1 When Marx was writing his rough draft late in 1857 he was sent a copy of Hegel's Science of Logic and reported to Engels that it was “of great service to me in the method of working” (16 Jan 1858). Since his notebooks of the period are dated we can check the material in question ( Marx's, Gruanddrisse, Penguin, pp 250–471 Google Scholar) and observe that he experiments with such triads as U-P-I (eg. p 264 and 275).

2 It is a noteworthy feature of the Marx literature that the reference is always to Hegel's Logic (or where the young Marx is concerned, the Phenomenology). But why not compare like with like through looking at Hegel's economic philosophy? See my 'Hegel's Theory of Value' in Williams, M ed Value, Social Form and the State (Macmillan, London, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Although Williams does not remark it, his line of thought here was developed earlier by the Kantian Marxist Lucio Colletti. See his Marxism and Hegel (NLB, London 1973)Google Scholar.

4 For the latest account see the papers by Arthur, Smith, Reuten, and Murray, in Fred Moseley ed New Directions in Marxian Theory: Form and Logic in Capital (forthcoming).