This is a synopsis of _Capital_ vol.I, written by Engels.  Upon the 
first edition release of _Capital_, Engels began constructing a 
comprehensive summation.  
 
On April 17, 1868, he wrote Marx: 
 
     "I have a limited time at my disposal and the summarising of your 
     book requires more work than I thought; after all, once having 
     taken up the work, I must do it properly...." 
 
It was published in _Fortnightly Review_. 
 
Engels' synopsis serves two useful contributions: First, Engels was a 
far more rapid writer than Marx, more readable.  Second, Engels could 
distance himself from the massive web of ideas without "losing his place 
in it", and identify primary points to be made.  
 
Engels could achieve this because he was intimately involved with the 
production of _Capital_.  Marx forwarded sheets to Engels as they were 
printed; Engels sent back his impressions and thoughts. 
 
Engels only summarized the first four chapters of volume I of _Capital_.  
 
NOTE: In the first edition, volume I was divided into six _chapters_.  
      Subsequent editions renamed these chapters "parts" -- the 5th 
      chapter was broken into two parts -- so that a total of seven 
      parts resulted.  The four chapters summarized by Engels therefore 
      correspond to the first four parts of _Capital_ as found today.  
 
      Also note Marx made additions and alterations to the text in 
      subsequent editions.  For example, Marx did not dwell in the 1st 
      chapter/part (Commodities) on value and exchange-value -- so 
      Engels' synopsis doesn't deal with that subject, which is today 
      integral to chapter 1.  
 
In the Progress Publishers introduction, we find: 
 
     The reviews and the synopsis made by Engels are inestimable aids to 
     the study of _Capital_.  The contents of _Capital_ are given for 
     the greater part in Marx's own words.   
 
     The centre of gravity, in the synopsis, as well as in the reviews, 
     lies in the _theory of surplus-value_, the corner-stone of Marx's 
     economic doctrine.  Engels summarized Marx's theory of 
     surplus-value with special care, characterizing in detail the 
     historical circumstances in which the relations of capital 
     exploitation spread, the working class made its first steps in the 
     struggle and the first skirmishes took place between labor and 
     capital.  
 
     Engels' synopsis that the transition from one category to another 
     is not a freak of reason but the reflection of the real historic 
     process of development.  Keeping to the order of Marx's exposition, 
     he shows how, in the course of historic development, capital 
     emerged on the basis of commodity production, how it subordinated 
     to itself the whole of production, how simple co-operation was 
     replaced by manufacture and this, in turn, by machine production.  
 
                                                     Ken (zodiac@io.org)