Given the repeated failures and frustrations of workers' revolutions and movements, Marx also sought to understand capitalism and spent a great deal of time in the reading room of the British Museum studying and reflecting on the works of political economists and on economic data.
Zbog učestalih neuspjeha radničkih revolucija i pokreta, Marx je također nastojao bolje razumjeti kapitalizam, te je provodio veliku količinu vremena u Britanskom muzeju studirajući i promišljajući djela političkih ekonomista te ekonomske podatke.