Das Kapital in the British Library, London. At the time of his death (1883), Marx had prepared the manuscript for "Das Kapital, Volume IV", a critical history of theories of surplus value of his time, the nineteenth century. The philosopher Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) published a partial edition of Marx's surplus-value critique and later published a full, three-volume edition as "Theorien über den Mehrwert" ("Theories of Surplus Value", 1905–1910). The first volume was published in English as "A History of Economic Theories" (1952). "Capital, Volume I" (1867) was published in Marx’s lifetime, but he died in 1883 before completing the manuscripts for "Capital,
Karl Marx value advocated by David Ricardo. The work was enthusiastically received, and the edition sold out quickly. The successful sales of "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" stimulated Marx in the early 1860s to finish work on the three large volumes that would compose his major life's work – "Das Kapital" and the "Theories of Surplus Value", which discussed the theoreticians of political economy, particularly Adam Smith and David Ricardo. "Theories of Surplus Value" is often referred to as the fourth volume of "Das Kapital" and constitutes one of the first comprehensive treatises on the history of economic thought.