Das Kapital sciences published before 1950. In "Das Kapital" (1867), Marx proposes that the motivating force of capitalism is in the exploitation of labor, whose unpaid work is the ultimate source of surplus value. The owner of the means of production is able to claim the right to this surplus value because he or she is legally protected by the ruling regime through property rights and the legally established distribution of shares which are by law only to be distributed to company owners and their board members. The historical section shows how these rights were acquired in the first place chiefly through
Karl Marx Library Publishers of New York City, and Lawrence and Wishart of London. The abruptly-terminated series proved to be a short-lived focal point for Marx scholarship during the first half of the decade of the 1970s. The formal Karl Marx Library series was terminated in 1977, with two tangential volumes by Padover subsequently published during the last years of his life, including a full-length biography of Marx. An ambitious scholarly project entitled "The Karl Marx Library" was launched in 1971 by historian and Karl Marx scholar Saul K. Padover. A total of 13 volumes were projected for the series, each to contain