In the general formula, the product of P is regarded as a material thing different from the elements of the productive capital, as an object existing apart from the process of production and having a different use-value than the elements of production. And if the fruit of production assumes the form of such an object, it always corresponds to this description, even if a part of it should re-enter production as one of its elements. Grain, for instance, serves as seed for its own reproduction, but the final product is always grain and has a different composition than the elements used in its production, such as labor-power, implements, and fertilizer. But there are certain independent branches of industry, in which the result of the productive process is not a new material product, not a commodity. Among these, only the industries representing communication, such as transportation proper for commodities and human beings, and the transmission of communications, letters, telegrams, etc., are economically important.
A. Cuprov6 says on this score: "The manufacturer may first produce articles and then look for consumers" (his 6 A. Cuprov: Zeleznodoroznoje chostjajstvo, Moskva, 1875, pg. 75 62 Capital.
product, having been completed in the process of produc-, tion, is transferred to the process of circulation as a separate commodity). "Production and consumption thus appear as two acts distinct from one another in space and time. In the transportation industry, which does not create any new products, but merely transfers men and things, these two acts coincide; its services (change. of place) must be consumed at the same time that they are produced. For this reason the distance, within which railroads can find customers, extends at best 50 verst (53 kilometers or about 30 miles) on either side of their tracks."
The result in the transportation of either men or commodities is a change of place. Yarn, for instance, is thus transferred from England, where it was produced, to India.
Now transportation, as an industry, sells this change of location. This utility is inseparably connected with the process of transportation, which is the productive process of transportation. Men and commodities travel by the help of the means of transportation, and this traveling, this change of location, constitutes the production in which these means of transportation are consumed. The utility of transportation can be consumed only in this process of production. It does not exist as a use-value apart from this process, it does not, like other commodities, serve as a commodity which circulates after its process of production. The exchange value of this utility is determined, like that of any other commodity, by the value of the elements of production (labor-power and means of production) plus the surplus-value created by the surplus-labor of the laborers employed in transportation. This utility also entertains the same relations to consumption that all other commodities do. If it is consumed individually, its value is used up in consumption; if it is consumed productively by entering into the process of production of the transported commodities, its value is added to that of the commodity. The formula for the transportation industry would, therefore, be M-C \p...P-M', since it is the process of production itself which is paid for and consumed, not a product distinct and separate from it. This formula has almost the The Circulation of Money-Capital. 63 same form as that of the precious metals, only with the difference, that in this case M' represents the changed form of the utility resulting during the process of production, while in the case of the precious metals it represents the natural form of the gold or silver obtained in this process and transferred from it to other stages.
Industrial capital is the only form of existence of capital, in which not only the appropriation of surplus value or surplus product, but also its creation is a function of capital. Therefore it gives to production its capitalist character. Its existence includes that of class antagonisms between capitalists and laborers. To the extent that it assumes control over social production, the technique and social organization of the labor process are revolutionized and with them the economic and historical type of society. The other classes of capital, which appear before industrial capital amid past or declining conditions of social production, are not only subordinated to it and suffer changes in the mechanism of their functions corresponding to it, but move on it as a basis, live and die, stand and fall with this basis. Money-capital and commodity-capital, so far as they still persist as independent branches of industry along with industrial capital, are nothing but modes of existence of different functional forms either assumed or discarded by industrial capital in the sphere of circulation, made independent and developed one-sidedly by the social division of labor.
The cycle M...M' on one side intermingles with the general circulation of commodities, proceeds from it and flows back into it, is a part of it. On the other hand, it is for the individual capitalist an independent movement of his capital value, taking place partly within the general circulation of commodities, partly outside of it, but always preserving its independent character. For in the first place, its two phases taking place in the sphere of circulation, M-C and C'-M', have functionally different characters as functions of capital circulation. In M-C, the commodity C is composed of laborpower and means of production; in C'-M', capital value is realized plus surplus-value. In the second place, the process of production, P, includes productive consumption. In the 64 Capital.
third place, the return of money to its starting point makes of the cycle M...M' a process of circulation complete in itself.
Every individual capital is therefore, on the one hand, in its two phases M-C and C'-M', an active element in the general circulation of commodities, with which it is connected either as money or as a commodity. Thus it forms a link in the general chain of metamorphoses in the world of commodities. On the other hand, it goes through its own independent circulation within the general circulation. Its independent circulation passes through the sphere of production and returns to its starting point in the same form in which it left that point. Within its own circulation, which includes its natural metamorphosis in the process of production, it changes at the same time its value. It returns not only as the same money-value, but as an increased moneyvalue.
Let us finally consider M-C...P...C-M' as a special form of the process of circulation of capital, apart from the other forms which we shall analyze later. It is distinguished by the following points: 1. It appears as the circulation of money-capital, because industrial capital in its money form, as money-capital, forms the starting and terminal point of its total process. The formula itself expresses the fact that money is not expended as money at this stage, but advanced as the money-form of capital. It expresses furthermore that exchange-value, not use-value, is the determining aim of this movement. Just because the money-form of this value is its tangible and independent form, the compelling motive of capitalist production, the making of money, is most fittingly expressed by the circulation formula M...M.' The process of production appears merely as an indispensable and intermediate link, as a necessary evil of money-making. All nations with a capitalist mode of production are seized periodically by a feverish attempt to make money without the mediation of the process of production.
2. The stage of production, the function of P, represents an interruption of the two phases of circulation M-C...C'-M', which in their turn represent links in the simple circulation M-C-M'. The process of production appears formally and The Circulation of Money-Capital. 65 essentially in circulation as that which is typical of capitalist production, that is to say as a mere means of utilizing previously advanced values. The accumulation of wealth is the purpose of production.
3. Since the series of phases is opened by M-C, the second link of the circulation is C'-M.' In other words, the starting point is M, or the money-capital to be utilized, the terminal point M', or the utilized money-capital M plus m, in which M figures together with its offspring m. This distinguishes the circulation of M from that of the two other cycles P and C, in two ways. On one side, its two extremes are represented by the money-form. And money is the tangible form of value, the value of the product in its independent form, in which every trace of the use-value of the commodities has been extinguished. On the other side, the formula P...P is not necessarily transformed into P...P' (P plus p,) and in the form C-C, no difference in value is visible between the two extremes. It is, therefore, characteristic for the formula M-M' that capital value is its starting point, and utilized capital value its terminal point, so that advanced capital value appears as the means, and utilized capital value as the end of the entire operation. And furthermore, this relation is expressed in the form of money, in the form of independent value, so that money-capital is money generating more money. The generation of surplus-value by value is not only expressed as the Alpha and Omega of the process, but more explicitly in the form of glittering money.
4. Since M', the money-capital realized as a result of C'-M', the supplementary and concluding form of M-C, has absolutely the same form in which it began its first circulation, it can immediately begin the same circulation over again as an increased (accumulated) money-capital, or as M' equal to M plus m. And it is not expressed in the formula M-M' that, in the repetition of the cycle, the circulation of m separates from that of M. Considered in its complete form, the circulation of money capital expresses simply the process of utilization and accumulation. The consumption in it is productive consumption, as shown by the formula M-C { pm< and it is only this which is included in this circulation of individual capital. M-L means L-M, or C-M, on the part of the laborer. It is therefore the first phase of circulation which promotes his individual consumption, thus: L-M-C (means of subsistence). The second phase, M-C, no longer falls within the circulation of individual capital, but it is initiated by individual capital and an indispensable premise for it, since the laborer must above all live and maintain himself by individual consumption, in order to be always on the market for exploitation by the capitalist. But this consumption is here only assumed as the indispensable condition for the productive consumption of labor power by capital, and it is, therefore, considered only in so far as it preserves and reproduces his labor power by means of his individual consumption. But the means of production Pm, the commodities proper which enter into the circulation of capital, are only material feeding 'the productive consumption. The act L-M promotes the individual consumption of the laborer, the transformation of means of subsistence into flesh and blood. It is true, that the capitalist must also be present, must also live and consume in order to perform the function of a capitalist. To this end, he has, indeed, but to consume in the same way as the laborer, and this is all that is assumed in this form of the circulation process. But it is not formally expressed, since the term M' concludes the formula and indicates that it may at once re-enter on its function of increased money-capital.
In the formula C'-M', the sale of C is directly indicated; but this sale C'-M' on the part of one is M-C, or the purchase of commodities, on the part of another, and in the last analysis a commodity is bought only for its use-value, in order to enter (leaving intermediate sales out of consideration) into the process of consumption, and this may be either productive or individual consumption, according to the nature of the commodity. But this consumption does not enter into the circulation of individual capital, the product of which is C. This product is eliminated from this circulation from the moment that it is sold. C is explicitly produced for consumption by others. For this reason we note that certain spokesmen of the mercantile system (which is based on the formula M-C..P...C'-M') deliver lengthy sermons to the effect that the individual capitalist should consume only in his The Circulation of Money-Capital. 67 capacity as a worker, that capitalist nations should let other and less intelligent nations consume their own and other commodities, and that a capitalist nation should devote itself for life to the productive consumption of commodities. These sermons frequently remind us in form and content of analogous ascetic exhortations of the fathers of the church.
The rotation process of capital is therefore a combination of circulation and production, it includes both. In so far as the two phases M-C and C'-M' are processes of circulation, the rotation of capital is a part of the general circulation of commodities. But in so far as they are definite sections performing a peculiar function in the rotation of capital, which combines the spheres of circulation and production, capital goes through its own circulation in the general circulation of commodities. The general circulation of commodities serves capital in its first stage as a means of assuming that form in which it can perform the function of productive capital; in its second stage, it serves to eliminate the commodity function in which capital cannot renew its circulation; at the same time it enables capital to separate its own circulation from that of the surplus-value created by it.
The circulation of money-capital is therefore the most onesided, and thus the most convincing and typical form of the circulation of industrial capital. Its aim and compelling motive, the utilization of value, the making and accumulation of money, is thus most clearly revealed. Buying in order to sell dearer is its slogan. The first phase M-C also indicates the origin of the elements of productive capital in the commodity market, or more generally, the dependence of the capitalist mode of production on circulation, on commerce. The circulation of money-capital is not merely the production of commodities; it is itself possible only through circulation of commodities and based on it. This is plain from the fact that the term M belongs to circulation and represents the first and most typical form of advanced capital-value. This is not the case in the other two forms of circulation.
68 Capital.
The circulation of money-capital always remains the general expression of industrial capital, because it always implies the utilization of the advanced value. In P...P, the moneycharacter of capital is shown only in the price of the elements of production as a value expressed in money-terms for the purpose of calculation and book-keeping.
M...M' becomes a special form of the circulation of industrial capital when new capital is first advanced in the form of money and then returned in the same form, either in passing from one branch of industry to another, or in the case that industrial capital retires from business. This includes the capital function of the surplus-value first advanced in the form of money, and becomes most evident when surplusvalue performs a function in some other business than the one in which it originated. M...M' may be the first circulation of a certain capital; it may be the last; it may be regarded as the form of the total social capital; it is that form of capital which is newly invested, either as a recently accumulated capital in the form of money, or as some old capital which is entirely transformed into money for the purpose of transfer from one branch of industry to another.
Being a form always contained in all circulations, moneycapital performs this circulation precisely for that part of capital which produces surplus-value, viz., variable capital. The normal form of an advance in wages is payment in money; this process must be renewed in short intervals, because the laborer lives from hand to mouth. In his relation to the laborer, the capitalist must therefore always be a money-capitalist, and his capital must be money-capital. There can be no direct or indirect balancing of accounts in this case, such as we find in the purchase of means of production or in the sale of productive commodities, where the greater part of the money capital really exists in the form of commodities, while the money is mainly used for purposes of calculation and figures in cash only in the balancing of accounts. On the other hand, a part of the surplus-value arising out of variable capital is spent by the capitalist for his individual consumption, which is a part of the retail trade, and this surplus-value is in the last analysis always The Circulation of Money-Capital. 69 expended in the form of money. It does not matter how large or small may be this part of surplus- value. Variable capital always appears anew as money-capital invested in wages (M-L) and m as surplus-value which may be expended for the individual consumption of the capitalist. So that M, capital advanced for wages, and m, its increment, are necessarily held and spent in the form of money.
The formula M-C...P...C-M', with its result M' equal to M plus m, is, in a certain sense, deceptive, owing to the existence of the advanced and surplus-value in the form of the general equivalent, money. The emphasis in this formula is not on the utilization of value, but on the money-form of this process, on the fact that more money-value is finally drawn out of 'the circulation than had originally been advanced; in other words, the emphasis is on the multiplication of the amount of gold and silver belonging to the capitalist. The so-called monetary system is merely the expression of the abstract formula M-C-M', a movement which takes place exclusively in the circulation. And this system cannot explain the two phases M-C and C-M' in any other way than by declaring that C is sold above its value in the second phase and thus draws more money out of the circulation than was put into it in its purchase. But if M-C...P...C'-M, becomes the exclusive form of circulation, it is the basis of a more highly developed mercantile system, in which not only the circulation of commodities, but also their production, is recognized as a necessary element.
The illusive character of M-C...P...C,-M' and the resulting illusive interpretation always appear, whenever this form is considered as rigid, not as a flowing and ever renewed movement; in other words, they appear whenever this formula is considered not as one section of circulation, but as the exclusive form of circulation. But it itself points toward other forms.
In the first place, this entire circulation is conditioned on the capitalist character of the process of production, and considers it and the specific social conditions created by it as the basis. M-C is equal to M-C{£m. but M-L assumes the existence of the wage laborer, and regards the means of produc- *70 Capital.
tion as parts of productive capital. It assumes, therefore, that the process of labor and of utilization, the process of production, is a function of capital.
In the second place, if M...M' is repeated, the return to the money-form is just as transient as the money-form in the first phase. M-C disappears and makes room for P. The recurrent advance of money-capital and its equally persistent return in the form of money appear merely as passing moments in the general circulation.
In the third place; the repeated formula has this form: M-C...P...C-M'. M-C...P...C-M'. M-C...P...etc.
Beginning with the second repetition of the circulation, the cycle P...C'-M'.M-C...P appears, before the second circulation of M is completed, and all other cycles may be considered under the form of P...C-M-C...P, so that the first phase of the first circulation is merely the passing introduction for the constantly repeated circulation of the productive capital. And this is indeed the case for the first time in the investment of industrial capital in the form of money.
On the other hand, before the second circulation of P is completed, the first circulation, that of the commodity-capital, as shown in the formula C'-M'. M-C...P...C (or abridged C...C) has preceded. Thus the first form already contains the other two, and the money-form disappears, so far as it is a general equivalent and not merely an expression of value used for calculation.
Finally, if we consider some newly invested capital going for the first time through the circulation M-C..P...C'-M', then M-C is the introductory phase, the preparation for the first process of production undertaken by this capital. This phase M-C is not considered as existing, but is caused by the requirements of the process of production. But this applies only to this individual capital. The general form of the circulation of industrial capital is the circulation of moneycapital, whenever the capitalist mode of production exists and with it the social conditions corresponding to it. It is therefore the capitalist mode of production which is the first condition for the circulation of money-capital, and if it is not assumed for the first phase of a newly invested industrial The Circulation of Money Capital. 71 capital, it is certainly assumed for all others. The continuous movement of this process of production requires the persistent renewal of the cycle P...P. Even the first stage, M-C {pmt reveals this basic condition. For it requires on one side the existence of the wage-working class. On the other side, that which is M-C for the buyer of means of production, is C'-M' for their seller. Hence C presupposes the existence of commodity-capital, and thus of commodities as the result of capitalist production, and this implies the function of productive capital.
72 Capital.
CHAPTER II.
THE ROTATION OF PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL.
The rotation of productive capital has the general formula P...C'-M'-C...P. It signifies the periodical renewal of the function of productive capital, in other words its reproduction, or its process of production as a reproductive process generating surplus-value. It is not only production, but a periodical reproduction of surplus-value; it is the function of industrial capital in its productive form, and this function is not performed merely once, but periodically so that the terminal point of one cycle is the starting point of another. A portion of C may re-enter directly into the same labor process as means of production out of which it came in the form of commodities (for instance, in various branches of investment of industrial capital). This merely does away with the transformation of its value into money proper, or token-money, or else it finds an independent expression merely in calculation. This part of value does not enter into the circulation. Thus it is that values enter into the process of production wThich do not enter into circulation. The same is also true of that part of C which is consumed by the capitalist, and which represents surplus-value in the form of means of consumption, in their natural state. But this is inconsiderable for capitalist production. It deserves consideration, if at all, only in agriculture.
Two things are at once apparent in this form.
In the first place, while in the first form, M...M', the pro* cess of production, a function of P, interrupts the circulation of money-capital and acts only as a mediator between its two phase MjC and C'-M', it is the entire circulation process of industrial capital, its entire movement within the sphere of circulation, which intervenes here and forms the connecting link between productive capitals, which begin the circulation at one extreme and close it at another, only to make this last extreme the starting point of a new cycle. Circulation The Rotation of Productive Capital. 73 proper appears but as an instrument promoting the periodic renewal, and thus the continuous reproduction, of productive capital.
In the second place, the entire circulation assumes a form which is the reverse of that which it has in the circulation of money-capital. While the circulation of money-capital proceeds after the formula M — C — M (M — C. C — M), makingexception of the determination of value, it proceeds in the case of productive capital, making the same exception, after the formula C— M— C (C— M. M— C). which is the form of the simple circulation of commodities.
I. Simple Reproduction.
Let us first consider the process C'-M'-C, which takes place between the two extremes P...P.
The starting point of this circulation is the commoditycapital C, equal to C plus c, or equal to P plus c. The function of commodity-capital C — M' has been considered in the first form of the circulation. It consisted in the realization of the capital-value P, contained in it, which now exists as a part of the commodity C, and likewise in the realization of the surplus-value contained in it, which now exists as a part of the same mass of commodities C and has the value of c. But in the former case, this function formed the second phase of the interrupted circulation and the concluding phase of the entire cycle. In the present case, it forms the second phase of the cycle, but the first phase of the circulation. The first cycle ends with M', and since M' as well as the original M may again open the second cycle as moneycapital, it was not necessary for the moment to analyze whether the parts of M', viz., M and m (surplus-value) continue in their course together, or whether each one of them pursues its own course. This would only have been necessary, if we had followed up the first cycle in its renewed course. But in studying the cycles of productive capital, this point must be decided, because the determination of its very first cycle depends on it, and because C — M' appears in it as the first phase of circulation which has to be supple- 74 Capital.
74 Capital.
mented by M — C. It depends on the outcome of this decision, whether our formula represents the simple reproduction, or reproduction on an enlarged scale. The character of the cycle changes according to this decision.
Let us, then, take first the simple reproduction of productive capital, assuming that the conditions are the same as those taken for a basis in the first chapter, end that the commodities are bought and sold at their value. Under these conditions, the entire surplus-value enters into the individual consumption of the capitalist. As soon as the transformation of the commodity-capital C into money has taken place, that part of the money which represents the capital-value continues in the cycle of industrial capital; the other part, which represents surplus-value in the form of gold, enters into the general circulation of commodities as a circulation of money emanating from the capitalist but taking place outside of the circulation of his individual capital.
In our illustration, we had a commodity-capital C of 10,000 pounds of yarn, valued at 500 pounds sterling; 422 pounds sterling of this represent the value of productive capital and continue, as the money-form of 8,440 pounds of yarn, the capital circulation begun by C, while the surplusvalue of 78 pounds sterling, as the money-form of 1,560 pounds of yarn, the surplus-product, leaves this circulation and describes its own separate course within the general circulation of commodities.
Pm Pm The formula m — c represents a series of purchases by means of money which the capitalist spends either in commodities proper or for personal services to his cherished self or family. These purchases are made piece-meal at various times. Money, therefore, exists temporarily in the form of a supply, or hoard, of money destined for gradual consumption, for money interrupted in its circulation partakes of the nature of a hoard. Its function as a circulating medium, including that of a temporary hoard, does not share in the The Rotation of Productive Capital. 75 circulation of capital having the form of money M. This money is not advanced, but spent.
We have assumed that the advanced total capital always passed entirely from one of its phases into the other. In this case, we, therefore, assume that the mass of commodities produced by P represents the total value of the productive capital P, or 422 pounds sterling plus 78 pounds sterling of surplus-value created in the process of production. In our illustration, which deals with an easily analyzed commodity, the surplus-value exists in the form of 1,560 pounds of yarn; if computed on the basis of one pound of yarn, it would exist in the form of 2.496 ounces. But if the commodity were, for instance, a machine valued at 500 pounds sterling and representing the same division of values, one part of the value of this machine would indeed be represented by 78 pounds sterling of surplus-value, but these 78 pounds sterling would exist only in the machine as a whole.
This machine cannot be divided into capital-value and surplus-value without breaking it to pieces and thus destroying, with its use-value, also its exchange-value. For this reason the two parts of value can be represented only ideally as portions of a mass of commodities, not as independent elements of the commodity C, such as we are able to distinguish in each pound of yarn in the 10,000 pounds of our illustration. In the case of the machine, the total commodity representing the commodity-capital must be sold before m can enter into its independent circulation. On the other hand, when the capitalist has sold 8,440 pounds of yarn, the sale of the remaining 1,560 pounds of yarn would represent an entirely separate circulation of the surplus-value in the form of c (1,560 pounds of yarn) — m (78 pounds sterling) equal to c (articles of consumption). But the elements of value of each individual portion of yarn in the 10,000 pounds may be individually separated and valuated the same as the total quantity of yarn. Just as the entire 10,000 pounds of yarn may be divided into the value of the constant capital c (7,440 pounds of yarn worth 372 pounds sterling), variable capital v (1,000 pounds of yarn worth 50 pounds sterling, and surplus- value s (1,560 pounds of yarn worth 78 pounds sterling), so every pound of yarn 76 Capital.
may be divided into c (11.904 ounces of yarn worth 8.929 d.)', v (1.640 ounces of yarn worth 1.200 d.), and s (2.496 ounces of yarn worth 1.872 d.). The 'capitalist might also sell various portions of the 10,000 pounds of yarn successively and consume the different portions of surplus-value contained in them in the same way, thus realizing gradually the sum of c plus v. But this operation likewise requires the final sale of the entire lot, so that the value of c plus v would be made good by the sale of 8,440 pounds of yarn (vol. I, chap IX, 2).
However that may be, by the movement C — M', both the capital-value and surplus-value contained in C secure a separate existence in separate sums of money. In both cases, M and m are actually transformed values, which had originally only an ideal existence in C as prices of commodities.
The formula c — m — c represents the simple circulation of commodities, the first phase of which, c — m, is included in the circulation of the commodity-capital C — M', in short, included in the cycle of capital; while its supplementary phase m — c falls outside of this cycle and is a separate process in the general circulation of commodities. The circulation of 'C and c, of capital-value and surplus-value, is differentiated after the transformation of C into M'. Hence it follows: First, by the realization on the commodity-capital in the process C — M', or C — (M+m), the courses of capital-value and surplus-value, which are united so long as they are both embodied in the same mass of commodities in C — M', are separated, for both of them henceforth appear in two independent sums of money.
Second, after this separation has taken place, m being spent as the income of the capitalist, while M continues its way as a functional form of capital-value in a course determined by this cycle, the movement C — M' in connection with the subsequent movements M — C and m — c, may be represented in the form of two different circulations, viz.: C__M — C and c — m — c, and both of these, so far as their general form is concerned, belong to the general circulation of commodities.
The Rotation of Productive Capital. 77