Industrial capital. Lecture: Relationship of Securities to Major Forms of Capital Colonial Industrial Capital in Sub-Saharan Africa

The impact of our actions on total capital and working capital Total capital and working capital are two main characteristics, two most important indicators of the financial condition of a family. They reflect financial condition and the financial potential of the family - in general, in a big way,

FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

Russian State University

oil and gas them. I. M. Gubkina

department economic theory

Report

“Relationship of securities with the main forms of capital. Industrial capital and its functional forms. Trade and loan capital. Fictitious capital and its functions. »

Performed:

Art. gr. EU-06-2

Lazareva N. D.

Checked:

st.pr. Boreyko A.A.

Moscow, 2010

1. Industrial capital and its functional forms …………………....3

2. Trade capital ……………………………………………………...……….4

3. Loan capital………………………………………………………………..…6

4.Fictitious capital and its functions………………………………………………8

List of used literature………………………………………………...12

1. Industrial capital and its functional forms

First of all, let's define industrial capital- this is capital that successively goes through three phases in its movement (acquisition of means of production and hiring of labor, direct production and marketing of manufactured goods), is in the process of movement successively in three functional forms (monetary, productive and commodity), self-increasing in the end , while providing the owner of the capital with a profit within the average social.

money capital how the functional form of industrial capital has the well-known form of movement:

Motion commodity capital

can be represented as follows:

The name of the capital we are considering (industrial capital) can be interpreted in such a way that we are analyzing capital that operates only in the sphere of industrial production. But it's not. Thus, we first of all assert that the transition to industrial capital means the formation of industry proper as a sphere human activity, opposite and qualitatively different in comparison with handicraft production. On the other hand, we emphasize that the sphere of the actual production of value and surplus value becomes decisive in economic activity man (let us recall that there were periods of archaic capitalism, when usury capital dominated (Northern Italy of the 14th century) or merchant (commercial) capital (the Netherlands of the 16th century), however, in the first and second cases, there were no relations of hiring a worker as the dominant economic relations. forces for the production of real use-values).

The emergence of industrial capital is a qualitative leap taking place against the background of the transition to a three-link system of machines. The next qualitative leap in economic relations is the transition from industrial capital to monopoly capital and finance capital.

2. Trading capital

The development of the economic system is a well-known form of progress of the whole society. The development of the economic system is based on the growth of the productive power of labor through the use of more advanced means of production, the growth of skills, and the education of workers.

Growth The productive power of labor is most often manifested in the emergence (separation) of new independent activities, there is a process of deepening the division of social labor. At a certain stage in the development of human society, its economic organization, the economic system is allocated (separation) as an independent type of activity for the sale of manufactured goods. There are people who professionally, under the dominance of industrial capital, are engaged in the sale of products and bringing it to the final consumer.

Their capital (this is commercial capital as a separate part of industrial capital a) operates only in the sphere of circulation, engaging in those activities that we, referring to the process of circulation, did not associate with the production of value. Capital (and we also talked about this more than once) is a self-increasing value, the purpose of which is precisely self-expansion. The owners of capital, on the other hand, have as the main motive of their behavior the receipt of profit not lower than the average social one.

In this regard, we are faced with a formal-logical contradiction in the allocation of capital professionally engaged in the sale of goods. On the one hand, such capital operates only in the sphere of circulation, where value is not created (hence, self-expansion of capital cannot take place). On the other hand, such capital really exists, there are enough people who are engaged in this kind of activity (it is obvious that they would not do this without receiving anything in return, without appropriating some excess value over the costs they incurred, because the economy is still built on a rational basis for the realization of its own economic interests of its subjects).

Obviously, the capitalists we are considering (we will call them merchants) are engaged in the sale of goods and bringing them to the final consumer only because they ultimately make a profit, and this profit should not be lower than average. Otherwise, these capitals will look for another application for themselves, since the basic principle of investing capital (see above) is not implemented in this case.

Thus, we have obtained a situation where both industrial capital and isolated commercial capital are interested in dividing the acts of production of goods and their sale between different subjects (the total profit increases, and consequently, the rate of profit appropriated by both industrial and commercial capital increases).

The formula for the movement of trading capital as a separate part of industrial capital takes next view:

The industrial capitalist sells all his output to the commercial capitalist, who brings the product to the final consumer, incurring certain costs. The final price to the consumer is certainly higher than that at which the industrial capitalist sold his commodity. It compensates our commercial capitalist for the costs incurred by him and gives a profit within the limits of the average.

The allocation of independent capital, which is engaged in the sale of the produced goods, creates a new competitor. It is clear that from now on industrial and commercial capital will begin to fight for that part of the profit that each of them will receive in the end. However, the overall competitive environment allows us to say that both capitals will still receive profit within the limits of the average social one.

The bifurcation of the selling price into wholesale and retail creates two types of trade relations. Wholesale as subjects it has, on the one hand, the capitalists who produce the commodity, on the other hand, the capitalists who are engaged in its final realization. Retail trade, on the other hand, connects the merchant capitalist with the final consumer (this, as a rule, individual).

The emergence of two types of trade within the framework of a single act of selling manufactured products in conditions of deviation from competition creates a favorable environment for the emergence of numerous resellers, that is, between the manufacturer of the goods and the final buyer there is not one merchant capitalist, but several different resellers. The situation is quite typical for Russia, when the goods pass through several hands, claiming, of course, for a part of the “pie” of surplus value in the form of profit. The number of intermediaries reflects the situation in society, when the latter wins in the competition between industrial and commercial capital. The reason for this has already been noted - the distortion of competitive principles in the economy (let's add: in general, immaturity, unformed market relations and market institutions).

The processes of isolation of parts of industrial capital do not end with the separation of commercial capital as independent. At the next stage of development, the isolation of money capital takes place, which takes the form of loan capital.

3. Loan capital

The third functional form of industrial capital (in addition to productive and commodity capital) is money capital, which serves the process of changing value at the stages of acquiring means of production, hiring labor and marketing products. The process of progress of the productive forces, expressed in the growth of the productive power of labor, is usually accompanied by a deepening of the division of social labor, when new types of activities that were previously performed by other economic entities within the framework of undivided labor are singled out as independent ones (for example, the sale of products by the direct producer and the allocation of as an independent subject of trading capital, professionally engaged only in the sale of products, see above).

As the economic system develops, money capital emerges as an independent capital, which begins to operate professionally with money. However, it is worth noting that money appears to him as a result of the fact that in the process of circulation of industrial capital there is a temporary discrepancy between the acts of purchase and sale, sale and acquisition of means of production. As a result, temporarily free funds appear, which industrial capital transfers to entrepreneurs who professionally and more effectively manipulate the money belonging to the capitalists - producers of goods. They themselves, as a rule, cannot ensure high efficiency of data use. Money. All this leads to the formation of a layer of money (loan) capitalists.

Transactions with money capital differ from commodity-money transactions related to the acquisition of means of production, the hiring of labor and the sale of manufactured products. They inevitably take the form of a loan, when money itself becomes the specific object of purchase and sale. Let's explain this with the following example.

The industrial capitalist has 100 units of temporarily free cash. He lends them to a capitalist who deals professionally with money. Let us note that the industrial capitalist remains the owner of this money. It is obvious that our industrial capitalist will not give to someone for temporary use for free own funds. Thus, it turns out that he transfers money only if it is returned with an increment (why should not our capitalist himself use these 100 units as new capital, which can provide an increment equal to the average social profit?!).

What, then, is the reason for a capitalist who deals professionally with money to receive 100 units, if after some time he will have to return, for example, already 105 units? The simplest explanation is to use them in an area that can bring an increase in value greater than the 5 units that will have to be returned to the owner of the capital.

Thus, the economic interests of both subjects are realized: the industrial capitalist receives from the capitalist professionally operating with money 5 units for the temporary use of 100 units of his temporarily free funds, and the capitalist operating with money receives an increment as a result of a more efficient investment of these funds. , say equal to 12 cost units. This allows him to return 100 units on time, pay 5 units for using other people's money and make a profit equal to 7 units.

Described here the transaction is just a loan (another type of this kind of transaction (by the way, more common as loan capital is allocated as an independent one) is the relationship of an industrial capitalist, who, for example, does not have enough money of his own, with the owner of the money. In this case the industrial capitalist will return other people's money on time, and pay a certain amount for the use of other people's funds, and will receive an increase in his own capital by an amount equal to the difference between the average profit and payment for the temporary use of other people's money). AT this case there is a specific purchase and sale of such goods as money. The one in need of money actually buys it as capital4, which can bring a profit within the limits of the average, minus the payment for the temporary use of other people's money, which actually becomes the specific form of the price of such a commodity as money. In economics, this payment for the use of other people's money is called interest. It can be argued that interest is the price of money-capital.

It's obvious that money capital (loan) has a different formula of proper motion, namely

where M* > M', the difference between them is appropriated by industrial capital receiving the loan. However, for the owner of money, their movement is limited to the direct self-expansion of money, since the use of funds by the recipients of loan capitalists is not of interest.

It should be noted that the changes in capital that we are analyzing are much deeper than they might seem at first glance. There is a bifurcation of capital itself, each part of which claims its share of the surplus value (profit) created in the sphere of production. The owner of money capital (capital-property) receives his share in the form of interest. The capitalist (capital function) who uses money receives an entrepreneurial income equal to the difference between average profit and interest.

This division is absolute, comprehensive. If you do not borrow money, you receive both interest (as the owner of capital) and entrepreneurial income (as a functioning capitalist), i.e., not a part, but the entire average profit. The doubling of capital is, of course, also reflected in the average social profit, which now appears to us as the sum of the average social rate of interest and the average social entrepreneurial income. This division of the average profit is also absolute, all-encompassing.

Appearance loan capital required institutional consolidation of emerging changes. This was reflected in the formation and development of credit as a specific form in which a loan exists, and the banking system, when special enterprises appear that professionally operate with money, and to a greater extent use not their own, but other people's funds5.

The split of capital, in turn, could not but change the economic relations existing in society. The appearance of capital-property could not but create a new class of commodities - the titles of this very property.

4. Fictitious capital

Fictitious capital- (from lat. fictio - fiction, eng. fictitious capital) - capital that does not have intrinsic value, but generates income.
The concept of fictitious capital was formulated by the German economist K. Marx (1818-83) during the analysis of loan capital as a transformed form of money capital, the emergence of which is associated with the separation of capital-property from capital-function. The emergence of fictitious capital is due to the development of the credit system and financial intermediation as an independent field of activity. Unlike loan capital, the form of movement of which is credit, fictitious capital is the use of credit as capital.
K. Marx singled out several forms of fictitious capital. First of all, these are credit instruments of circulation issued by banks - a banker's bill and banknotes not backed by gold. By issuing credit through the issuance of "credit marks" that are not backed by any real value, banks turn them into "interest-bearing capital." To the extent that banking capital is formed by credit issue, it is fictitious. Another form of fictitious capital is "government debt capital" represented by bonds. government loan which bring their owners a certain income, although the amount of money loaned to the state not only does not function as real capital, but may have long been spent. At the same time, the bonds themselves continue to be the object of purchase and sale as titles of ownership, giving the right to receive income, thus functioning as securities. As soon as they cease to find buyers for themselves, "even the appearance of this capital" will disappear.
The next form of fictitious capital is capital represented in the shares of private companies formed in the form joint-stock companies. Being originally representatives of the real capital invested in real enterprises, they then receive an independent form of movement in the securities market as income-generating property titles, where they acquire a market value different from their nominal value. At the same time, an increase or decrease in the price of shares does not lead to an increase or decrease in share capital and is in no way connected with a change in the value of the real capital that they represent. This creates the illusion of their independent existence as real capital along with the capital of which they are titles. Every capital appears to be doubled and even tripled. The appearance of illusory forms of capital reinforces the idea of ​​capital as a value that grows automatically.
Thus, the development of fictitious capital, as a form of loan capital that has become isolated and has received independent movement, ultimately leads to the “swelling” of capital circulating in financial markets.
The interrelation and mutual transformations of loan and fictitious capital are carried out through the interaction of the loan capital market and the securities market, where the process of “flowing” of one capital into another takes place.
Fictitious capital is formed as a result of the fact that "debts become a commodity", that is, debt certificates of various kinds receive independent circulation on the securities market as a commodity-capital, the price of which is the capitalization of the income it brings and is regulated by the rate of loan interest.
The market value of fictitious capital is directly dependent on the amount of income it brings and inversely on the level of interest on loans. On change market value fictitious capital is affected by cyclical fluctuations in the economy, changes in the loan capital market, the state of the financial and credit system, as well as the scale of speculative transactions in the securities market. The gains and losses from fluctuations in the prices of these "paper duplicates of real capital" may also be the result of trading in the stock markets. Under the influence of constantly changing market conditions, fictitious capital is one of the most "sensitive" and unstable indicators of a market economy. Since the depreciation or appreciation of securities does not depend on the change in the value of the real capital that they represent, these processes do not lead to either a decrease or an increase in the national wealth of the country. They are reflected only in the state of solvency of their owners. Fictitious capital is used to redistribute financial resources according to changing market conditions.
Main development trend fictitious capital- the emergence of new types of securities that are "secondary", derivatives in relation to previously issued ones, for example, shares of investment companies, financial futures, options, warrants.
Peculiarity modern stage development of fictitious capital - the widespread use of so-called financial instruments, which include savings and investment certificates, bonds and other credit instruments of circulation. The new financial products of the securities market also include the securitization of debts of various companies, the state and the financial and credit institutions themselves. Investing in securities is an increasingly common form of capital accumulation in countries with developed market economies. This is accompanied by corresponding changes in the credit system, in its institutional and functional structure: along with banks, specialized financial and credit institutions engaged in investing in securities are actively developing.
In Russia, with the transition to market relations, there is also a gradual formation of fictitious capital in the form of government and corporate securities, which, by their economic nature, can arise from co-ownership relations (shares), credit relations (bonds, treasury bills) and payment turnover (bills of exchange, checks).
In modern foreign economic literature, the concept of fictitious capital is not used; the use of this term depends on the methodology of scientific analysis and approaches to understanding the categories of value and capital.

The appearance of joint-stock companies is the materialization of capital-property in the corresponding titles of ownership (shares, shares, etc.). However, this is only the outer side of the deeper changes that are taking place with capital. Another bifurcation of capital-property itself begins. Fictitious capital arises (a set of various titles of ownership), which separates itself from the real means of production (real capital).

Both fictitious capital and real capital now carry out their own movement within the framework of the economic system. If real capital in its movement does not undergo changes in comparison with the movement of industrial capital we have described, then fictitious capital in its movement can "inflate" and "shrink", regardless of the size of real capital, which is represented by specific titles of property.

In a market economy, the term “company capitalization” is well known. It's about about how much all the common shares of a given firm are currently worth on the market. This is a very mobile value, the size of which is influenced by a variety of circumstances, both economic and non-economic.

The movement of real capital is the movement of real inventory items. The movement of fictitious capital is only the movement of property titles representing the given real capital. They themselves become specific goods, and as a result, a corresponding market arises - the securities market.

Strictly speaking, the securities market is wider than the market of only titles of property, since at some stage of development, not only titles of ownership of real capital, but also titles of ownership of money capital transferred on loan become commodities.

Bibliography:

1. Akulov V.B., Akulova O.V. Economic theory. Tutorial. Petrozavodsk: PetrGU, 2002.

2. Krasavinoy LN Money circulation and credit of capitalist countries. M., "Finance", 2005.

3. Galanova V.A., Basova A.I. Stocks and bods market. M., Finance and statistics. 1998.

The condition for the existence of the capitalist mode of production is the developed circulation of commodities, that is, the exchange of commodities through money. Capitalist production is inextricably linked with circulation.

Each individual capital begins its life path in the form of a certain amount of money, it acts as money capital. With money, the capitalist buys goods of a certain kind: 1) means of production and 2) labor power. This act of conversion can be depicted as follows:

Here D means money T- product, R- labor force and sp- means of production. As a result of this change in the form of capital, its owner receives at his disposal everything that is necessary for production. Previously, he had capital in the form of money, now he has capital of the same amount, but already in the form productive capital.

That is, first stage in the movement of capital consists in the transformation of money capital into productive capital.

After that, the production process begins, in which production consumption goods bought by the capitalist. It is expressed in the fact that workers expend their labor, raw materials are processed, fuel is burned, machines wear out. Capital again changes its form: as a result of the production process, the advanced capital is embodied in a certain mass of commodities, it takes the form commodity capital. However, in the first place, these are no longer the commodities that the capitalist bought when he got down to business; secondly, the value of this mass of commodities is higher than the original value of capital, because it contains the surplus value produced by the workers.

This stage in the movement of capital can be depicted thus:

Here is a letter P means production, the dots before and after this letter show that the process of circulation is interrupted and the process of production is taking place, and T means capital in the form of commodities, the value of which has increased as a result of the appropriation of surplus value by the capitalist.

That is, second stage in the movement of capital consists in the transformation of productive capital into commodity capital.

The movement of capital does not stop there. The goods produced must be sold. In exchange for the goods sold, the capitalist receives a certain amount of money.

This act of conversion can be depicted as follows:

Capital changes its form for the third time: it again assumes the form of money-capital. After that, its owner has a larger amount of money than it was at the beginning. The goal of capitalist production, which is to extract surplus value, has been achieved.

That is, third stage in the movement of capital consists in the transformation of commodity-capital into money-capital. Having received money for the sold commodity, the capitalist uses it again to buy the means of production and labor power necessary for further production, and the whole process resumes again.

These are the three stages through which capital passes successively in its movement. In each of these stages, capital performs a corresponding function. The transformation of money-capital into elements of productive capital ensures the combination of the means of production belonging to the capitalists with labor force hired workers; without such a connection, the production process cannot take place. The function of productive capital consists in the creation by the labor of hired workers of a mass of commodities, of new value, and, consequently, of surplus value. The function of commodity-capital is, by selling the produced mass of commodities, firstly, to return to the capitalist in money form the capital advanced by him for production, and, secondly, to realize in money form the surplus-value created in the process of production.

These three stages pass in its motion industrial capital. Industrial capital in this case is understood to be any capital used for the production of commodities, regardless of whether we are talking about industry or agriculture. “Industrial capital is the only form of existence of capital in which the function of capital is not only the appropriation of surplus value or surplus product, but also their creation. Therefore, it is industrial capital that determines the capitalist character of production; the existence of industrial capital includes a class contradiction between capitalists and wage-workers.

Consequently, every industrial capital moves in the form of a circuit.

Circulation of capital called the successive transformation of capital from one form to another, its movement, covering three stages. Of these stages, the first and third take place in the sphere of circulation, and the second in the sphere of production. Without circulation, that is, without the transformation of commodities into money and the reverse transformation of money into commodities, capitalist reproduction, that is, the constant renewal of the production process, is unthinkable.

The circulation of capital as a whole can be represented as follows:

All three stages of the circulation of capital are closely related and depend on each other. The circulation of capital proceeds normally only under the condition that its various phases pass without delay into one another.

If capital lingers in the first stage, this means the aimless existence of money capital. If the delay occurs at the second stage, then this means that the means of production lie in vain and labor power remains without the use. If capital encounters a delay in the third stage, then unsold goods accumulate in warehouses and overwhelm the channels of circulation.

Of decisive importance in the circuit of industrial capital is the second stage, when it is in the form of productive capital; at this stage there is the production of goods, value and surplus value. In the other two stages, however, value and surplus value are not created; there is only a change in the forms of capital.

The three stages of the circulation of capital correspond to three forms of industrial capital: 1) money capital, 2) productive capital, and 3) commodity capital.

Each capital exists simultaneously in all three forms: while one of its parts is money-capital, which is being transformed into productive capital, another part is productive capital, which is being transformed into commodity capital, and the third part is commodity-capital, which is being transformed into money capital. Each of these parts in turn assumes and discards all these three forms one by one. This is the case not only with all capital taken separately, but also with all capitals taken together, or, in other words, with the total social capital. Therefore, Marx points out, capital can only be understood as movement, and not as a thing at rest.

This already has the possibility separate existence three forms of capital. It will be shown later how trading capital and loan capital are separated from the capital employed in production. The existence of various groups of the bourgeoisie - industrialists, merchants, bankers - is based on this separation, among which the distribution of surplus value takes place.

Turnover of capital. Production time and circulation time.

Each capital makes a circuit continuously, constantly repeating it. Thus, the capital makes its turn.

Capital turnover called its circuit, taken not as a single act, but as a periodically renewed and repeated process. Turnover time capital is the sum of production time and circulation time. In other words, the time of turnover is the interval of time from the moment when capital is advanced in a certain form until the moment when capital returns to the capitalist in the same form, but increased by the amount of surplus-value.

Production time is the time during which capital is in the sphere of production. The most important part of the production time is working period, during which the processed object is directly exposed to labor. The working period depends on the nature of the given branch of production, the level of technology at a given enterprise, and on other conditions. For example, in a spinning factory it takes only a few days to turn a certain amount of cotton into yarn ready for sale, and in a steam locomotive plant, the production of each steam locomotive requires the expenditure of many tens of days of labor of a large number of workers.

The production time is usually longer than the working period. It also includes breaks in processing, during which the object of labor is exposed to certain natural processes, such as the fermentation of wine, the tanning of leather, the growth of wheat, etc. With the development of technology, the time of many such processes is reduced.

Turnaround time is the time during which capital is transformed from a money form into a productive one and from a commodity form into a money form. The duration of circulation depends on the conditions for the purchase of means of production and the sale of finished goods, on the proximity of the market, and on the degree of development of means of transport and communication.

Fixed and working capital.

Different parts of productive capital are not turned over in the same way. The difference in the turnover of the individual parts of productive capital results from the difference in the manner in which each of them transfers its value to the product. Depending on this, the capital is divided into fixed and circulating.

fixed capital That part of productive capital is called which, taking a full part in production, transfers its value to the product not all at once, but in parts, over a number of periods of production. This is part of the capital spent on the construction of buildings and structures, on the purchase of machinery and equipment.

Fixed capital is advanced by the capitalist at once for the entire period of its operation, but its value is returned to the capitalist in the form of money in installments. The elements of fixed capital serve the purposes of production, usually for many years; they wear out to a certain extent every year and eventually turn out to be unsuitable for further use. This is physical deterioration machines, equipment.

Along with physical wear and tear, tools of production are also subject to moral deterioration. A machine that has served for 5 to 10 years may still be strong enough, but if by this time another, more advanced, more productive or cheaper machine of the same kind has been created, this leads to the depreciation of the old machine. Therefore, the capitalist is interested in making full use of the equipment in the shortest possible time. Hence the striving of the capitalists to lengthen the working day, to intensify labor, to operate enterprises in several shifts without interruption.

working capital called that part of productive capital, the value of which is completely transferred to the commodity during one period of production and wholly returns to the capitalist in the form of money (with the addition of surplus value) when the commodity is sold. This is the part of the capital expended on the purchase of labor power, raw materials, fuel and auxiliary materials, that is, those means of production that are not part of fixed capital, and, as was said, the capitalist returns the cost of buying labor power in excess.

During the time when the fixed capital makes only one turnover, the circulating capital manages to make many revolutions.

Having sold a commodity, the capitalist earns a certain amount of money, which contains: 1) the value of that part of the fixed capital transferred to the commodity in the process of production, 2) the value of circulating capital, 3) surplus value. In order to continue production, the capitalist again uses the proceeds, corresponding to circulating capital, to hire workers, to purchase raw materials, fuel, and auxiliary materials. The capitalist uses the amount corresponding to the part of the value of fixed capital transferred to the commodity to compensate for the wear and tear of machines, machine tools, buildings, that is, for the purpose of depreciation.

Depreciation there is a gradual replacement in monetary form of the value of the fixed capital by means of periodic deductions corresponding to its wear and tear. Part of the depreciation deductions is spent on major repairs, that is, on the partial replacement of worn-out equipment, tools, industrial buildings, etc. The main part of the depreciation deductions is kept by the capitalists in cash (usually in banks) in order to, when necessary, buy new machines instead of old ones or build new buildings instead of those that have fallen into disrepair.

Marxist political economy distinguishes the division of capital into fixed and circulating capital from the division of capital into fixed and variable. Fixed and variable capital differ from each other in the role they play in the exploitation of workers by the capitalists, while fixed and circulating capital differ in the nature of their turnover.

These two ways of dividing capital can be depicted as follows:

Bourgeois political economy recognizes only the division of capital into fixed and circulating capital, since this division of capital does not in itself show the role of labor power in the creation of surplus value, but, on the contrary, obscures the fundamental difference between the costs of the capitalist for hiring labor power and the costs of raw materials, fuel and etc.

Annual rate of surplus value. Ways to accelerate the turnover of capital.

With a given value of variable capital, the rate of turnover of capital influences the size of the surplus value squeezed out of the workers by the capitalist in a year.

Let us take two capitals, each of which has a variable part equal to 25 thousand dollars, and the rate of surplus value is 100%. Assume that one of them turns over once a year, and the other two times a year. This means that the owner of the second capital, having the same amount of money, can hire and exploit twice as many workers during the year as the owner of the first. Therefore, by the end of the year, the results for both capitalists will be different. The first of them will receive 25 thousand dollars of surplus value for the year, and the second - 50 thousand dollars.

Annual rate of surplus value called the ratio of the produced per year masses of surplus-value to the advanced variable capital. In our example, the annual rate of surplus value, expressed as a percentage, for the first capitalist is

25,000/25,000 = 100%, while the second has 50,000/25,000 = 200%.

From this it is clear that the capitalists are interested in accelerating the turnover of capital, since this acceleration enables them to obtain the same amount of surplus-value with less capital, or with the same capital, to obtain a greater amount of surplus-value. The rate of capital turnover also affects the amount of that part of working capital that is advanced for the purchase of raw materials, fuel, and auxiliary materials.

Marx showed that by itself the acceleration of the circulation of capital does not create an atom of new value. A faster turnover of capital and a faster realization in money form of the surplus value created in a given year only makes it possible for the capitalists, with the same amount of capital, to hire large quantity workers whose labor creates a large mass of surplus value in a year.

As we have seen, the turnover time of capital consists of the time of production and the time of circulation. The capitalist seeks to shorten the duration of both.

The working period necessary for the production of commodities shortens with the development of the productive forces, with the growth of technology. For example, modern methods of smelting iron and steel speed up the processes many times over compared to the methods that were used 100-150 years ago. Progress in the organization of production, for example, the transition to serial or mass production, also yields significant results.

Breaks in processing, which are part of the time of production beyond the working period, are also in many cases reduced with the development of technology. Thus, the process of tanning leather used to take weeks, but now, thanks to the use of the latest chemical methods, it requires only a few hours. In a number of industries, catalysts are widely used - substances that accelerate the course of chemical processes.

In order to accelerate the turnover of capital, the entrepreneur also resorts to lengthening the working day and to the intensification of labor. If with a 10-hour working day the working period is 24 days, then the lengthening of the working day to 12 hours reduces the working period to 20 days and accordingly accelerates the turnover of capital. The same result is produced by the intensification of labor, in which the worker expends as much energy in 60 minutes as he used to expend in, say, 72 minutes.

Further, the capitalists strive to accelerate the turnover of capital by shortening the circulation time of capital. The possibility of such a reduction is created by the development of transport, post, telegraph, the best organization trade. But the shortening of circulation time is counteracted, firstly, by the extremely irrational distribution of production in the capitalist world, which causes the transportation of goods over vast distances, and, secondly, by the intensification of capitalist competition and the growing difficulties of marketing.

Together with the circulating capital, the surplus value created during the given period passes through circulation. The shorter the turnover time of capital, the faster the surplus value created by the workers is realized in money form and the sooner it can be used to expand production.

SUMMARY

1 . Each individual industrial capital moves incessantly in the form of a circuit consisting of three stages. These three stages correspond to three forms of industrial capital. – monetary, productive and commodity, differing in their functions.

2. The circulation of capital, taken not as a separate act, but as a periodically renewed process, is called the circulation of capital. The turnover time of capital is the sum of the time of production and the time of circulation. The most important part of the production time is the working period.

3. Each productive capital is divided into two parts, differing in the nature of the turnover: fixed capital and circulating capital. Fixed capital is that part of productive capital, the value of which is transferred to the commodity not all at once, but in parts over a number of periods of production. Circulating capital is that part of productive capital, the value of which is wholly transferred to a commodity during one period of production and wholly returned to the capitalist when the commodity is sold.

4. The acceleration of the turnover of capital makes it possible for capitalists with the same capital to complete a greater number of turnovers in the course of a year and, consequently, to hire a greater number of workers who will produce a greater mass of surplus-value. The capitalists strive to accelerate the turnover of capital both by improving technology and, in particular, by intensifying the exploitation of workers. – lengthening of the working day and intensification of labor.