Start with the commodity
This guide concerns Volume I, not every volume of Capital. Marx begins with the commodity and distinguishes its usefulness from the social relations expressed through exchange. He asks how a society organized around market exchange makes relations between people appear as relations between things. The argument is an analysis of a particular social system, not just a complaint about individual greed.
Labor-power is not the same as completed labor
In chapters six and seven, Marx distinguishes the capacity to work, sold for a wage, from the labor performed during production. His explanation of surplus value depends on that distinction: the value produced during the working day can exceed the value represented by the wage. The analysis therefore turns toward control over production, the length of the working day, and how productivity gains are distributed.
Keep explanation and endorsement separate
When reading, trace each term through the argument rather than translating every occurrence of “value” into market price. Ask what Marx is trying to explain, which assumptions carry the explanation, and where another economic account would disagree. His categories remain influential and contested; they should not be presented as uncontested economic laws. Terry’s original catalog marks this book as partially read, and that status is preserved here.