Who authored the foundational work Das Kapital?

• A. Adam Smith
• B. Karl Marx
• C. David Ricardo
• D. Carl Menger

Answer: (B)

Das Kapital is Karl Marx’s major economic work, where he analyzes how capitalism creates value and how surplus value is produced through the exploitation of labor. The key idea is that value arises from labor and that capitalists extract part of the value as profit, leading to inherent tensions in a capitalist system. The book also explores capital accumulation, the circulation of commodities, and the tendency toward crises within capitalist economies. This makes Karl Marx the author. The other thinkers mentioned are known for different contributions: Adam Smith for early classical economics, David Ricardo for theories of value and distribution, and Carl Menger for founding the marginalist school.