150 years since Marx’s "Capital": an analysis of its dissemination in Spain (1867-2017), with some reflections on its reception

Abstract

150 years after the publication of book I of Marx’s Capital (1867), our aim is to review the influence of this book in Spain, in the dual sense of dissemination (especially) and reception (at a more primary level). Therefore, we study, first, the translations of Capital into Spanish (Castilian and Catalan but not in Latin America), looking at their number and diffusion, the translator’s personality, the character of the publisher and the respective historical circumstances. Secondly, we try a first approximation to the theoretical influence of this book on different Spanish authors, but given the magnitude of this field, we do it in a non-exhaustive and not-systematic or methodical way. On the other hand, we do not deal with the influence of Marxism in general, but with something more specific: how Capital has influenced the authors who have written about it or from it in Spain, both for and against. The results of our analysis show an important set of translations (more than in English), but less disseminated than others made in Mexico and Argentina; and an increasing intellectual influence of Capital, with a periodic flourishing, as at the present, of studies on this book and on the theories it contains.