Marx defines commodities as things that satisfy human needs and identifies two types of value: use-value and exchange-value.

Marx argues that labor time is the true measure of any commodity's value, regardless of the commodity's physical properties.

Marx reveals that produced objects appear to carry value independently of human labor, a phenomenon he calls commodity fetishism.

Marx introduces the C-M-C formula showing how commodity owners sell one good to buy another, with money as the intermediary.

Marx introduces the M-C-M formula showing how capitalists invest money in production specifically to extract more money in return.

Marx defines surplus-value as the profit capitalists extract from production beyond all costs of materials, tools, and wages.

Marx argues workers are structurally compelled to sell their labor-power because they own none of the means of production.

Marx introduces constant capital and variable capital, arguing only labor power — not tools or materials — generates new surplus value.

Marx establishes that workers always produce more value than their wages represent, with the unpaid remainder going to the capitalist.

Marx reveals the 'economic paradox': advancing industrial technology, instead of easing work, is used to make workers labor harder and longer.

Marx argues capitalists responded to Factory Act limits on the working day by intensifying labor to extract more relative surplus-value.

Marx concludes that surplus-value is simply the materialization of workers' unpaid labor time, hidden behind the wage system.

Marx reveals that capital accumulation structurally requires a permanent 'industrial reserve army' of unemployed workers to discipline those employed.

Marx traces primitive accumulation to the violent, centuries-long enclosure of English peasants' communal land, driving them into wage labor.

Marx concludes that capitalism, like feudalism before it, will give way to a new mode of production led by organized workers.

Marx opens by defining commodities and establishing that labor time — not physical properties — is what truly determines their value. He then traces how money mediates exchange and how the capitalist formula of investing money to extract more money gives rise to surplus-value, the engine of the entire system. Workers are structurally forced to sell their labor-power because capitalists control the means of production, ensuring that workers always produce more value than they receive in wages. Marx introduces the concepts of constant and variable capital to show that only labor power can generate new surplus-value, and he exposes the 'economic paradox' that industrial technology, rather than freeing workers, is used to make them work harder and longer. After documenting how capitalists undermine Factory Act protections by intensifying labor, Marx reveals that surplus-value is simply the materialization of unpaid work and that capital accumulation depends on keeping a permanent army of unemployed workers. He concludes by tracing capitalism's violent historical origins in land enclosure and arguing that, like feudalism before it, capitalism contains within itself the forces — organized workers — that will ultimately bring it to an end.

The core arc of Marx's argument from commodities to capitalism's inevitable end.

Marx establishes that exchange-value appears purely accidental because it changes constantly with time and place.

Marx argues a commodity's value is not determined by any individual's actual effort but by the labor time socially necessary to produce it.

Marx critiques Aristotle for stopping short of identifying labor as the common measure of value, arguing ancient slavery made this insight impossible.

Marx explains that money originally arose among nomadic societies as a way to make wealth portable and exchangeable across different cultures.

Marx describes gold and silver as themselves commodities whose value is measured in relation to other commodities, not by any natural property.

Marx explains that financial crashes occur when disruptions to money's circulation cannot be compensated by the flow of other commodities.

Marx explains that capitalists control the means of production — tools, raw materials, and the workspace — leaving workers with only labor-power to sell.

Marx breaks the labor process into three elements: the actual work performed, the goal or object of that work, and the tools used.

Marx defines necessary labour-time as the portion of a worker's shift used to produce just enough to cover the value of their own wages.

Marx documents specific unregulated industries where children as young as nine work brutal hours in dangerous conditions, suffering disease and early death.

Marx traces working-day legislation from the 14th century, showing the state originally used laws to extend hours and fix maximum wages for workers.

Marx demonstrates that industrial machines enabled capitalists to replace skilled adult workers with cheaper, more easily controlled women and child workers.

Marx distinguishes nominal wages from real wages, showing that real wages measure what workers can actually afford to buy with their pay.

Marx describes simple reproduction as the continuous cycle in which workers' wages are ultimately funded by the very surplus value they generate.

Marx examines Belgium, praised by economists as a workers' paradise, where nearly half of all working-class families are officially classified as paupers.

Marx opens with detailed groundwork: exchange-value is unstable and socially determined, and the value of any commodity reflects not individual effort but the average labor time society requires to produce it. He critiques Aristotle for stopping short of identifying labor as the universal measure of value, and traces how money emerged as a portable commodity to facilitate exchange across nomadic and ancient societies. Marx explains that gold and silver, though used as money, are themselves commodities, and that financial crashes result when money's circulation is disrupted beyond repair. Moving into production, Marx documents the capitalist's total control over the means of production, the three basic elements of any labor process, and the concept of necessary labour-time that reveals how workers spend part of every shift working purely for themselves and the rest for the capitalist. He then catalogs specific unregulated industries — lace workers, match workers, pottery workers — where children labor in deadly conditions, and shows historically how working-day laws were first designed to force workers to labor longer before eventually being reformed under worker pressure. Marx closes by examining wages, simple reproduction, and Belgium as a supposed 'workers' paradise' that is actually rife with pauperism, building a mountain of evidence that the system exploits workers at every level.

The supporting concepts and documented evidence that build Marx's full critique.

Marx argues that a commodity's value comes not from its physical nature but from the 'congealed quantity of labour' embedded in its production.

Marx reveals that money is the 'absolutely alienable commodity' because it represents all other commodities stripped of their specific material form.

Marx exposes the central contradiction of capital: the M-C-M process appears to generate more money than was invested without creating new use-value.

Marx exposes worker alienation: once laborers sell their labor-power to a capitalist, they retain no claim over the products they make.

Marx imagines a worker confronting a capitalist to demand 'the value of my commodity,' framing the fight over working hours as direct class conflict.

Marx compares the capitalist's drive to extend the working day to a feudal lord trying to add more days to a serf's corvée obligation.

Marx presents the Factory Act of 1833 as a major legislative turning point limiting the working day, achieved through the collective pressure of workers.

Marx argues that Luddite workers' revolts eventually shifted from blaming machines directly to targeting the capitalist social system that deployed them.

Marx reveals that machines, rather than freeing workers, intensified exploitation by allowing capitalists to demand more productivity in fewer hours.

Marx reveals that piece-wages appear to link pay to productivity but actually make it easier for capitalists to extract additional unpaid labor from workers.

Marx reveals that capitalist property law now means the right to appropriate workers' unpaid labor, not an equal exchange of independently owned goods.

Marx identifies three structural types of surplus population — floating, latent, and stagnant — showing unemployment is a permanent feature capitalism requires.

Marx exposes that colonialism — including the slave trade and the plunder of the Americas — directly financed the rise of industrial capitalism.

Marx argues that capitalism's historical tendency toward centralizing production and organizing labor will eventually create the conditions for workers to seize control.

Marx reveals that artificially high colonial land prices expose capitalism's secret: the entire system depends on expropriating workers of any independent means of subsistence.

Marx opens with a series of conceptual revelations: the value of a commodity is not in its physical form but in the 'congealed quantity of labour' embedded in it, and money functions as the 'absolutely alienable commodity' that conceals all the human labor and social relations behind exchange. He then exposes the central contradiction of capital — the M-C-M formula produces more money without creating new use-value — and reveals that worker alienation means laborers have no further claim over their labor once sold to a capitalist. The struggle over the working day becomes a flashpoint: Marx imagines a worker demanding fair compensation, compares the capitalist's hunger for hours to a feudal lord demanding more days of corvée, and presents the Factory Act of 1833 as the first major legislative turning point won through mass worker pressure. Marx then reveals how the Luddite movement eventually redirected its anger from machines to the capitalist system itself, and how piece-wages, despite appearing fair, make unpaid labor extraction even easier. In the book's final revelations, Marx exposes that capitalist property law is simply the institutionalized right to appropriate workers' unpaid labor, that unemployment is a structural necessity of the system, and that colonialism — including the slave trade and American plunder — directly financed the rise of industry; he closes by arguing that capitalism's own drive to centralize and organize workers will ultimately produce the conditions for those workers to take control.