THE
POVERTY
OF
 PHILOSOPHY 

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  ^[1] The Poverty of Philosophy, Answer to the "Philosophy of Poverty" by M. Proudhon, is one of the most important theoretical works of Marxism, and is the principal work Marx directed against P. J. Proudhon, an ideologist of the petty bourgeoisie. Towards the end of December 1846, after a reading of Proudhon's Système des contradictions économique, ou Philosophie de la misère (The System of Economic Contradictions, or the Philosophy of Poverty ) which had appeared a short time earlier, Marx decided to criticize Proudhon's views which seriously impeded the dissemination of scientific communism among the workers. In his work Marx for the first time formulated scientifically, in a polemical form, theses of decisive significance in Marxism. In a letter to the Russian man of letters P. V. Annenkov dated December 28, 1846 (see present edition, p. 173), he expounded a number of highly important ideas which later formed the basis of his work against Proudhon. Marx was already working on his reply to Proudhon, as can be seen from Engels' letter to Marx dated January 15, 1847. By early April, 1847, the work had in the main been completed and had gone to press. Marx wrote a brief foreword on June 15.
    The book appeared in Brussels and Paris early in July 1847, and was not republished during Marx's lifetime. The first German edition was published in 1885. The translation was edited by Engels, who wrote a preface and a number of notes to it. While editing the German text, Engels took into account corrections made in Marx's hand in a copy of the 1847 French edition which the author presented on

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January 1, 1876 to Natalia Utina, wife of N. I. Utin, a member of the Russian section of the First International. The second German edition came out in 1892, with a brief preface by Engels correcting certain textual inaccuracies. In 1896, after Engels' death, a second French edition was published. It had been prepared by Laura Lafargue, Marx's second daughter, and contained corrections in the copy given to Utina.    [Pub.Note]

  ^[2] Engels refers to Marx's letter to Johann Baptist Schweitzer, dated January 24, 1865. See present edition, p. 213.    [p.1]

  ^[3] A few months later, on May 5, 1885, Engels completed his preface to the first German edition of the second volume of Capital, in which he dealt with the relations of Marx to Rodbertus.    [p.2]

  ^[4] This refers to David Ricardo's work, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London, 1817.    [p.3]

  ^[5] See present edition, pp. 64-68.    [p.4]

  ^[6] See present edition, pp. 208-12.    [p.9]

  ^[7] Johann Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow, Zur Erkenntnis unsrer staatswirtschaftlichen Zustände (Contribution to the Knowledge of Our National Economic Condition ), Neubrandenburg and Friedland, 1842.    [p.9]

  ^[8] Paragraph 110 of the Penal Code of the German Empire, which went into force in 1871, stipulated that persons who publicly incited disobedience against the law or legal regulations by posters were to be fined up to 200 taler or imprisoned for two years or less.    [p.17]

  ^[9] See present edition, p. 64.    [p.20]

  ^[10] The inaccuracies referred to by Engels here had been used as a pretext by the Austrian bourgeois jurist Anton Menger to accuse Marx of baseless quotations.    [p.20]

  ^[11] The full reference is: Simonde de Sismondi, Etudes sur l'èconomie politique (Studies in Political Economy ), Vols. I-II, Brussels, 1837-38.    [p.30]

  ^[12] Lauderdale, James Maitland, An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth, Edinburgh and London, 1804, p. 50.    [p.30]

  ^[13] David Ricardo. op. cit., English edition, p. 323.    [p.30]

  ^[14] The full reference is: A. Anderson, An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time. The first edition appeared in London in 1764.    [p.33]

  ^[15] The full reference is: H. Storch, Cours d'économie politique, ou Exposition des principes qui déterminent la prospérité des nations

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(Course in Political Economy, or an Exposition of the Principles Determining the Prosperity of Nations ), Vols. I-IV, Paris, 1823. Marx quotes from Vol. I.    [p.34]

  ^[16] The period in question begins after the termination of the Napoleonic wars and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in France in 1815.    [p.39]

  ^[17] The full reference is: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The first edition appeared in London in 1776.    [p.40]

  ^[18] Boisguillebert's work is quoted from the symposium Economistes-financiers du XVIII siècle (Economists-Financiers of the 18th Century ), prefaced by a historical sketch on each author and accompanied by commentaries and explanatory notes by Eugene Daire, Paris, 1843.    [p.62]

  ^[19] The full reference is: Th. Hodgskin, Popular Political Economy, London, 1827.    [p.64]

  ^[20] The books by Thompson and Edmonds were published in London.    [p.64]

  ^[21] His initials are "J. F."    [p.64]

  ^[22] The Ten Hours Bill, which applied only to women and children, was passed by the British Parliament on June 8, 1847. Many manufacturers, however, ignored it in practice.    [p.70]

  ^[23] Equitable-labour-exchange bazaars were organized by Owenites and Ricardian socialists (such as John Gray, William Thompson and John Bray) in various towns of England in the 1830s for fair exchange without a capitalist intermediary. The products were exchanged for labour notes, or labour money, certificates showing the cost of the products delivered, calculated on the basis of the amount of labour necessary for their production. The organizers considered these bazaars as a means of publicizing the advantages of a non-capitalist form of exchange and a peaceful way -- together with cooperatives -- of transition to socialism. The subsequent invariable bankruptcy of such enterprises proved their utopian character.    [p.72]

  ^[24] The reference is to the following passage from Adam Smith's work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations : "In a tribe of hunters or shepherds a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example, with more readiness and dexterity than any other. He frequently exchanges them for cattle or for venison with his companions; and he finds at last that he can in this manner get

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more cattle and venison, than if he himself went to the field to catch them. From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the making of bows and arrows grows to be his chief business, and he becomes a sort of armourer." (Vol. I, Book I, Chapter II.)    [p.75]

  ^[25] Marx quotes from a chapter in Voltaire's Histoire du Parlement. It is entitled: "Finances et système de Law pendant la régence" ("Finance and the System of Law in the Period of the Regency"). "Law" refers to John Law (1671-1729).    [p.77]

  ^[26] The reference is to Say's note on the French edition of Ricardo's book, Vol. II, pp. 206-07.    [p.81]

  ^[27] The full name is Nassau William Senior.    [p.83]

  ^[28] The latter reference in full is: Thomas Tooke, A History of Prices, and of the State of the Circulation, from 1793 to 1837, Vols. I-II, London, 1838.    [p.83]

  ^[29] The first edition of the book was published in Columbia in 1826. A second, enlarged edition appeared in London in 1831.    [p.84]

  ^[30] The full reference is: M. T. Sadler, The Law of Population, Vol. I, London, 1830, pp. 83 and 84.    [p.85]

  ^[31] The reference is to Francois Quesnay's two principal economic works: Tableau économique (1758) and Analyse du Tableau économique (1766).    [p.97]

  ^[32] Marx hints at the work of Quesnay's contemporary N. Baudeau, Explication du Tableau économique (Explanation of the Economic Table), published in 1770.    [p.97]

  ^[33] G. W. F. Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik (Science of Logic ), Vol. III, in his Works, second edition, Berlin, 1841, Vol. V, p. 320.    [p.100]

  ^[34] Marx quotes these words from the following line in Lucretius' poem On the Nature of Things (Book III, line 869): "mortalem vitam mors cum immortalis ademit" ("when death the immortal has taken away his mortal life").    [p.103]

  ^[35] A. de Villeneuve-Bargemont, Histoire de l'économie politique (The History of Political Economy ), the first edition of which appeared in Brussels in 1839.    [p.115]

  ^[36] Marx quotes from a French edition of Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Paris, 1802, Vol. I,    [p.124]

  ^[37] Lemontey alludes to his book: Raison, folie, chacun son mot ; petit cours de morale mis à la portée des vieux enfants (Reason, Folly, to

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Each His Own Word ; a Short Course in Morality Within the Mental Reach of Old Children), Paris, 1801.
    Marx quotes Lemontey's work Influence morale de la division du travail (The Moral Influence of the Division of Labour ), in which Lemontey refers to the above book.    [p.124]

  ^[38] Ferguson's work was published in Edinburgh in 1767. Marx quotes from a French translation of the book.    [p.125]

  ^[39] Le Creusot, a town in east-central France, became a big centre of the French metallurgical, machine-building and war industries in the 1830s, but declined in the late 19th century.    [p.126]

  ^[40] The full reference is: Ch. Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, London, 1832. Marx quotes from p. 230 of a French translation published in Paris in 1833.    [p.133]

  ^[41] The full reference is: Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures: or an Exposition of the Scientific, Moral and Commercial Economy of the Factory System of Great Britain, second edition, London, 1835. Marx quotes from a French translation of the book.    [p.138]

  ^[42] Lemontey, op. cit., p. 213.    [p.138]

  ^[43] William Harvey (1578-1657), an English physician, discovered the circulation of the blood and published his theory in 1628.    [p.145]

  ^[44] P. Rossi, Cours d'économie politique (Course in Political Economy ), Vols. I-II, Paris, 1840-41.    [p.146]

  ^[45] James Steuart, An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations, first edition, London, 1767; second edition, Dublin, 1770. Marx quotes from pp. 190-91 of Vol. II of a French edition of the book published in Paris in 1789.    [p.148]

  ^[46] The Man of Forty Ecus is the hero of Voltaire's story of the same name. He is a modest, hard-working peasant with an annual income of 40 ecus (silver crowns used in France in the 17th-18th centuries). The next passage is quoted from the story.    [p.149]

  ^[47] William Petty, Political Arithmetick, in his book, Seven Essays in Political Arithmetick, London, 1699.    [p.161]

  ^[48] The Corn Laws were repealed in June 1846. Enforced since 1815 in the interests of the big landowners, these laws imposed high tariffs on grain imports for limiting or banning them, and led to a struggle between the industrial bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy. Their repeal and the resultant fall in grain prices lowered living expenses to

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some extent, but ultimately decreased workers' wages and increased capitalist profit. A heavy blow to the landed aristocracy, the Corn Law Repeal speeded up capitalist development in England.    [p.164]

  ^[49] The laws operating in France at the time -- the so-called Le Chapelier law adopted by the Constituent Assembly during the bourgeois revolution and the criminal code elaborated under the Napoleonic Empire -- forbade workers to form labour unions or to go on strike on pain of servere punishment. The ban on trade unions in France was not lifted until 1884.    [p.166]

  ^[50] The National Association of United Trades was a trade union organization established in England in 1845. Its activity did not extend beyond the scope of economic struggle for better conditions of sale of labour power, for better labour laws. The Association existed until the early sixties, but after 1851 it played no important part in the trade union movement.    [p.167]

  ^[51] The Chartists were participants in the political movement of the British workers which lasted from the 1830s to the middle of the 1850s and had as its slogan the adoption of a People's Charter, demanding universal franchise and a series of conditions guaranteeing voting rights for all workers. Lenin defined Chartism as the world's "first broad, truly mass and politically organized proletarian revolutionary movement." (Collected Works, English edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, Vol. 29, p. 309.  [Transcriber's Note: See Lenin's "The Third International and Its Place in History". -- DJR]) The decline of the Chartist movement was due to the strengthening of Britain's industrial and commercial monopoly and the bribing of the upper stratum of the working class (the "labour aristocracy") by the British bourgeoisie out of its super-profits. Both factors led to the strengthening of opportunist tendencies in this stratum as expressed, in particular, by the refusal of the trade union leaders to support Chartism.    [p.168]

  ^[52] Commenting on the book by Proudhon, P. V. Annenkov wrote in a letter to Marx dated November 1, 1846: "I must say that the plan of the work itself appears to me to be rather a mental game by a man who knows only a bit of German philosophy than something flowing naturally from the subject and the necessities of its logical development."    [p.173]

  ^[53] Here Marx refers to his intended work, A Critique of Politics and Political Economy. Marx started to study political economy at the end of 1843, and in the spring of 1844 set himself the task of writing press criticisms of bourgeois political cconomy from the materialist and communist standpoint. Only parts of his manuscripts of that time

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have survived -- the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. In order to write The Holy Family he temporarily halted his study of political economy, not resuming it until December 1844. Numerous outlines, excerpts and notes that he made in 1845-46 in studying works by British, French and other economists have been preserved. But his plan for the resultant work was never realized. In February 1847 the publisher Leske cancelled the contract that Marx had signed with him on February 1, 1845 for the publication of A Ctitique of Politics and Political Economy in two volumes.    [p.188]

  ^[54] Marx's "Speech on the Question of Free Trade" was published in French in Brussels in early February, 1848. In the same year it was translated into German and published in Germany by Joseph Weydemeyer, a friend and student of Marx and Engels. In 1885 the speech was republished at Engels' wish as a supplement to the first German edition of The Poverty of Philosophy, and since then it has repeatedly been republished with that work. The speech was first published as a pamphlet in English in Boston in 1889, with a preface by Engels which had been published earlier in the journal Die Neue Zeit (The New Times ) under the title of "Protectionism and Free Trade."    [p.189]

  ^[55] See Note 48.    [p.189]

  ^[56] The Free Traders were supporters of Free Trade and non-intervention by the state in domestic economy. In England the centre of propaganda of the Free Traders was Manchester, where the so-called Manchester school, a trend of economic thought reflecting the interests of the English industrial bourgeoisie, took shape. This trend was led by Richard Cobden and John Bright, two cotton manufacturers who organized the Anti-Corn Law League in 1838. In the 1840s and 1850s the Free Traders constituted a special political grouping which later joined the Liberal Party.    [p.189]

  ^[57] See Note 51.    [p.190]

  ^[58] Under the new Poor Law adopted in 1834, the only poor relief allowed was admission to the workhouses, which were similar to hard-labour prisons and which the people called "bastilles for the poor." The Poor Laws were designed to provide additional cheap labour power for the industrial bourgeoisie by forcing the impoverished masses to work in factories under harsh conditions.    [p.190]

  ^[59] See Notes 48 and 56 for the Corn Laws and the Anti-Corn Law League.
    The Anti-Corn Law League demanded unrestricted Free Trade and the abolition of the Corn Laws for the purpose of reducing workers'

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wages and weakening the economic and political position of the landed aristocracy. It tried to make use of the worker masses in its struggle against the landowners. Just then, however, the advanced sections of the English working class developed an independent political movement of the workers -- the Chartist movement. The League ceased to exist after the Corn Law Repeal in 1846.    [p.192]

  ^[60] See Note 22.    [p.194]

  ^[61] Marx quotes from pp. 178-79 of the French edition of David Ricardo's work, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.    [p.196]

  ^[62] This refers to the International Congress of Economists held in Brussels on September 16-18, 1847.    [p.196]

  ^[63] Marx quotes from p. 34 of Vol. I of a French edition of Andrew Ure's Philosophy of Manufactures, published in Brussels in 1836. (See Note 41 for full reference.)    [p.201]

  ^[64] "On Proudhon" was written by Marx at the request of J. B. Schweitzer, editor of the newspaper Sozialdemokrat, in connection with Proudhon's death. His criticism of Proudhon was also directed against Ferdinand Lassalle. The article was published in the Sozialdemokrat, Nos. 16, and 18, on February 1st, 3rd and 5th.
    The Sozialdemokrat was the organ of the Lassallean General Association of German Workers. It was published in Berlin from December, 1864 to 1871 and edited by Schweitzer in 1864-67.
    In November 1864, Marx and Engels had received a programme of the Sozialdemokrat mailed by Schweitaer which contained no Lassallean slogans. Since there was no other organ through which they could influence the workers' movement in Germany, they agreed to contribute to it. Wilhelm Liebknecht was unofficially an editor of the paper.
    On the relations of Marx and Engels to the editorial board of the Sozialdemokrat, see Marx's statement on the reasons not to contribute to the paper any longer. The statement was carried in the Berliner Reform on March 15, 1865.    [p.213]

  ^[65] This refers to Proudhon's Essai de Grammaire generale (Essay on General Grammar ), which appears in Bergier's Les éléments primitifs des langues (Fundamentals of Languages ), Besancon, 1837.    [p.213]

  ^[66] Proudhon, Qu'est-ce que la propriété? Ou rechercbes sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement (What Is Property? Or Investigations into the Principles of Law and Government ), Paris, 1840.    [p.214]

  ^[67] T. R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers, London, 1798.    [p.214]

  ^[68] This refers to Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville's work, Recherches philosophiques. Sur le droit de propriété et sur le vol, considérés dans la nature et dans la société (Philosophical Studies. On Property Right and Theft in Nature and in Society ), which appears in Bibliothèque philosophique du legislateur, du politique, du jurisconsulte (Philosophical Library for the Legislator, the Politician and the Jurist ), Vol. VI, Berlin, Paris and Lyon, 1782.    [p.216]

  ^[69] This refers to the role played by Etienne Cabet, an outstanding exponent of peaceful utopian communism, in the political movement of the French proletatiat during the 1830s and 1840s. In his papers Le Populaire (The People ) and Le Populaire de 1841 (The People of 1841 ), Cabet not only advocated his utopian schemes but also criticized the July monarchy and helped to disseminate democratic ideas. His books, articles and leaflets too are severely critical of capitalism. Thus Cabet's work, despite his utopian views, greatly contributed to the political education of the French proletariat.    [p.220]

  ^[70] Ch. Dunoyer, De la liberté du travail, ou Simple exposé des conditions dans lesquelles les forces humaines s'exercent avec le plus de puissance (On the Freedom of Labour, or a Simple Explanation of the Conditions Under Which Human Forces Are Exercised with the Greatest Power ), Vols. I-III, Paris, 1845.    [p.220]

  ^[71] This refers to Proudhon's speech at a session of the French National Assembly on July 31, 1848, the text of which appears in Compte rendu des séances de l'Assemblée Nationale (Review of the Sessions of the National Assembly ), Paris, 1849, Vol. II, pp. 770-82. In his speech Proudhon put forward a series of proposals in the spirit of petty-bourgeois utopian doctrines, such as the abolition of loan interest, and at the same time described the repressive measures against the participants in the proletarian uprising in Paris on June 23-26, 1848, as a manifestation of violence and despotism.    [p.220]

  ^[72] This refers to Thiers' speech on July 26, 1848, against the proposals submitted by Proudhon to the Finance Commission of the French National Assembly. Thiers' speech appears in the Compte rendu des séances de l'Assemblée Nationale, Paris, 1849, Vol. II, pp. 666-71.    [p.220]

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  ^[73] Gratuité du crédit. Discussion entre M. Fr. Bastiat et M. Proudhon (Credit Free of Interest. A Discussion Between M. Bastiat and M. Proudhon ), Paris, 1858.    [p.221]

  ^[74] This refers to P. J. Proudhon's Théorie de rimpôt, question mise au concours par le conseil d'Etat du canton de Vaud en 1860 (The Theory of Taxation, a Question Raised by the Council of State of the Canton of Vaud at the Competition in 1860 ), Brussels and Paris, 1861.    [p.221]

  ^[75] As a deist, Voltaire exerted a tremendous influence on his contemporaries by his severe criticism of clerical obscurantism, Catholicism and absolutism. Thus Voltairianism refers in particular to the progressive and anti-religious socio-political views towards the end of the 18th century.    [p.222]

  ^[76] J. Proudhon, La Révolution sociale démontrée par le coup d'Etat du 2 Décembre (The Social Revolution in the Light of the Coup d'Etat of December 2 ), Paris, 1852.    [p.222]

  ^[77] P. J. Proudhon, Si les traités de 1815 ont cessé d'exister? Actes du futur congrès (Have the Treaties of 1815 Ceased to Exist? Acts of a Future Congress ), Paris, 1863. In this work, the author came out against the revision of the 1815 Vienna Congress decisions on Poland and against support by European democracy of the Polish national liberation movement, thereby justifying the policy of oppression pursued by Russian tsarism.    [p.222]

  ^[78] Théorie des lois civiles, ou Principes fondamentaux de la société (Theory of Civil Law, or Fundamental Principles of Society ), London, 67, Vols. I-II. Published anonymously.    [p.222]