Marx’s Theory of the Genesis of Money

In this volume, the first of the author’s works to be translated into English, Samezō Kuruma examines the different angles from which Marx analyses the commodity and money in the first two chapters of Capital, Vol I. Kuruma carefully explains each of the theoretical questions raised by Marx, particularly the theory of the value-form, which unravels the mystery surrounding money. The theoretical knowledge Marx gains from his analysis of the commodity is the linchpin of Capital, but he recognises that this presents the reader with the ‘greatest difficulty’ – just as ‘beginnings are always difficult in all sciences’. Kuruma helps to ease this difficulty by making the reader clearly aware of how and why Marx poses his theoretical questions.