* Marx’s references here are to John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1,2nd edn, London, 1848, pp. 91–2; H. C. Carey, Principles of Social Science, Vol. 3, Philadelphia, 1859, pp. 71–3; and W. Roscher, Die Grundlagen der Nationalökonomie, 3rd edn, Stuttgart, 1858, § 45.

Marx’s attitude towards Mill deserves careful attention, Mill being the fountainhead of economic theory for the British Labour movement. As distinct from the mere apologetics of ‘vulgar economies’, Mill ‘tried to harmonize the political economy of capital with the claims, no longer to be ignored, of the proletariat’ (Capital, Volume 1, Postface to the Second Edition, p. 98). Chapter 51 of the present volume, ‘Relations of Distribution and Relations of Production’, is primarily devoted to criticizing Mill’s basic position.