ABSTRACT
In its most profound sense, Capital is a work which elucidates the history of capitalism and it does this by means of ‘an analysis of the concepts which sum up this history’ as Lenin at one point puts it. The nature of the concepts Marx develops in his work and the role played by them are therefore of decisive importance in understanding the nature of this work. It is no accident that nearly all the attacks launched against Capital have been directed against the fundamental concepts of the work-the law of value, the notion of surplus value, etc.1 It has been asserted that these categories do not correspond to the observed development of capitalism; either this or they are merely theoretical constructs, a legacy of Marx’s unfortunate flirtation with Hegelianism.
