Explain the bookclub: We are reading Volumes 1, 2, and 3 in one year and discussing it in weekly threads. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included in this particular reading club, but comrades are encouraged to do other solo and collaborative reading.) This bookclub will repeat yearly.

I’ll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.

Just joining us? You can use the archives below to help you reading up to where the group is. There is another reading group on a different schedule at https://lemmygrad.ml/c/genzhou (federated at !genzhou@lemmygrad.ml ) which may fit your schedule better. The idea is for the bookclub to repeat annually, so there’s always next year.

Archives: Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5 – Week 6 – Week 7 – Week 8 – Week 9 – Week 10 – Week 11 – Week 12 – Week 13 – Week 14 – Week 15 – Week 16 – Week 17 – Week 18 – Week 19 – Week 20 – Week 21 – Week 22 – Week 23 – Week 24 – Week 25 – Week 26 – Week 27 – Week 28 – Week 29 – Week 30 – Week 31 – Week 32 – Week 33 – Week 34 – Week 35 – Week 36 – Week 37 – Week 38 – Week 39 – Week 40

Week 41, Oct 7-13 – Chapter 26, Chapter 27, and Chapter 28 of Volume III

Chapter 26 is called ‘Accumulation of Money-Capital. Its Influence on the Interest Rate’

Chapter 27 is called ‘The Role of Credit in Capitalist Production’

Chapter 28 is called ‘Medium of Circulation and Capital; Views of Tooke and Fullarton’

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/index.htm

Discuss the week’s reading in the comments.

  • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    27 days ago

    Reading Chapter 26, it looks like, mid-page, we follow the cross-examining of the major contemporary banker, Mr. Overstone, with him trying to justify to the interviewer why high interest rates follow prosperous periods for capital and vice versa

    Marx seems to take the opposite approach, saying that lower interest rate follow such prosperous periods, and increases in interest rates follow periods of crisis for capital, showing a more opportunistic side to finance capital.

    There’s a lot more going on beyond that, however, as the interviewer shows the faults within Overstone’s words, and Marx comments on that to make a point

      • Lemmygradwontallowme [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        27 days ago

        I believe Karl would have been a great poster.

        He would’ve? That’s an understatement… I’m pretty sure he was the forerunner, if not archetype and standard, for some Hexber rage-filled commentary effort posts a la Alaskaball

        You can already feel him turn his gears, after reading things like:

        "3635. You stated, that you consider that the rate of interest depends, not upon the amount of notes, but upon the supply and demand of capital. Will you state what you include in ‘capital,’ besides notes and coin?

        — I believe that the ordinary definition of ‘capital’ is commodities or services used in production."

        and

        { —}Interest would exist if there was no money at all."

        That’d you understand why he responds with bangers like

        This self-complacent rubbish is quite fitting for this pillar of the Currency Principle.