement' of unbalanced growth and social crisis, it argues forcefully that the mass production of goods distrubuted rapidly around the globe causes wealth to be placed increasingly in the hands of the few, at the expense of the basic needs of the many. As Marx also shows here, a thriving capitalist society necessarily tends towards overproduction, leading to vast economic convulsions. This immensly powerful work argues that prosperity in a capitalist society inevitably holds within itself the seeds of its own destruction.
David Fernbach's translation captures the clarity and brilliance of Marx's original work. The introduction, by Ernest Mandel, explores the position of the volume as part of the wider work, explains Marxist thought and considers its long-term influence.