Re: [PEN-L:839] Query on Marx

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I saw that Paul gave one possible example.  There are many.  Here is one
that I used in my book on Marx's Crises Theories

According to Torrens:  In the first stone which the savage flings at the
wild animal he pursues, in the first stick that he seizes to strike down the
fruit which hangs above his reach, we see the appropriation of one article
for the purpose of aiding in the acquisition of another, and thus we
discover the origins of capital.  [Torrens 1821, p. 70-71] To which Marx
responded: "No doubt this 'first stick' [Stock in German] would also explain
why stock is synonymous with capital" (Marx 1977, p. 291, n. 10).

Carrol Cox wrote:

> Someplace in Marx's works  there is a passage in which he specifically
> mocks the capitalist tendency to explain a phenomenon by explaining its
> origins. Can anyone identify that passage for me? It may even be in Vol.
> 1 of *Capital*.
>
> Carrol

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx