This literature attempted to demonstrate
the disequilibrium and crisis effects that money initiates. The theme o f 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 o f 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 o f 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.