Economics wealth (capital) and a constant population size. Marxist (later, Marxian) economics descends from classical economics. It derives from the work of Karl Marx. The first volume of Marx's major work, "Das Kapital", was published in German in 1867. In it, Marx focused on the labour theory of value and the theory of surplus value which, he believed, explained the exploitation of labour by capital. The labour theory of value held that the value of an exchanged commodity was determined by the labour that went into its production and the theory of surplus value demonstrated how the workers only got paid
Karl Marx and the Close of His System labour value, he argues that the basic error in Marx's system resulted from a self-contradiction of Marx's law of value, namely how the rate of profit and the prices of production of the third volume of Marx's "Capital" contradict Marx's theory of value in the first volume. He maintains that since the law of value is not directly controlling in capitalist production, the theory of value must be abandoned. Bawerk also attacks Marx for downplaying the influence of supply and demand in determining permanent price, and for deliberate ambiguity with such concepts. "Karl Marx and the Close of His System"