Value, Price and Profit

What it is

Value, Price and Profit (also published as Wages, Price and Profit) began as two lectures Marx delivered in English to the General Council of the International Workingmen's Association on 20 and 27 June 1865. It was first published in German in 1898 and in English the same year, edited by Marx's daughter Eleanor Marx Aveling after his death.

Why it matters

Marx wrote it to refute council member John Weston, who argued that wage gains could not improve workers' lives and that unions were therefore wasting their efforts. Marx argued unions provided real, if temporary, benefits, while also giving a simplified preview of ideas, like the labour theory of value, that would appear in Capital. It shows Marx translating complex economic theory for a working-class audience.

Look closer

• Why might Marx have hesitated to publish ideas from Capital before the book itself appeared?
• How does addressing a workers' organisation shape the way an argument is presented?
• What does this debate with Weston reveal about disagreements within the labour movement itself?