Adam Smith homely observations, making them feel comfortable all along." Classical economists presented competing theories of those of Smith, termed the "labour theory of value". Later Marxian economics descending from classical economics also use Smith's labour theories, in part. The first volume of Karl Marx's major work, "Das Kapital", was published in German in 1867. In it, Marx focused on the labour theory of value and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital. The labour theory of value held that the value of a thing was determined by the labour that went into its production. This contrasts with
Karl Marx short essays on capital, landed property, wage labour, the state and foreign trade and the world market, though this work did not appear in print until 1939 under the title ""Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy"". Finally in 1859, Marx published "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy", his first serious economic work. This work was intended merely as a preview of his three-volume "Das Kapital" (English title: "Capital: Critique of Political Economy"), which he intended to publish at a later date. In "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy", Marx expands on the labour theory of