Dissemination and reception of the Grundrisse in the world: Introduction

Having abandoned the Grundrisse in May 1858 to make room for work on A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx used parts of it in composing this latter text but then almost never drew on it again. In fact, although it was his habit to invoke his own previous studies, even to transcribe whole passages from them, none of the preparatory manuscripts for Capital, with the exception of those of 1861-3, contains any reference to the Grundrisse. It lay among all the other drafts that he had no intention of bringing into service as he became absorbed in solving more specific problems than they had addressed.