Das Kapital III — Kap. 19

Kap. 19

Das Geldhandlungskapital als verselbständigte technische Funktion und seine naturwüchsige Entwicklung

The reader arrives from commercial capital: a part of industrial capital's commodity capital detaching itself, running its own circuit, taking a share of the surplus-value produced elsewhere, and forcing the general rate of profit to be reckoned on productive and commercial capital together. What then looks obvious — that money is where every business starts and ends — is wrong. This stretch settles what a second specialised capital does with money: the paying, collecting, book-keeping and hoard-keeping the class needs done, grounded in money's own functions, with credit held back. It settles that concentrating these operations abridges what they cost without turning the cost into a source. Where the money-dealer's own gain comes from is left open.

Die rein technischen Bewegungen, die das Geld durchmacht im Zirkulationsprozeß des industriellen Kapitals und, wie wir jetzt hinzusetzen können, des Warenhandlungskapitals (da dies einen Teil der Zirkulationsbewegung des industriellen Kapitals als seine eigne und eigentümliche Bewegung übernimmt) - diese Bewegungen, verselbständigt zur Funktion eines besondren Kapitals, das sie, und nur sie, als ihm eigentümliche Operationen ausübt, verwandeln dies Kapital in Geldhandlungskapital. Ein Teil des industriellen Kapitals, und näher auch des Warenhandlungskapitals, bestände nicht nur fortwährend in Geldform, als Geldkapital überhaupt, sondern als Geldkapital, das in diesen technischen Funktionen begriffen ist. Von dem Gesamtkapital sondert sich nun ab und verselbständigt sich ein bestimmter Teil in Form von Geldkapital, dessen kapitalistische Funktion ausschließlich darin besteht, für die gesamte Klasse der industriellen und kommerziellen Kapitalisten diese Operationen auszuführen. Wie beim Warenhandlungskapital trennt sich ein Teil des im Zirkulationsprozeß in der Gestalt von Geldkapital vorhandnen industriellen Kapitals ab und verrichtet diese Operationen des Reproduktionsprozesses für das gesamte übrige Kapital. Die Bewegungen dieses Geldkapitals sind also wiederum nur Bewegungen eines verselbständigten Teils des in seinem Reproduktionsprozeß begriffnen industriellen Kapitals.

money-dealing capital defined

Money goes through purely technical movements in the circulation process of industrial capital — and, we can now add, of commercial capital too, since that takes over part of industrial capital's circulation as its own peculiar movement. Set these movements loose and make them the job of one special capital, which carries them out and nothing else as its own operations, and that capital becomes money-dealing capital.

A part of industrial capital — and more closely, part of commercial capital as well — is present all the time not just in money form, as money capital in general, but as money capital caught up in these technical functions. Now a definite part of the total capital splits off and sets itself up on its own in the form of money capital, whose capitalist function is nothing but to perform these operations for the whole class of industrial and commercial capitalists. As with commercial capital, a part of the industrial capital that exists in the circulation process in the shape of money capital separates off and does these operations of the reproduction process for all the rest of the capital.

So the movements of this money capital are once again only the movements of a part of industrial capital that has been set loose on its own — industrial capital still in the middle of its reproduction process.

Nur wenn, und insoweit, Kapital neu angelegt wird - was auch der Fall bei der Akkumulation -, erscheint Kapital in Geldform als Ausgangspunkt und Endpunkt der Bewegung. Aber für jedes einmal in seinem Prozeß befindliche Kapital erscheint Ausgangspunkt wie Endpunkt nur als Durchgangspunkt. Soweit das industrielle Kapital, vom Austritt aus der Produktionssphäre bis zum Wiedereintritt in dieselbe, die Metamorphose W´ - G - W durchzumachen hat, ist, wie sich schon bei der einfachen Warenzirkulation zeigte, G in der Tat nur das Endresultat der einen Phase der Metamorphose, um der Ausgangspunkt der entgegengesetzten, sie ergänzenden zu sein. Und obgleich für das Handelskapital das W - G des industriellen Kapitals stets als G - W - G sich darstellt, so ist doch auch für es, sobald es einmal engagiert ist, der wirkliche Prozeß fortwährend W - G - W. Das Handelskapital macht aber gleichzeitig die Akte W - G und G - W durch. D.h., nicht nur ein Kapital befindet sich im Stadium W - G, während das andre sich im Stadium G - W befindet, sondern dasselbe Kapital kauft beständig und verkauft beständig gleichzeitig wegen der Kontinuität des Produktionsprozesses; es befindet sich fortwährend gleichzeitig in beiden Stadien. Während ein Teil desselben sich in Geld verwandelt, um sich später in Ware rückzuverwandeln, verwandelt der andre sich gleichzeitig in Ware, um sich in Geld rückzuverwandeln.

money a through-point, not a start

Only when capital is newly invested — and this includes accumulation — and only to that extent, does capital in money form show up as the starting-point and the end-point of the movement. But for any capital already inside its process, both the starting-point and the end-point show up only as points of passage.

In so far as industrial capital, from leaving the sphere of production until it re-enters it, has to go through the metamorphosis C' – M – C, then M really is — as was already shown for simple commodity circulation — only the end result of one phase of that metamorphosis, so as to be the starting-point of the opposite phase that completes it. And though for commercial capital the C – M of industrial capital always presents itself as M – C – M, still, as soon as it is actually engaged, the real process for it too is continually C – M – C.

But commercial capital goes through the acts C – M and M – C at the same time. That is: it is not merely that one capital is in the C – M stage while another is in the M – C stage — the same capital is constantly buying and constantly selling at the same time, because the production process is continuous; it is continually in both stages at once. While one part of it turns into money, so as later to turn back into commodities, another part at the same moment turns into commodities, so as later to turn back into money.

Ob das Geld hier als Zirkulationsmittel oder als Zahlungsmittel fungiert, hängt von der Form des Warenaustausches ab. In beiden Fällen hat der Kapitalist beständig an viele Personen Geld auszuzahlen und beständig von vielen Personen Geld in Zahlung zu empfangen. Diese bloß technische Operation des Geldzahlens und des Geldeinkassierens bildet Arbeit für sich, die, soweit das Geld als Zahlungsmittel fungiert, Bilanzberechnungen, Akte der Ausgleichung nötig macht. Diese Arbeit ist eine Zirkulationskost, keine wertschaffende Arbeit. Sie wird dadurch abgekürzt, daß sie von einer besondren Abteilung von Agenten oder Kapitalisten für die ganze übrige Kapitalistenklasse ausgeführt wird.

paying and collecting: a cost

Whether money acts here as means of circulation or as means of payment depends on the form the commodity exchange takes. Either way, the capitalist has money to pay out to many people all the time, and money to take in from many people all the time. This purely technical operation of paying money out and taking money in is work on its own account, and where money acts as means of payment it also makes it necessary to strike balances and settle them up. This work is a cost of circulation, not value-creating labour.

It gets shortened by being done for the whole rest of the capitalist class by a special department of agents or capitalists.

Ein bestimmter Teil des Kapitals muß beständig als Schatz, potentielles Geldkapital, vorhanden sein: Reserve von Kaufmitteln, Reserve von Zahlungsmitteln, unbeschäftigtes, in Geldform seiner Anwendung harrendes Kapital; und ein Teil des Kapitals strömt beständig in dieser Form zurück. Dies macht, außer Einkassieren, Zahlen und Buchhalten, Aufbewahrung des Schatzes nötig, was wieder eine besondre Operation ist. Es ist also in der Tat die beständige Auflösung des Schatzes in Zirkulationsmittel und Zahlungsmittel und seine Rückbildung aus im Verkauf erhaltnem Geld und fällig gewordner Zahlung; diese beständige Bewegung des als Geld existierenden Teils des Kapitals, getrennt von der Kapitalfunktion selbst, diese rein technische Operation ist es, die besondre Arbeit und Kosten verursacht - Zirkulationskosten.

hoards must be kept — a cost too

A definite portion of capital has to be on hand all the time as a hoard, as potential money capital: a reserve of means of purchase, a reserve of means of payment, capital lying idle in money form and waiting for its use. And one portion of capital is always flowing back in that form. Besides taking money in, paying it out and keeping the books, this makes it necessary to look after the hoard — which is again an operation of its own.

So it really is this: the hoard is constantly dissolving into means of circulation and means of payment, and constantly re-forming out of money received in sale and out of payments that have fallen due. It is this continual movement of the portion of capital that exists as money, separated off from the capital function itself, this purely technical operation, that gives rise to work and costs of its own — costs of circulation.

Die Teilung der Arbeit bringt es mit sich, daß diese technischen Operationen, die durch die Funktionen des Kapitals bedingt sind, soweit möglich für die ganze Kapitalistenklasse von einer Abteilung von Agenten oder Kapitalisten als ausschließliche Funktionen verrichtet werden oder sich in ihren Händen konzentrieren. Es ist hier, wie beim Kaufmannskapital, Teilung der Arbeit in doppeltem Sinn. Es wird besondres Geschäft, und weil es als besondres Geschäft für den Geldmechanismus der ganzen Klasse verrichtet wird, wird es konzentriert, auf großer Stufenleiter ausgeübt; und nun findet wieder Teilung der Arbeit innerhalb dieses besondern Geschäfts statt, sowohl durch Spaltung in verschiedne voneinander unabhängige Zweige, wie durch Ausbildung der Werkstatt innerhalb dieser Zweige (große Büros, zahlreiche Buchhalter und Kassierer, weitgetriebne Arbeitsteilung). Auszahlung des Geldes, Einkassierung, Ausgleichung der Bilanzen, Führung laufender Rechnungen, Aufbewahren des Geldes etc., getrennt von den Akten, wodurch diese technischen Operationen nötig werden, machen das in diesen Funktionen vorgeschoßne Kapital zum Geldhandlungskapital.

money-dealing capital: the money business branches off

Capital's functions require certain technical operations, and the division of labour sees them carried out - as far as it can be done - for the whole capitalist class by one particular division of agents or capitalists, whose exclusive functions they become; or else they end up concentrated in those hands. So there is a division of labour here in a double sense, exactly as with commercial capital. The work becomes a special business; and since it is done as a special business serving the monetary mechanism of the whole class, it grows concentrated and is run on a large scale. Within that special business the division of labour sets in again - branches that stand independent of one another, and inside each branch a developed workplace: large offices, numerous bookkeepers and cashiers, a highly developed division of labour. Paying money out, taking it in, settling balances, keeping current accounts, storage of money - take that whole set of operations in separation from the acts that make them necessary, and the capital advanced for them turns into money-dealing capital.

Die verschiednen Operationen, aus deren Verselbständigung zu besondren Geschäften der Geldhandel entspringt, ergeben sich aus den verschiednen Bestimmtheiten des Geldes selbst und aus seinen Funktionen, die also auch das Kapital in der Form von Geldkapital durchzumachen hat.

grounded in money's own functions

The various operations whose setting-up-on-their-own as special businesses gives rise to the money trade follow from the various characteristics of money itself and from its functions — which capital therefore also has to pass through in the form of money capital.

Ich habe früher darauf hingewiesen, wie das Geldwesen überhaupt sich ursprünglich entwickelt im Produktenaustausch zwischen verschiednen Gemeinwesen.⁴²

money arose between communities

Earlier I noted how the money system as a whole first emerged out of the exchange of products among separate communities.

Es entwickelt sich der Geldhandel, der Handel mit der Geldware, daher zunächst aus dem internationalen Verkehr. Sobald verschiedne Landesmünzen existieren, haben die Kaufleute, die in fremden Ländern einkaufen, ihre Landesmünze in die Lokalmünze umzusetzen und umgekehrt oder auch verschiedne Münzen gegen ungemünztes reines Silber oder Gold als Weltgeld. Daher das Wechselgeschäft, das als eine der naturwüchsigen Grundlagen des modernen Geldhandels zu betrachten ist.⁴³ Es entwickelten sich daraus Wechselbanken, wo Silber (oder Gold) als Weltgeld - jetzt als Bankgeld oder Handelsgeld - im Unterschied zur Kurantmünze fungieren. Das Wechselgeschäft, soweit es bloße Anweisung für Zahlung an Reisende von dem Wechsler eines Landes an andre, hat sich schon in Rom und Griechenland aus dem eigentlichen Wechslergeschäft entwickelt.

out of international trade: exchange

So dealing in money, trade in the money commodity, first develops out of international trade. Once different national coinages exist, merchants who buy in foreign countries have to turn their own national coin into the local coinage, and the other way round, or else turn various coins into uncoined pure silver or gold as world money.

Hence the exchange business, which is to be regarded as one of the spontaneous bases of the modern money trade. Out of it there developed exchange banks, where silver (or gold) functions as world money, now as bank money or commercial money, as distinct from currency. Exchange business in its narrow sense — no more than an order for payment to travellers, sent by a changer in one land to a changer in another — had already grown out of the actual money-changing trade in Rome and Greece.

Der Handel mit Gold und Silber als Waren (Rohstoffen zur Bereitung für Luxusartikel) bildet die naturwüchsige Basis des Barrenhandels (Bullion trade) oder des Handels, der die Funktionen des Geldes als Weltgeldes vermittelt. Diese Funktionen, wie früher erklärt (Buch I, Kap. III, 3, c), sind doppelt: Hin- und Herlaufen zwischen den verschiednen nationalen Zirkulationssphären zur Ausgleichung der internationalen Zahlungen und bei Wanderungen des Kapitals zum Verzinsen; daneben Bewegung, von den Produktionsquellen der Edelmetalle aus, über den Weltmarkt und Verteilung der Zufuhr unter die verschiednen nationalen Zirkulationssphären. In England fungierten noch während des größten Teils des 17. Jahrhunderts die Goldschmiede als Bankiers. Wie sich weiter die Ausgleichung der internationalen Zahlungen im Wechselhandel etc. entwickelt, lassen wir hier ganz außer acht, wie alles, was sich auf Geschäfte in Wertpapieren bezieht, kurz alle besondren Formen des Kreditwesens, das uns hier noch nichts angeht.

bullion trade and its boundary

Trade in gold and silver as commodities (raw material to be worked up into luxury articles) is the spontaneous basis of the bullion trade — the trade that mediates the functions of money as world money. Those functions, as explained earlier (Volume 1, Chapter 3, 3, c), are twofold: a running back and forth between the different national spheres of circulation to settle international payments and in the migration of capital lent at interest; and besides that, the movement outward from the sources where the precious metals are produced, across the world market, and the distribution of the supply among the different national spheres of circulation.

Through most of the seventeenth century the goldsmiths in England still served as bankers. How the settlement of international payments then develops further in the exchange business and so on, we leave entirely aside here — as we do everything to do with dealings in securities, in short all the specific forms of the credit system, which are not our concern yet.

Als Weltgeld streift das Landesgeld seinen lokalen Charakter ab; ein Landesgeld wird im andern ausgedrückt und so alle reduziert auf ihren Gehalt in Gold oder Silber, während diese letztren zugleich, als die beiden Waren, die als Weltgeld zirkulieren, auf ihr gegenseitiges Wertverhältnis zu reduzieren sind, das beständig wechselt. Diese Vermittlung macht der Geldhändler zu seinem besondren Geschäft. Wechslergeschäft und Barrenhandel sind so die ursprünglichsten Formen des Geldhandels und entspringen aus den doppelten Funktionen des Geldes: als Landesmünze und als Weltgeld.

two original forms, one double function

As world money, a country's money sheds its local stamp. One nation's money is stated in terms of another's, and in this way all of them are traced back to their gold or silver content; and these two metals, the commodities that circulate as world money, must at the same time be traced back to the value relation they bear to each other, a relation that is always shifting. The money-dealer makes this mediation his own special business. Money-changing and the bullion trade are thus the most original forms of the money trade, and they arise from money's double function: as national coin and as world money.

Kap. 19

Ergebnisse des kapitalistischen Produktionsprozesses: reine Form, keine eigne Zirkulationsform, Profit als Abzug

The reader arrives already holding money-dealing's definition: the technical movements of money payment, collection and hoard-keeping, separated off as a trade of their own. What was still open is where those movements come from, how far the trade reaches, and what its return really is. Here the sources are named in the production process itself, credit is set aside as a later matter, the bullion trade is folded back into commodity trade, and the trade's profit is fixed as a deduction from surplus-value already realized. The structural claim comes with them: unlike the trade in goods, this one has no form of circulation of its own.

Aus dem kapitalistischen Produktionsprozeß, wie aus dem Handel überhaupt, selbst bei vorkapitalistischer Produktionsweise, ergibt sich:

what follows from production and trade

Two things follow from the capitalist production process — and from trade in general, even where production is not yet capitalist:

Erstens, die Ansammlung des Geldes als Schatz, d.h. jetzt des Teils des Kapitals, der stets in Geldform vorhanden sein muß, als Reservefonds von Zahlungs- und Kaufmitteln. Dies ist die erste Form des Schatzes, wie er in der kapitalistischen Produktionsweise wiedererscheint und sich überhaupt bei Entwicklung des Handelskapitals wenigstens für dieses bildet. Beides gilt sowohl für die inländische wie die internationale Zirkulation. Dieser Schatz ist beständig fließend, ergießt sich beständig in die Zirkulation und kehrt beständig aus ihr zurück. Die zweite Form des Schatzes ist nun die von brachliegendem, augenblicklich unbeschäftigtem Kapital in Geldform, wozu auch neu akkumuliertes, noch nicht angelegtes Geldkapital gehört. Die Funktionen, die diese Schatzbildung als solche nötig macht, sind zunächst seine Aufbewahrung, Buchführung etc.

the two forms of the hoard

First, money piles up as a hoard. Here that means the part of capital that always has to be on hand in money form: the reserve fund of means of purchase and payment. This is the hoard's first form, the one that reappears under capitalist production and that forms in general as commercial capital develops, at least for commercial capital's own use. Both apply to circulation inside a country and to circulation between countries alike. This hoard is permanently in motion: it keeps pouring out into circulation and keeps coming back from it.

The hoard's second form is capital lying idle — capital in money form that for the moment has nothing to do. Newly accumulated money capital that has not yet been invested counts here too.

Forming the hoard as such brings its own jobs with it: keeping the money safe, keeping the books, and so on.

Zweitens aber ist damit verbunden Ausgeben des Geldes beim Kaufen, Einnehmen beim Verkaufen, Zahlen und Empfangen von Zahlungen, Ausgleichung der Zahlungen etc. Alles dies verrichtet der Geldhändler zunächst als einfacher Kassierer für die Kaufleute und industriellen Kapitalisten.⁴⁴

the money-dealer as cashier

Second, and bound up with that: money going out when you buy, coming in when you sell, paying and receiving payments, settling payments, and so on. The money-dealer does all of this at the outset as a plain cashier for merchants and industrial capitalists.

Vollständig entwickelt ist der Geldhandel, und dies immer auch schon in seinen ersten Anfängen, sobald mit seinen sonstigen Funktionen die des Leihens und Borgens und der Handel in Kredit sich verbindet. Darüber im folgenden Abschnitt, beim zinstragenden Kapital.

the boundary: credit deferred

Money-dealing is fully developed — and it is that already in its very first beginnings — as soon as lending and borrowing attach themselves to its other functions, and with them trade on credit. That is for the next Part, on interest-bearing capital.

Der Barrenhandel selbst, das Überführen von Gold oder Silber aus einem Land in das andre, ist nur das Resultat des Warenhandels, bestimmt durch den Wechselkurs, der den Stand der internationalen Zahlungen und des Zinsfußes auf verschiednen Märkten ausdrückt. Der Barrenhändler als solcher vermittelt nur Resultate.

bullion dealing only transmits results

The bullion trade itself — gold or silver moved from one country to another — is just a result of commodity trade. It is determined by the rate of exchange, which expresses where international payments stand and what the rate of interest is on the various markets. The dealer in bullion, as such, only passes results along.

Bei Betrachtung des Geldes, wie sich seine Bewegungen und Formbestimmheiten aus der einfachen Warenzirkulation entwickeln, hat man gesehn (Buch I, Kap. III), wie die Bewegung der Masse des als Kaufmittel und Zahlungsmittel zirkulierenden Geldes bestimmt ist durch die Warenmetamorphose, durch Umfang und Geschwindigkeit derselben, die, wie wir jetzt wissen, selbst nur ein Moment des gesamten Reproduktionsprozesses ist. Was die Beschaffung des Geldmaterials - Gold und Silber - von seinen Produktionsquellen angeht, so löst sie sich auf in unmittelbaren Warenaustausch, in Austausch von Gold und Silber als Ware gegen andre Ware, ist also selbst ebensosehr ein Moment des Warenaustausches wie die Beschaffung von Eisen oder andren Metallen. Was aber die Bewegung der edlen Metalle auf dem Weltmarkt angeht (wir sehn hier ab von dieser Bewegung, soweit sie leihweise Kapitalübertragung ausdrückt, eine Übertragung, die auch in der Form von Warenkapital vorgeht), so ist sie ganz so bestimmt durch den internationalen Warenaustausch, wie die Bewegung des Geldes als inländisches Kauf- und Zahlungsmittel durch den inländischen Warenaustausch. Die Aus- und Einwanderungen der edlen Metalle aus einer nationalen Zirkulationssphäre in die andre, soweit sie nur verursacht sind durch Entwertung von Landesmünze oder durch Doppelwährung, sind der Geldzirkulation als solcher fremd und bloße Korrektion willkürlich, von Staats wegen hervorgebrachter Abirrungen. Was endlich die Bildung von Schätzen angeht, soweit sie Reservefonds von Kauf- oder Zahlungsmitteln, sei es für innern oder auswärtigen Handel, darstellt, und ebenfalls soweit sie bloße Form von einstweilen brachliegendem Kapital ist, so ist sie beidemal nur ein notwendiger Niederschlag des Zirkulationsprozesses.

money movements follow commodity exchange

Money, its movements and the forms it takes, develops out of simple commodity circulation. Looking into that, we saw (Volume 1, Chapter 3) that how much money moves as means of purchase and as means of payment is fixed by the metamorphosis of commodities, by how big and how fast that is — and that this metamorphosis is itself, as we now know, only one moment of the reproduction process as a whole. As for getting hold of the money material, gold and silver, at its sources of production, that comes down to direct commodity exchange, gold and silver exchanging as a commodity against other commodities, so it is just as much a moment of commodity exchange as getting hold of iron or any other metal.

The movement of precious metals on the world market — we leave aside here whatever part of it expresses a transfer of loan capital, a transfer that also takes place in the form of commodity capital — is fixed by international commodity exchange in exactly the same way as, at home, the movement of money as means of buying and paying is fixed by commodity exchange at home. When precious metals leave one national sphere of circulation for another, and the cause is only that a national currency has lost value, or bi-metallism, that has nothing to do with monetary circulation as such; it merely corrects arbitrary deviations the state has brought about by decree.

Hoard formation, lastly — whether it is a reserve fund of means of purchase and payment, at home or abroad, or whether it is merely a form of temporarily idle capital — is in both cases only a necessary precipitate of the circulation process.

Wie die ganze Geldzirkulation in ihrem Umfang, ihren Formen und ihren Bewegungen bloßes Resultat der Warenzirkulation ist, die vom kapitalistischen Standpunkt aus selbst nur den Zirkulationsprozeß des Kapitals darstellt (und darin ist einbegriffen der Austausch von Kapital gegen Revenue und von Revenue gegen Revenue, soweit die Verausgabung von Revenue sich im Kleinhandel realisiert), so versteht es sich ganz von selbst, daß der Geldhandel nicht nur das bloße Resultat und die Erscheinungsweise der Warenzirkulation, die Geldzirkulation, vermittelt. Diese Geldzirkulation selbst, als ein Moment der Warenzirkulation, ist für ihn gegeben. Was er vermittelt, sind ihre technischen Operationen, die er konzentriert, abkürzt und vereinfacht. Der Geldhandel bildet nicht die Schätze, sondern liefert die technischen Mittel, um diese Schatzbildung, soweit sie freiwillig ist (also nicht Ausdruck von unbeschäftigtem Kapital oder von Störung des Reproduktionsprozesses), auf ihr ökonomisches Minimum zu reduzieren, indem die Reservefonds für Kauf- und Zahlungsmittel, wenn für die ganze Kapitalistenklasse verwaltet, nicht so groß zu sein brauchen, als wenn von jedem Kapitalisten besonders. Der Geldhandel kauft nicht die edlen Metalle, sondern vermittelt nur ihre Verteilung, sobald der Warenhandel sie gekauft hat. Der Geldhandel erleichtert die Ausgleichung der Bilanzen, soweit das Geld als Zahlungsmittel fungiert, und vermindert durch den künstlichen Mechanismus dieser Ausgleichungen die dazu erheischte Geldmasse; aber er bestimmt weder den Zusammenhang noch den Umfang der wechselseitigen Zahlungen. Die Wechsel und Schecks z.B., die in Banken und Clearing houses gegeneinander ausgetauscht werden, stellen ganz unabhängige Geschäfte dar, sind Resultate von gegebnen Operationen, und es handelt sich nur um beßre technische Ausgleichung dieser Resultate. Soweit das Geld als Kaufmittel zirkuliert, sind Umfang und Anzahl der Käufe und Verkäufe durchaus unabhängig vom Geldhandel.

mediation confined to technique

Money circulation as a whole — its volume, its forms, its movements — is a mere result of commodity circulation, and from the capitalist standpoint commodity circulation itself represents nothing but the process by which capital circulates (which includes the exchange of capital against revenue and of revenue against revenue, in so far as revenue is spent in retail trade). So it goes without saying that money-dealing mediates not merely this result and form of appearance of commodity circulation, the circulation of money. This money circulation itself, as one moment of commodity circulation, is given for money-dealing. What it mediates are the technical operations of that circulation, which it concentrates, shortens and simplifies.

Money-dealing does not create the hoards. It provides the technical means for forming them, so that hoard formation — where it is voluntary, that is, not the expression of idle capital or of a disturbance in the reproduction process — can be reduced to its economic minimum. The reserve fund of means of purchase and payment need not be as large when it is looked after for the whole capitalist class as when each capitalist has to keep his own.

Money-dealing does not buy the precious metals; it only mediates their distribution once commodity trade has bought them. It makes the settlement of balances easier wherever money works as a means of payment, and through the artificial mechanism it builds for these settlements it cuts down the quantity of money they need. But it fixes neither the relationship between these mutual payments nor their volume. Take the bills and cheques that banks and clearing houses swap among themselves: they come out of entirely independent businesses, they are the results of operations already carried out, and the only question is a better technical settlement of those results. And where money circulates as a means of purchase, how much and how often goods are bought and sold has nothing to do with money-dealing.

Er kann nur die technischen Operationen, die sie begleiten, verkürzen, und dadurch die Masse des zu ihrem Umschlag nötigen baren Geldes vermindern.

the saving: less ready cash

Money-dealing can only shorten the technical operations that go with these transactions, and in that way reduce the quantity of ready cash they need for their turnover.

Der Geldhandel in der reinen Form, worin wir ihn hier betrachten d.h. getrennt vom Kreditwesen, hat es also nur zu tun mit der Technik einer Moments der Warenzirkulation, nämlich der Geldzirkulation und den daraus entspringenden verschiednen Funktionen des Geldes.

the pure form, credit excluded

So the money trade, in the pure form of it that we take up here — kept apart, that is, from the credit system — has to do only with the technique of one moment of commodity circulation, namely money circulation and the various functions of money that spring from it.

Dies unterscheidet den Geldhandel wesentlich vom Warenhandel, der die Metamorphose der Ware und den Warenaustausch vermittelt oder selbst diesen Prozeß des Warenkapitals als Prozeß eines vom industriellen Kapital gesonderten Kapitals erscheinen läßt. Wenn daher das Warenhandlungskapital eine eigne Form der Zirkulation zeigt, G - W - G, wo die Ware zweimal die Stelle wechselt und dadurch das Geld zurückfließt, im Gegensatz zu W - G - W, wo das Geld zweimal die Hände wechselt und dadurch den Warenaustausch vermittelt, so kann keine solche besondre Form für das Geldhandlungskapital nachgewiesen werden.

no special circulation form

This is what fundamentally sets money-dealing apart from commodity trade. Commodity trade carries through the metamorphosis of the commodity and the exchange of commodities, or it lets this process of commodity capital appear as the process of a capital separated off from industrial capital. Commodity-dealing capital therefore shows a circulation form of its own, M–C–M, in which the commodity changes place twice and money thereby flows back — as against C–M–C, in which money changes hands twice and thereby mediates commodity exchange. Nothing like a special form of this kind can be exhibited for money-dealing capital.

Soweit Geldkapital in dieser technischen Vermittlung der Geldzirkulation von einer besondren Abteilung Kapitalisten vorgeschossen wird - ein Kapital, das auf verjüngtem Maßstab das Zusatzkapital vorstellt, das sich die Kaufleute und industriellen Kapitalisten sonst selbst zu diesen Zwecken vorschießen müßten -, ist die allgemeine Form des Kapitals G - G´ auch hier vorhanden. Durch Vorschuß von G wird G + DeltaG für den Vorschießer erzeugt. Aber die Vermittlung von G - G´ bezieht sich hier nicht auf die sachlichen, sondern nur auf die technischen Momente der Metamorphose.

capital's general form, but only technique

Where a special section of capitalists advances money capital for this technical mediation of money circulation — a capital that, on a reduced scale, stands in for the extra capital merchants and industrial capitalists would otherwise have to advance themselves for these purposes — capital's general form, M–M′, is present here too. Advancing M produces M + ΔM for the one who advances it. But the mediation of M–M′ here concerns not the material moments of the metamorphosis, only the technical ones.

Es ist augenscheinlich, daß die Masse des Geldkapitals, womit die Geldhändler zu tun haben, das in Zirkulation befindliche Geldkapital der Kaufleute und Industriellen ist und daß die Operationen, die sie vollziehn, nur die Operationen jener sind, die sie vermitteln.

whose money, whose operations

It is obvious that the money capital the money-dealers handle is the money capital of merchants and industrialists that is in circulation, and that the operations they perform are only those merchants' and industrialists' own operations — the dealers mediate them.

Es ist ebenso klar, daß ihr Profit nur ein Abzug vom Mehrwert ist, da sie nur mit schon realisierten Werten (selbst wenn nur in Form von Schuldforderungen realisiert) zu tun haben.

profit: a deduction from surplus-value

It is just as clear that their profit is nothing but a deduction from surplus-value, since the values they deal with are already realized — even where the only form of that realization is a claim to payment.

Wie bei dem Warenhandel findet hier Verdopplung der Funktion statt. Denn ein Teil der mit der Geldzirkulation verbundnen technischen Operationen muß von den Warenhändlern und Warenproduzenten selbst verrichtet werden.

duplication of functions again

As with commodity trade, the functions are duplicated here. For part of the technical operations bound up with money circulation has to be done by the dealers in commodities and by the producers themselves.

Kap. 19

Money-Dealing Capital as an Autonomous Technical Function, and Its Spontaneous Development

The purely technical movements that money undergoes in the circulation process of industrial capital, and, we can now add, also that of commodity-dealing, commercial capital (since this takes over part of the circulation movement of industrial capital as its own specific movement) — these movements, having acquired autonomy as the function of a special capital which practises them, and them alone, as its specific operations, transform this capital into money-dealing capital. A part of the industrial capital, and more directly also of the commercial capital, exists throughout not only in the money form, as money capital in general, but as money capital in the process of these technical functions. A definite part of the total capital now separates off and becomes autonomous in the form of money capital, its capitalist function consisting exclusively in that it performs these operations for the entire class of industrial and commercial capitalists. Just as, in the case of commercial capital, a part of the industrial capital present in the circulation process in the form of money capital separates off and performs these operations of the reproduction process for the whole of the remaining capital. The movements of this money capital are thus again simply movements of a now independent part of the industrial capital in the course of its reproduction process.

money-dealing capital defined

It is only where capital is newly invested — which is also the case with accumulation — that capital in its money form appears as the starting-point and finishing-point of the movement. For any capital that is already in its process, both starting-point and finishing-point appear as simply points of transition. In as much as industrial capital, between its emergence from the production sphere and its re-entry into it, has to undergo the metamorphosis C’-M-C, M is in fact, as was already shown in connection with simple commodity circulation, simply the end result of one phase in this metamorphosis, only to be the starting-point of its opposite, complementary phase. And even though, as far as commercial capital is concerned, the industrial capital’s C-M always presents itself as M-C-M, yet for it too, as soon as it is actually in operation, the actual process is also a continuous one of C-M-C. Commercial capital, however, goes through the acts C-M and M-C simultaneously. That is, it is not just that one capital is in the C-M stage while the other is in the stage M-C, but rather that the same capital is always buying and selling at the same time on account of the continuity of the production process; it is always in both stages simultaneously. While one part of the capital is being transformed into money, so as later to be transformed back into commodities, the other part is simultaneously being transformed into commodities, so as later to be transformed back into money.

money a through-point, not a start

Whether the money functions here as means of circulation or means of payment depends on the form of the commodity exchange. In both cases, the capitalist always has to make payments to many people and receive money in payment from many people. This merely technical operation of monetary payment and receipt itself constitutes work, and, in so far as the money functions as means of payment, it makes it necessary for accounts to be drawn up and balanced. This work is a cost of circulation and not value-creating labour. It is cut down by being undertaken for the capitalist class as a whole by a special department of agents or capitalists.

paying and collecting: a cost

It gets shortened by being done for the whole rest of the capitalist class by a special department of agents or capitalists.

A certain section of capital must always exist as a hoard, as potential money capital: a reserve of means of purchase and payment, of unoccupied capital in the money form, waiting to be utilized; part of the capital constantly returns in this form. On top of the taking-in and paying-out of money, and book-keeping, the hoard itself has to be looked after, which is again a special operation. In point of fact, the hoard is constantly dissolved into means of circulation and payment, and reformed from money received from sales and from payments falling due; and it is this constant movement of the section of capital that exists as money dissociated from the capital function itself, this purely technical operation, that gives rise to special work and costs — costs of circulation.

hoards must be kept — a cost too

The division of labour brings it about that these technical operations required by the functions of capital are performed as far as possible for the capitalist class as a whole by a particular division of agents or capitalists, as their exclusive functions, or are concentrated in their hands. There is here a double division of labour, just as with commercial capital. It becomes a special business, and because it is performed as a special business for the monetary mechanism of the entire class, it is concentrated and undertaken on a large scale; so that we find a further division of labour within this special business, both a division into various branches independent of one another, and the development of the workplace within these branches (large offices, numerous bookkeepers and cashiers, highly developed division of labour). The payment and receipt of money, settlement of balances, keeping of current accounts, storage of money, etc., in separation from the acts that make these technical operations necessary, make the capital advanced in these functions into money-dealing capital.

money-dealing capital: the money business branches off

The various operations whose achievement of an autonomous position as special businesses gives rise to the money trade arise out of the various characteristics of money itself and its functions, which capital therefore also has to perform in the form of money capital.

grounded in money's own functions

I have already indicated earlier how money in general developed originally in the exchange of products between different communities. ⁴²

money arose between communities

Earlier I noted how the money system as a whole first emerged out of the exchange of products among separate communities.

Dealing in money, therefore, i.e. trade in the money commodity, first develops out of international trade. As soon as various national coinages exist, merchants who buy abroad have to convert their own national coin into the local coinage and vice versa, or else convert coins of various kinds into uncoined pure silver or gold as world money. Hence the exchange business, which should be viewed as one of the spontaneous bases of the modern money trade. ⁴³ From this there developed exchange banks, in which silver (or gold) functions as world money — known as bank or commercial money — as distinct from currency. Exchange transactions, if only involving notes for payment to travellers from a money-changer in one country to one in another, were already developed in Rome and Greece out of the actual business of money-changing.

out of international trade: exchange

Trade in gold and silver as commodities (raw materials for the production of luxury goods) forms the spontaneous basis of the bullion trade, the trade that mediates the functions of money as world money. These functions, as previously explained (Volume 1, Chapter 3, 3, c), are of two kinds: circulation back and forth between the various national spheres of circulation, for the settlement of international payments, as well as the movement of capital lent at interest; and the movement from the sources of precious metal production across the world market, and distribution of this supply between the various national spheres of circulation. In England, goldsmiths still functioned as bankers for the greater part of the seventeenth century. We shall completely ignore for the moment the way that the settlement of international payments develops further in the exchange business, etc., together with everything related to dealings in securities, in short, all the specific forms of the credit system, which we are not yet concerned with here.

bullion trade and its boundary

As world money, national money discards its local character; one national money is expressed in another, and in this way they are all reduced to their gold or silver content. Since both these commodities circulate as world money, they have to be reduced in turn to their mutual value ratio, which is constantly changing. The money-dealer makes it his own special business to carry on this intermediary function. Money-changing and the bullion trade are thus the original forms of the money business and arise from the double function of money: as national coin and as world money.

two original forms, one double function

Kap. 19

Results of the Capitalist Production Process: the Pure Form, No Circulation Form of Its Own, Profit as a Deduction

The capitalist production process, and trade in general, even on the basis of pre-capitalist modes of production, lead to the following results.

what follows from production and trade

Two things follow from the capitalist production process — and from trade in general, even where production is not yet capitalist:

Firstly, the accumulation of money as a hoard, in this case as the section of capital that must always exist in the money form, as a reserve fund of means of purchase and payment. This is the first form of the hoard, as it reappears in the capitalist mode of production and generally comes into being with the development of commercial capital, at least for the use of this capital. In both cases this applies as much to international circulation as to domestic. This hoard is in constant flux, constantly spilling out into circulation and returning from it. The second form of the hoard is that of idle capital temporarily unoccupied in the money form, together with newly accumulated money capital that has not yet been invested. The functions that this hoard formation itself makes necessary start with its storage, book-keeping, etc.

the two forms of the hoard

The hoard's second form is capital lying idle — capital in money form that for the moment has nothing to do. Newly accumulated money capital that has not yet been invested counts here too.

Forming the hoard as such brings its own jobs with it: keeping the money safe, keeping the books, and so on.

Secondly, however, and linked with this, is the expenditure of money in buying, and its receipt from selling, paying and the receipt of payments, settlement of payments, etc. To start with, the money-dealer does all this as a simple cashier for merchants and industrial capitalists. ⁴⁴

the money-dealer as cashier

Money-dealing is fully developed, even if still in its first beginnings, as soon as the functions of lending and borrowing, and trade on credit, are combined with its other functions. We shall deal with this in the next Part, on interest-bearing capital.

the boundary: credit deferred

The bullion trade itself, the transfer of gold or silver from one country to another, is simply the result of commodity trade, determined by the rate of exchange, which expresses the state of international payments and the rate of interest in various markets. The bullion dealer as such only transmits the results.

bullion dealing only transmits results

In considering money and how its movements and formal characteristics develop out of simple commodity circulation, we saw (Volume 1, Chapter 3) that the movement of the quantities of money circulating as means of purchase and payment is determined by the volume and speed of the metamorphosis of commodities; and this metamorphosis, as we know now, is itself simply an aspect of the reproduction process as a whole. As far as obtaining the money material (gold and silver) from its source of production is concerned, this is reducible to direct commodity exchange, exchange of gold or silver as a commodity against other commodities, and is thus just as much an aspect of commodity exchange as obtaining iron or other metals. As far as the movement of precious metals on the world market is concerned, however (we ignore here such movements as express the transfer of loan capital, a transfer which also takes place in the form of commodity capital), this is as completely determined by international commodity exchange as the movement of money as a means of domestic purchase and payment is determined by domestic commodity exchange. The export and import of precious metals from one national sphere of circulation to another, in as much as this is caused simply by the devaluation of a national currency, or by bi-metallism, lies outside monetary circulation proper and is merely a correction of aberrations brought about by arbitrary state decrees. As far as the formation of hoards is concerned, finally, in so far as this represents a reserve fund of means of purchase and payment, whether for domestic or for foreign trade, and is also merely a form of temporarily idle capital, in both cases this formation is simply a necessary precipitate of the circulation process.

money movements follow commodity exchange

Monetary circulation as a whole is a mere resultant of commodity circulation, in its volume, its forms and its movements, and from the capitalist standpoint commodity circulation itself represents simply the circulation process of capital (including the exchange of capital for revenue and of revenue for revenue, in so far as the expenditure of revenue is realized in retail trade). In the same way, it is completely self-evident that money-dealing does not just mediate the mere result and form of appearance of commodity circulation, i.e. the circulation of money. This monetary circulation itself, as a moment of commodity circulation, is given in advance for money-dealing. The latter’s mediatory role is rather confined to the technical operations of monetary circulation, which it concentrates, reduces and simplifies. Money-dealing does not form hoards, but it supplies the technical means for hoard formation, in so far as this is voluntary (and not the expression of unoccupied capital or of a disturbance in the reproduction process), thus reducing it to its economic minimum; for the reserve fund of means of purchase and payment, if managed on behalf of the capitalist class as a whole, does not need to be so great as if each capitalist had to keep his fund separately. The money trade does not buy precious metals, but only mediates their distribution after the commodity trade has bought them. Money-dealing mediates the settlement of accounts, in so far as money functions as means of payment, and by the mechanism it creates for these settlements it reduces the quantity of money these require; but it determines neither the relationship nor the volume of these mutual payments. The bills and cheques, for example, which are exchanged for one another in banks and clearing houses derive from completely independent businesses and are the results of already given operations, so that all that is involved here is a better technical settlement of these results. In so far as money circulates as means of purchase, the volume and number of purchases and sales is completely independent of money-dealing. This can only abbreviate the technical operations that accompany these transactions and thereby also reduce the quantity of ready cash needed for their turnover.

mediation confined to technique

English joined this paragraph

the saving: less ready cash

Money-dealing can only shorten the technical operations that go with these transactions, and in that way reduce the quantity of ready cash they need for their turnover.

Money-dealing in the pure form in which we are considering it here, i.e. separate from the credit system, thus only bears on the technical side of one aspect of commodity circulation, i.e. monetary circulation and the various functions of money that arise from it.

the pure form, credit excluded

This distinguishes money-dealing quite fundamentally from dealing in commodities, which mediates the metamorphosis of commodities and commodity exchange, even though it allows this process of commodity capital to appear as the process of a special capital separate from industrial capital. If therefore commodity-dealing commercial capital displays a special form of circulation, M-C-M, where it is the commodity that changes place twice and brings about the reflux of money, as opposed to C-M-C, where it is money that changes hands twice and mediates commodity exchange, no such special form can be seen in the case of money-dealing capital.

no special circulation form

Where money capital is advanced by a special section of capitalists in this technical mediation of monetary circulation — this capital representing on a diminished scale the additional capital which the merchants and industrial capitalists would otherwise have to advance for this purpose themselves — there we also have the general form of capital M-M’. The advance of M means that the person advancing it receives M + ΔM. But the mediation between M and M’ involves only the technical aspects of the metamorphosis, and not its material aspects.

capital's general form, but only technique

It is clear enough that the mass of money capital which the money dealers operate with is the circulating money capital of the merchants and industrialists, and that the operations the money dealers perform are simply the operations of the merchants and industrialists, mediated by the former.

whose money, whose operations

It is equally clear that their profit is simply a deduction from surplus-value, since they are dealing only with values already realized (even if realized only in the form of claims for payment).

profit: a deduction from surplus-value

Just as with commodity trade, here too we find a duplication of functions. For one section of the technical operations connected with money circulation must be performed by the commodity dealers and producers themselves.

duplication of functions again