This literature attempted to demonstrate
the disequilibrium and crisis effects that money initiates. The theme of this literature is the connection between Marx’s monetary theory and the possibility for crisis. Although the papers take a slightly different variation on this theme, each author builds his central argument around M arx’s comments that money presents the possibility for crisis. Much of this literature remained at a high level of abstraction relying on interpretations of
Marx’s work presented prior to Volume m . The third topic for reconstruction extends
this literature on the relationship between Marx’s monetary and crisis theories by
including an interpretation o f Part 5.
During the 1990s there had been another attempt to investigate Marx’s monetary
theory, this time focusing on the financial system as found in Part 5. A recent publication
edited by Riccardo Bellofiore (1998) having its origin in a conference on Volume III,
along with the spring 1997 issue o f the International Journal o f Political Economy which
devotes the entire issue to papers on Marx’s monetary theory in Part 5, are indications
that this work still holds out hope of being incorporated into the main body of Marxian
economics. Although this literature correctly directs attention to the part o f the theory in
need of development, it remains incomplete. The first two topics for reconstruction
represent a contribution to this literature.