A Study On The Economic Crisis Thought Of Young Engels

Marxist economic crisis theory is one of the basic subjects of Marxist philosophy research,and the academic circles at home and abroad have conducted in-depth research on it,but most of them focus on the study of Marx’s economic crisis thought,and ignore the study of Engels’ s economic crisis thought,especially the young Engels’ s economic crisis thought.In fact,compared with Marx,because of his unique life experience,young Engels contacted classical political economy earlier and paid attention to economic crisis and other social practical problems earlier,which directly influenced the development of Marx’s thought.Young Engels economic crisis thought has its unique realistic background and theoretical background.The practical experience of young Engels made him pay attention to the economic crisis earlier,and his research on economics,philosophy and utopian socialism theory laid a solid theoretical foundation for his research on the economic crisis.Engels was concerned about the living conditions of the working class when he was in middle school,and realized in Bremen and Berlin that the root cause of this problem was the malpractice of the capitalist system itself,which could only be solved through revolution.During his time in Manchester,Engels not only experienced the economic crisis and participated in the British Chartist Movement,but also really understood the proletariat and realized the tremendous revolutionary power of the proletariat through the realistic investigation of British workers.Through the study of British classical economics,young Engels initially formed a critical understanding of various laws of capitalist private ownership,and on the basis of the study of Hegel’s philosophy and Feuerbach’s materialism,acquired the "weapon" and "shield" to criticize private ownership.Engels saw the ideal prospect after the victory of the proletarian revolution because of his concern and research on the utopian socialist theory.The young Engels discussed the economic crisis in the Critical Outline of National Economics,The Condition of the British Working Class and the Principle of Communism,which mainly discussed the inevitability,periodicity and consequence of the economic crisis.Young Engels believed that the outbreak of economic crisis is inevitable because the outbreak of economic crisis is rooted in the law of competition under private ownership.Competition will inevitably lead to anarchy and overproduction of production,which will directly lead to the outbreak of economic crisis.At the same time,the reason why economic crisis is cyclical is that competition leads to periodic fluctuations in production,resulting in the repeated alternation of prosperity and crisis.Young Engels made an in-depth analysis of the consequences of the outbreak of economic crisis.This kind of consequences,on the one hand,are shown as overproduction,social productivity is greatly destroyed,the proletariat is increasingly poor,on the other hand,it is shown as the prospect of proletariat revolution,poverty and hunger will force the proletariat with huge revolutionary power to the road of social revolution.Only by eliminating private ownership and establishing a new system of communist society can the proletariat completely eliminate the economic crisis.The economic crisis thought of young Engels is of great theoretical significance not only to the development of Marx’s thought but also to the formation and development of the whole Marxist theory.We can see the traces of Engels’ s thought of economic crisis in Marx’s early Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 and in his later years’ Das Kapital.As the first Marxist text on the economic crisis,Engels’ s Critical Outline of National Economics has a founding significance for the formation of Marxist economic crisis theory.Although young Engels’ economic thought has its historical limitations,it is undeniable that its emergence is not only the driving force of Marx’s turning to political economy criticism,but also one of the cornerstones of the formation of Marxist economic crisis theory.