Preface.

The present work was written in the winter of 1846/47, at a time when Marx had reached clarity regarding the fundamental features of his new historical and economic method of inquiry. The recently published work by Proudhon, Système des Contradictions économiques ou Philosophie de la Misère System of Economic Contradictions or Philosophy of Poverty, provided him the opportunity to develop these fundamental features in contrast to the views of the man who, from that point forward, was to occupy the most significant position among living French socialists. From the time when the two men often spent whole nights in Paris discussing economic questions, their paths had diverged more and more; Proudhon's work proved that an unbridgeable gulf now lay between them; ignoring it was not possible at that time; and thus, Marx established this incurable rift in this, his answer.

The overall judgment of Marx concerning Proudhon is recorded in the essay following this preface, which appeared in the Berlin Sozialdemokrat Social Democrat, numbers 16, 17, and 18 of 1865. It was the only article that Marx wrote for that newspaper; the attempts that immediately came to light