ABSTRACT
During 1858 Marx turned his attention to the presentation of his critique of political economy. After completing notebook VII of the Grundrisse manuscript around the middle of the year, he attempted to set up an index of the materials from his investigations under chapter headings (see G (EV), 855ff. and 860ff.). A publisher for Marx’s book dealing with capital-in-general had been organised earlier in the year by Lassalle and, on the basis of his index, Marx began a first draft of the work. Parts of this draft are extant (G (EV), 871ff.), but as Marx was not satisfied with it, he decided to write another for publication (see his letter to Lassalle, 12 November 1858, MEW, 29, 566f). He was especially troubled by his style of presentation and it was not until January 1859 that the manuscript was sent off to the publisher in its rewritten form.
