II. Accumulation and Reproduction on an Enlarged Scale
Part 3 - The Reproduction and Circulation of the Aggregate Social Capital 18. Introduction
19. Former Discussions of the Subject
III. Smith Resolves Exchange-Value into V Plus S
IV. The Constant Portion of Capital.
V. Capital and Revenue in Adam Smith
VI. The Economists after Smith
I. The Formulation of the Question.
II. The Two Departments of Social Production
III. The Transactions between the Two Departments
IV. Necessities of Life and Articles of Luxury
V. The Promotion of the Transactions by the Circulation of Money
VI. The Constant Capital of Department I
VII. Variable Capital and Surplus-Value in Both Departments
VIII. The Constant Capital in both Departments
IX. A Retrospect on Adam Smith, Storch, and Ramsay
XI. Reproduction of the Fixed Capital
XII. The Reproduction of the Money Supply
XIII. Destutt De Tracy's Theory of Reproduction
21. Accumulation and Reproduction on an Enlarged Scale
I. Accumulation in Department I
II. Accumulation in Department II
III. Diagrammatic Presentation of Accumulation
Part 1 -
The Metamorphoses of Capital and Their Cycles
1. The Circulation of Money-Capital
The circulation process1 of capital takes place in three stages, which, according to the presentation of the matter in Volume I, form the following series:
First stage: The capitalist appears as a buyer on the commodity and labor market; his money is transformed into commodities, or it goes through the circulation process M-C.
Second stage: Productive consumption of the purchased commodities by the capitalist. He acts in the capacity of a capitalist producer of commodities; his capital passes through the process of production. The result is a commodity of more value than that of the elements composing it.
Third stage: The capitalist returns to the market as a seller; his commodities are exchanged for money, or they pass through the circulation process C-M.
Hence the formula for the circulation process of money capital is: M-C...P...C'-M', the dots indicating the points where the process of circulation was interrupted, and C' and M' designating C and M increased by surplus value.
The first and third stages were discussed in Volume I only in so far as it was required for an understanding of the second stage, the process of production of capital. For this reason, the various forms which capital assumes in its different stages, and which it either retains or discards in the repetition of the circulation process, were not considered. These forms are now the first objects of our study.
In order to conceive of these forms in their purest state, we must first of all abstract from all factors which have nothing to do directly with the discarding or adopting of any of these forms. It is therefore taken for granted at this point that the commodities are sold at their value and that this takes place under the same conditions throughout. Abstraction is likewise made of any changes of
