Karl Marx 
 
                 ECONOMIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL MANUSCRIPTS 
 
                             written between  
                          April and August 1844 
 
 
                             FIRST MANSCRIPT 
 
                                  part 2 
                            PROFIT OF CAPITAL 
 
 
                               1.  Capital 
 
(1) What is the basis of capital -- i.e., of private property in the 
products of another's labor? 
 
     "Even if capital cannot be reduced to simple theft or fraud, it 
     still needs the assistance of legislation to sanctify inheritance." 
 
                      [ Jean-Baptiste Say, _Traie d'economie politique_, 
             third edition, 2 volumes, Paris, 1817, I, p.136, footnote ] 
 
 
How does one become an owner of productive stock? How does on become 
owner of the products created by means of this stock? 
 
Through _positive law_.  [Say, II, p.4] 
 
What does one acquire with capital, with the inheritance of a large 
fortune, for example? 
 
     "The person who acquires, or succeeds to a great fortune, does not 
     necessarily acquire or succeed to any political power....  The power 
     which that possession immediately and directly conveys to him, is 
     the power of purchasing; a certain command over all the labor, or 
     over all the produce of labor, which is then in the market." 
 
                                [ Smith, Wealth of Nations, I, pp.26-7 ] 
 
 
Capital is, therefore, the power to command labor, and its products.  
The capitalist possesses this power not on account of his personal or 
human properties but insofar as he is an owner of capital.  His power is 
the purchasing power of his capital, which nothing can withstand.  
 
Later, we shall see how the capitalist, by means of capital, exercises 
his power to command labor; but we shall then go on to see how capital, 
in its turn, is able to rule the capitalist himself.  
 
What is capital? 
 
     "A certain quantity of labor stocked and stored up..." 
 
                                                        [ Smith, p.295 ] 
 
 
Capital is stored up-labor. 
 
(2) Bonds, or stock, is any accumulation of the products of the soil or 
of manufacture.  Stock is only called capital when it yields its owner a 
revenue or profit.  
 
 
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