ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

“Further, that the multitude of productive forces accessible to men determines the nature of society, hence, that the ‘history of humanity’ must always be studied and treated in relation to the history of industry and exchange.” (157)

Here, Karl Marx is saying that the amount of resources that a society or individual has available to them will determine how the society is. The economy and industry of a society often impacts the state of the society, both internally and in relation to other societies. If a country’s industry is suffering, this could cause turmoil inside the country and conflict could break out about whose fault it is or what they should do about it. Then, that country will also be weaker in comparison to other countries and may be taken advantage of. That is why Marx says the “history of humanity” must always be studied in relation to the history of industry and exchange. Perhaps he is suggesting that if we want to learn more about a country’s history—why this happened at this point in time—we should look at how its economy was at that point in time too.

Overall, Marx is emphasizing his point that your material surroundings will influence who you are—what you do, how you do it, your status and role in society, etc. His point is that the individual’s lifestyle and status is confined to the environment and the resources he was born with. In other words, the wealthy aren’t because they work hard and the poor aren’t poor because they are lazy; they were born with the materials that pushed them to succeed or fail.