History of economic thought died, Engels completed the second volume of "Das Kapital" from his notes. Marx wrote his magnum opus "Das Kapital" (1867) at the British Museum's library in London. Karl Marx begins with the concept of commodities. Before capitalism, says Marx, production was based on slavery – in ancient Rome for example – then serfdom in the feudal societies of medieval Europe. The current mode of labor exchange has produced an erratic and unstable situation allowing the conditions for revolution. People buy and sell their labor as people buy and sell goods and services. People themselves have become disposable commodities. As Marx
Francis Wheen journalism. Wheen is the author of several books, including a biography of Karl Marx which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 1999, and has been translated into twenty languages. He followed the biography of Karl Marx with a "biography" of "Das Kapital", which follows the creation and publication of the first volume of Marx's major work as well as other incomplete volumes. Wheen had a column in "The Guardian" for several years. He writes for "Private Eye" and is currently the magazine's deputy editor. His collected journalism, "Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies", won him the Orwell Prize in 2003. He has