The emphasis is not on the self-expansion of value but on the money-form of this process, on the fact that more value in money-form is finally drawn out of the circulation than was originally advanced to it; hence on the multiplication of the mass of gold and silver belonging to the capitalist.
The so-called monetary system is merely an expression of the irrational form M---C---M', a movement which takes place exclusively in circulation and therefore can explain the two acts M---C and C---M' in no other way than as a sale of C above its value in the second act and therefore as C drawing more money out of the circulation than was put into it by its purchase. On the other hand M---C ... P ... C'---M', fixed as the exclusive form, constitutes the basis of the more highly developed mercantile system, in which not only the circulation of commodities but also their production appears as a necessary element.
The illusory character of M---C ... P ... C'---M' and the correspondingly illusory interpretation exists whenever this form is fixed as occurring once, not as fluent and ever renewed; hence whenever this form is considered not as one of the forms of the circuit but as its exclusive form. But it itself points toward other forms.
In the first place this entire circuit is premised on the capitalist character of the process of production, and therefore considers this process together with the specific social conditions brought about by it as the basis. M---C = M---C< L MP ; but M---L assumes the existence of the wage-labourer, and hence the means of production as part of productive capital. It assumes therefore that the process of labour and self-expansion, the process of production, is a function of capital.
In the second place, if M ... M' is repeated, the return to the money-form appears just as evanescent as the money-form in the first stage.
M---C disappears to make room for P. The constantly recurrent advance in the form of money and its constant return in the form of money appear merely as fleeting moments in the circuit.
In the third place _______________^_________________ / M---C ... P ... C'---M. M.---C ... P ... C'---M'.M---C ... P ...
etc. _________________v________________/ __________v________/Beginning with the second repetition of the circuit, the circuit P ...
C'---M'. M---C ... P appears before the second circuit of M is completed, and all subsequent circuits may thus be considered under the form of P... C'---M---C ... P, so that M---C, being the first phase of the first circuit, is merely the passing preparation for the constantly repeated circuit of the productive capital. And this indeed is so in the case of industrial capital invested for the first time in the form of money-capital.
On the other hand before the second circuit of P is completed, the first circuit, that of commodity-capital, C'---M'.M---C ... P ... C'
(abridged C' ... C') has already been made. Thus the first form already contains the other two, and the money-form thus disappears, so far as it is not merely an expression of value but an expression of value in the equivalent form, in money.
Finally, if we consider some newly invested individual capital describing for the first time the circuit M---C ... P ... C'---M', then M---C is the preparatory phase, the forerunner of the first process of production gone through by this individual capital. This phase M---C is consequently not presupposed but rather called for or necessitated by the process of production. But this applies only to this individual capital.
The general form of the circuit of industrial capital is the circuit of money-capital , whenever the capitalist mode of production is taken for granted, hence in social conditions determined by capitalist production.
Therefore the capitalist process of production is assumed as a pre-condition, if not in the first circuit of the money-capital of a newly invested industrial capital, then outside of it. The continuous existence of this process of production presupposes the constantly renewed circuit P ... P. Even in the first stage, M---C< L MP , this premise plays a part, for this assumes on the one hand the existence of the class of wage-labourers; and then, on the other, that which is M---C, the first stage, for the buyer of means of production, is C'---M' for their seller;hence C' presupposes commodity-capital, and thus the commodities themselves as a result of capitalist production, and thereby the function of productive capital.
NOTES
[1] From Manuscript II. -- F.E.
[2] ??????
[3] End of Manuscript VII. Beginning of Manuscript VI. -- F.E.
[4] End of Manuscript VI. Beginning of Manuscript V. -- F.E.
[5] This is true no matter how we separate capital-value and surplus-value. 10,000 lbs. of yarn contain 1,560 lbs., or £78 worth of surplus-value; likewise, one lb., or one shilling's worth of yarn, contains 2.496 ounces, or 1.872 pence worth, of surplus-value.
[6] A. Chuprov, Railroading , Moscow, 1875, pp. 69 and 70.
