017-Part-2-Transformation-of-Money-into-Capital-Chapter-4-The-General-Formula-for-Capital

Part 2: Transformation of Money into Capital

货币转化为资本

Chapter 4: The General Formula for Capital

资本的总公式

The circulation of commodities is the starting-point of capital. The production
of commodities, their circulation, and that more developed form of their
circulation called commerce, these form the historical ground-work from which it
rises. The modern history of capital dates from the creation in the 16th century
of a world-embracing commerce and a world-embracing market.

商品流通是资本的起点。商品生产、发达的商品流通（即贸易），是资本产生的历史前提。资本的现代历史开始于16世纪世界贸易和世界市场的建立。

If we abstract from the material substance of the circulation of commodities,
that is, from the exchange of the various use-values, and consider only the
economic forms produced by this process of circulation, we find its final result
to be money: this final product of the circulation of commodities is the first
form in which capital appears.

如果撇开商品流通的物质内容，也就是不从交换使用价值的角度看，而只考虑这个流通过程的经济形式，就会发现，它的最终产物是货币：商品流通的这个最终产物就是资本呈现出的第一个形式。【随着历史的发展，资本还会呈现出其他形式】

As a matter of history, capital, as opposed to landed property, invariably takes
the form at first of money; it appears as moneyed wealth, as the capital of the
merchant and of the usurer. But we have no need to refer to the origin of
capital in order to discover that the first form of appearance of capital is
money. We can see it daily under our very eyes. All new capital, to commence
with, comes on the stage, that is, on the market, whether of commodities,
labour, or money, even in our days, in the shape of money that by a definite
process has to be transformed into capital.

历史上，与房地产不同，资本最初的形式都是货币。资本是商人和高利贷者的货币形式的财富。但我们不必回顾资本的起源，就可以发现，资本的最初形式是货币。这个历史每天都在重演。所有的新资本，最初仍然是作为货币出现在商品市场、劳动市场、货币市场上，经过一定的过程，转化为资本。

The first distinction we notice between money that is money only, and money that
is capital, is nothing more than a difference in their form of circulation.

单纯的货币和成为资本的货币，第一个区别就在于它们有不同的流通形式。

The simplest form of the circulation of commodities is C-M-C, the transformation
of commodities into money, and the change of the money back again into
commodities; or selling in order to buy. But alongside of this form we find
another specifically different form: M-C-M, the transformation of money into
commodities, and the change of commodities back again into money; or buying in
order to sell. Money that circulates in the latter manner is thereby transformed
into, becomes capital, and is already potentially capital.

商品流通的最简单形式是C-M-C，为买而卖。但我们发现另一个形式：M-C-M，为卖而买。在这个形式中流通的货币，就转化为资本了。

Now let us examine the circuit M-C-M a little closer. It consists, like the
other, of two antithetical phases. In the first phase, M-C, or the purchase, the
money is changed into a commodity. In the second phase, C-M, or the sale, the
commodity is changed back again into money. The combination of these two phases
constitutes the single movement whereby money is exchanged for a commodity, and
the same commodity is again exchanged for money; whereby a commodity is bought
in order to be sold, or, neglecting the distinction in form between buying and
selling, whereby a commodity is bought with money, and then money is bought with
a commodity. The result, in which the phases of the process vanish, is the
exchange of money for money, M-M. If I purchase 2,000 lbs. of cotton for £100,
and resell the 2,000 lbs. of cotton for £110, I have, in fact, exchanged £100
for £110, money for money.

现在我们来研究一下这个M-C-M的循环。它包含2个相对的阶段。第一个阶段M-C，即买，是把货币换为商品。第二个阶段C-M，即卖，是把商品换为货币。整个过程是货币和货币交换，G-G。如果我用200元买30斤棉花，又把这30斤棉花按220元卖出，结果就是我用200元交换220元，用货币交换货币。

Now it is evident that the circuit M-C-M would be absurd and without meaning if
the intention were to exchange by this means two equal sums of money, £100 for
£100. The miser’s plan would be far simpler and surer; he sticks to his £100
instead of exposing it to the dangers of circulation. And yet, whether the
merchant who has paid £100 for his cotton sells it for £110, or lets it go for
£100, or even £50, his money has, at all events, gone through a characteristic
and original movement, quite different in kind from that which it goes through
in the hands of the peasant who sells corn, and with the money thus set free
buys clothes. We have therefore to examine first the distinguishing
characteristics of the forms of the circuits M-C-M and C-M-C, and in doing this
the real difference that underlies the mere difference of form will reveal
itself.

Let us see, in the first place, what the two forms have in common.

Both circuits are resolvable into the same two antithetical phases, C-M, a sale,
and M-C, a purchase. In each of these phases the same material elements - a
commodity, and money, and the same economic dramatis personae, a buyer and a
seller - confront one another. Each circuit is the unity of the same two
antithetical phases, and in each case this unity is brought about by the
intervention of three contracting parties, of whom one only sells, another only
buys, while the third both buys and sells.

What, however, first and foremost distinguishes the circuit C-M-C from the
circuit M-C-M, is the inverted order of succession of the two phases. The simple
circulation of commodities begins with a sale and ends with a purchase, while
the circulation of money as capital begins with a purchase and ends with a sale.
In the one case both the starting-point and the goal are commodities, in the
other they are money. In the first form the movement is brought about by the
intervention of money, in the second by that of a commodity.

In the circulation C-M-C, the money is in the end converted into a commodity,
that serves as a use-value; it is spent once for all. In the inverted form,
M-C-M, on the contrary, the buyer lays out money in order that, as a seller, he
may recover money. By the purchase of his commodity he throws money into
circulation, in order to withdraw it again by the sale of the same commodity. He
lets the money go, but only with the sly intention of getting it back again. The
money, therefore, is not spent, it is merely advanced.

在C-M-C这个流通过程中，货币最终转化为商品，转化为使用价值，最终被花掉了。在M-C-M这个流通过程中，买家购买商品，将货币投入流通过程，是为了卖掉这个商品，收回货币。他交出货币的时候，就蓄意要拿回货币。货币不是被花掉了，只是被预付了。

In the circuit C-M-C, the same piece of money changes its place twice. The
seller gets it from the buyer and pays it away to another seller. The complete
circulation, which begins with the receipt, concludes with the payment, of money
for commodities. It is the very contrary in the circuit M-C-M. Here it is not
the piece of money that changes its place twice, but the commodity. The buyer
takes it from the hands of the seller and passes it into the hands of another
buyer. Just as in the simple circulation of commodities the double change of
place of the same piece of money effects its passage from one hand into another,
so here the double change of place of the same commodity brings about the reflux
of the money to its point of departure.

Such reflux is not dependent on the commodity being sold for more than was paid
for it. This circumstance influences only the amount of the money that comes
back. The reflux itself takes place, so soon as the purchased commodity is
resold, in other words, so soon as the circuit M-C-M is completed. We have here,
therefore, a palpable difference between the circulation of money as capital,
and its circulation as mere money.

The circuit C-M-C comes completely to an end, so soon as the money brought in by
the sale of one commodity is abstracted again by the purchase of another.

If, nevertheless, there follows a reflux of money to its starting-point, this
can only happen through a renewal or repetition of the operation. If I sell a
quarter of corn for £3, and with this £3 buy clothes, the money, so far as I am
concerned, is spent and done with. It belongs to the clothes merchant. If I now
sell a second quarter of corn, money indeed flows back to me, not however as a
sequel to the first transaction, but in consequence of its repetition. The money
again leaves me, so soon as I complete this second transaction by a fresh
purchase. Therefore, in the circuit C-M-C, the expenditure of money has nothing
to do with its reflux. On the other hand, in M-C-M, the reflux of the money is
conditioned by the very mode of its expenditure. Without this reflux, the
operation fails, or the process is interrupted and incomplete, owing to the
absence of its complementary and final phase, the sale.

The circuit C-M-C starts with one commodity, and finishes with another, which
falls out of circulation and into consumption. Consumption, the satisfaction of
wants, in one word, use-value, is its end and aim. The circuit M-C-M, on the
contrary, commences with money and ends with money. Its leading motive, and the
goal that attracts it, is therefore mere exchange-value.

C-M-C这个流通过程始于商品A，终于另一种商品B，然后商品B退出流通领域，进入消费领域。这个流通过程的目的是使用价值，是满足需求。M-C-M这个流通过程，始于货币终于货币。这个流通过程的目的只是交换价值本身。

In the simple circulation of commodities, the two extremes of the circuit have
the same economic form. They are both commodities, and commodities of equal
value. But they are also use-values differing in their qualities, as, for
example, corn and clothes. The exchange of products, of the different materials
in which the labour of society is embodied, forms here the basis of the
movement. It is otherwise in the circulation M-C-M, which at first sight appears
purposeless, because tautological. Both extremes have the same economic form.
They are both money, and therefore are not qualitatively different use-values;
for money is but the converted form of commodities, in which their particular
use-values vanish. To exchange £100 for cotton, and then this same cotton again
for £100, is merely a roundabout way of exchanging money for money, the same for
the same, and appears to be an operation just as purposeless as it is absurd.
One sum of money is distinguishable from another only by its amount. The
character and tendency of the process M-C-M, is therefore not due to any
qualitative difference between its extremes, both being money, but solely to
their quantitative difference. More money is withdrawn from circulation at the
finish than was thrown into it at the start. The cotton that was bought for £100
is perhaps resold for £100 + £10 or £110. The exact form of this process is
therefore M-C-M', where M' = M + D M = the original sum advanced, plus an
increment. This increment or excess over the original value I call
“surplus-value.” The value originally advanced, therefore, not only remains
intact while in circulation, but adds to itself a surplus-value or expands
itself. It is this movement that converts it into capital.

M-C-M左右都是货币，是性质相同的使用价值。用200元买30斤棉花，再按200元卖掉，是荒唐的，没有经济意义，没有实际内容。货币之间的差别，只能是数量方面的差别。从流通中拿回的货币，多于最初投入的货币，才是这个流通过程的完整表达。也就是说，这个流通过程的准确形式是M-C-M'，其中M'=M+ΔM，ΔM就是一个增加额。我将这个增加额称为“剩余价值”。【剩余价值，出现。】原来的货币额变成了增值了的货币额。就是这种运动，使得货币成为资本。【不断增值的货币，才是资本。】

Of course, it is also possible, that in C-M-C, the two extremes C-C, say corn
and clothes, may represent different quantities of value. The farmer may sell
his corn above its value, or may buy the clothes at less than their value. He
may, on the other hand, “be done” by the clothes merchant. Yet, in the form of
circulation now under consideration, such differences in value are purely
accidental. The fact that the corn and the clothes are equivalents, does not
deprive the process of all meaning, as it does in M-C-M. The equivalence of
their values is rather a necessary condition to its normal course.

The repetition or renewal of the act of selling in order to buy, is kept within
bounds by the very object it aims at, namely, consumption or the satisfaction of
definite wants, an aim that lies altogether outside the sphere of circulation.
But when we buy in order to sell, we, on the contrary, begin and end with the
same thing, money, exchange-value; and thereby the movement becomes
interminable. No doubt, M becomes M + D M, £100 become £110. But when viewed in
their qualitative aspect alone, £110 are the same as £100, namely money; and
considered quantitatively, £110 is, like £100, a sum of definite and limited
value. If now, the £110 be spent as money, they cease to play their part. They
are no longer capital. Withdrawn from circulation, they become petrified into a
hoard, and though they remained in that state till doomsday, not a single
farthing would accrue to them. If, then, the expansion of value is once aimed
at, there is just the same inducement to augment the value of the £110 as that
of the £100; for both are but limited expressions for exchange-value, and
therefore both have the same vocation to approach, by quantitative increase, as
near as possible to absolute wealth. Momentarily, indeed, the value originally
advanced, the £100 is distinguishable from the surplus-value of £10 that is
annexed to it during circulation; but the distinction vanishes immediately. At
the end of the process, we do not receive with one hand the original £100, and
with the other, the surplus-value of £10. We simply get a value of £110, which
is in exactly the same condition and fitness for commencing the expanding
process, as the original £100 was. Money ends the movement only to begin it
again. Therefore, the final result of every separate circuit, in which a
purchase and consequent sale are completed, forms of itself the starting-point
of a new circuit. The simple circulation of commodities - selling in order to
buy - is a means of carrying out a purpose unconnected with circulation, namely,
the appropriation of use-values, the satisfaction of wants. The circulation of
money as capital is, on the contrary, an end in itself, for the expansion of
value takes place only within this constantly renewed movement. The circulation
of capital has therefore no limits.

C-M-C的每次重复，都以满足一定的需求为最终目的。但在M-C-M中，开端和终点都是货币。因此，这个过程是永无止境的。【饭有吃饱的时候，钱没有赚完的时候。】货币一旦退出流通过程，就不再算是资本了。C-M-C的目的在流通之外，在于消费。M-C-M'的目的在流通之内，因为只有在这个不断更新的运动中才有Value的增加。因此，资本的运动是没有上限的。

As the conscious representative of this movement, the possessor of money becomes
a capitalist. His person, or rather his pocket, is the point from which the
money starts and to which it returns. The expansion of value, which is the
objective basis or main-spring of the circulation M-C-M, becomes his subjective
aim, and it is only in so far as the appropriation of ever more and more wealth
in the abstract becomes the sole motive of his operations, that he functions as
a capitalist, that is, as capital personified and endowed with consciousness and
a will. Use-values must therefore never be looked upon as the real aim of the
capitalist; neither must the profit on any single transaction. The restless
never-ending process of profit-making alone is what he aims at. This boundless
greed after riches, this passionate chase after exchange-value, is common to the
capitalist and the miser; but while the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad,
the capitalist is a rational miser. The never-ending augmentation of
exchange-value, which the miser strives after, by seeking to save his money from
circulation, is attained by the more acute capitalist, by constantly throwing it
afresh into circulation.

作为这个运动的有意识的承担者，货币所有者变成了资本家。使用价值不是资本家的直接目的。他的目的也不是取得一次利润，而是无休止地谋求利润。对财富无止境的贪婪，对交换价值的狂热追求，是资本家和守财奴的共同点。但守财奴只是发疯的资本家，资本家是理性的守财奴。守财奴通过将货币拯救出流通过程来追逐交换价值，资本家通过将货币不断投入流通过程来追逐交换价值。【save，既是“拯救”的意思，也是“储蓄”的意思。】

The independent form, i.e., the money-form, which the value of commodities
assumes in the case of simple circulation, serves only one purpose, namely,
their exchange, and vanishes in the final result of the movement. On the other
hand, in the circulation M-C-M, both the money and the commodity represent only
different modes of existence of value itself, the money its general mode, and
the commodity its particular, or, so to say, disguised mode. It is constantly
changing from one form to the other without thereby becoming lost, and thus
assumes an automatically active character. If now we take in turn each of the
two different forms which self-expanding value successively assumes in the
course of its life, we then arrive at these two propositions: Capital is money:
Capital is commodities. In truth, however, value is here the active factor in a
process, in which, while constantly assuming the form in turn of money and
commodities, it at the same time changes in magnitude, differentiates itself by
throwing off surplus-value from itself; the original value, in other words,
expands spontaneously. For the movement, in the course of which it adds
surplus-value, is its own movement, its expansion, therefore, is automatic
expansion. Because it is value, it has acquired the occult quality of being able
to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays
golden eggs.

货币成了能下金蛋的母鸡。

Value, therefore, being the active factor in such a process, and assuming at one
time the form of money, at another that of commodities, but through all these
changes preserving itself and expanding, it requires some independent form, by
means of which its identity may at any time be established. And this form it
possesses only in the shape of money. It is under the form of money that value
begins and ends, and begins again, every act of its own spontaneous generation.
It began by being £100, it is now £110, and so on. But the money itself is only
one of the two forms of value. Unless it takes the form of some commodity, it
does not become capital. There is here no antagonism, as in the case of
hoarding, between the money and commodities. The capitalist knows that all
commodities, however scurvy they may look, or however badly they may smell, are
in faith and in truth money, inwardly circumcised Jews, and what is more, a
wonderful means whereby out of money to make more money.

无论商品多么难看，多么难闻，资本家都知道，它们也是货币，是行过割礼的犹太人，是钱生钱的奇妙手段。

In simple circulation, C-M-C, the value of commodities attained at the most a
form independent of their use-values, i.e., the form of money; but that same
value now in the circulation M-C-M, or the circulation of capital, suddenly
presents itself as an independent substance, endowed with a motion of its own,
passing through a life-process of its own, in which money and commodities are
mere forms which it assumes and casts off in turn. Nay, more: instead of simply
representing the relations of commodities, it enters now, so to say, into
private relations with itself. It differentiates itself as original value from
itself as surplus-value; as the father differentiates himself from himself qua
the son, yet both are one and of one age: for only by the surplus-value of £10
does the £100 originally advanced become capital, and so soon as this takes
place, so soon as the son, and by the son, the father, is begotten, so soon does
their difference vanish, and they again become one, £110.

Value therefore now becomes value in process, money in process, and, as such,
capital. It comes out of circulation, enters into it again, preserves and
multiplies itself within its circuit, comes back out of it with expanded bulk,
and begins the same round ever afresh. M-M', money which begets money, such is
the description of Capital from the mouths of its first interpreters, the
Mercantilists.

Value现在成了过程中的Value，成了过程中的货币，成了资本。它离开流通过程，又进入流通过程，保存自己，增大自己，不断重复。资本的最初解释者——重商主义者，就是这样解释资本的。

Buying in order to sell, or, more accurately, buying in order to sell dearer,
M-C-M', appears certainly to be a form peculiar to one kind of capital alone,
namely, merchants’ capital. But industrial capital too is money, that is changed
into commodities, and by the sale of these commodities, is re-converted into
more money. The events that take place outside the sphere of circulation, in the
interval between the buying and selling, do not affect the form of this
movement. Lastly, in the case of interest-bearing capital, the circulation
M-C-M' appears abridged. We have its result without the intermediate stage, in
the form M-M', “en style lapidaire” so to say, money that is worth more money,
value that is greater than itself.

M-C-M'，显然是商业资本的运作形式。但工业资本也是这个形式。在流通过程之外发生的事，在买和卖的间隔中发生的事，不影响这个形式。最后，生息资本的形式简化为M-M'，货币值更多的货币。

M-C-M' is therefore in reality the general formula of capital as it appears
prima facie within the sphere of circulation.

因此，M-C-M'就是直接在流通领域内表现出来的资本的一般公式。