What Is Business Capital?

Commercial capital, also known as "merchant capital", refers to capital that specializes in buying and selling commodities in the field of circulation for the purpose of obtaining commercial profits. Capitalist commercial capital is an independent capital that is separated from the industrial capital movement and performs the function of commodity capital. The independence of commodity capital into commercial capital must meet two conditions: first, a special social division of labor has been formed between commercial capitalists and industrial capitalists, and commercial capitalists independently conduct commodity sales activities; People must have their own independent investment, and business capital must have its own independent form of circulation. ^[1]

[shng yè z bn]

Commercial capital generally refers to the capital that specializes in the purchase and sale of commodities (commodity operating capital), and also includes the capital that specializes in the business of currency receipts and payments, exchange, registration, and custody (

From the perspective of its existence in the movement, commercial capital is divided into two parts: one is used to buy and sell goods, and the other is used to circulate expenses. This part of the capital used to purchase goods starts with prepaid monetary capital and is then converted into commodity capital. In order to make the turnover uninterrupted, this part of the capital is not a one-time purchase of all its own value, but not a sale, and then Sell all at once instead of buying; instead, buy in batches and sell at the same time. In this way, the capital directly invested in the purchase and sale of commodities exists in two forms--monetary capital and commodity capital. If B is used to represent this part of capital, the amount of this part of capital is inversely proportional to its own turnover rate under the condition that the annual sales volume of the commodity is unchanged. The portion of capital used for circulation expenses is divided into two categories.

Productive distribution costs

As a component of the value of the commodity, it is compensated by the value realized by the commodity. If the activities of transportation and storage are also completely independent, these activities are completely separated from the business of the merchants, and the fees paid by the merchants to the transport operators and warehouse operators seem to be paid in advance by the merchants when purchasing goods. Therefore, for the merchants, , They will add the purchase price. In other words, the productive circulation costs can actually be regarded as the part of capital directly invested in the purchase and sale of commodities (ie B).

Cost of Realizing Product Value

The cost of buying and selling goods, which is purely for the transformation of value forms (money into goods, goods into money), does not create value. From the perspective of the general movement of social capital, pure circulation costs can only be compensated by surplus value. If there are no businessmen, the industrial capitalist will have to distribute the goods himself, pay the circulation costs for this, and pay in advance as capital. When a portion of the circulation costs is converted into business expenses paid by the merchant, it is still prepaid as capital. As long as the merchant's capital is limited to the necessary limit, the difference is only that, because the functions of industrial capital and commercial capital are different, the circulation costs will be socialized, and this cost will be saved.

Commercial capital is an independent form of capital that is separated from industrial capital, exerts its capital function independently, and specializes in the purchase and sale of commodities in the field of circulation for the purpose of obtaining commercial profits. In the early days of capitalism, due to the small scale of production and the small market, industrial capital generally produced and sold itself. With the development of production and the expansion of the market, it is becoming more and more difficult for industrial capital to produce and sell itself. Objectively, it is required to separate the business of selling commodities and leave it to a specialized capitalist, namely a commercial capitalist.

The function performed by commercial capital is the function of commodity capital, that is, the realization of the value and surplus value contained in commodities through the sale of commodities. The business capital movement formula is: GWG .

The existence of commercial capital is conducive to improving the economic benefits of industrial capitalists. Commercial capital plays an important role in increasing industrial profits.

The existence of commercial capital is conducive to improving the economic benefits of industrial capitalists. Commercial capital frees industrial capitalists from the sale of commodities and can concentrate their energy on commodity production activities, thereby increasing economic efficiency and increasing total profits.

The existence of commercial capital is conducive to saving circulating capital. Commercial capitalists can concentrate business activities, and the turnover of commercial capital is faster than industrial capital. This reduces the capital used in the circulation process of the total social capital and increases the capital in the production process, which is conducive to the development of production and the Increase in profits.

The activity of commercial capital can accelerate the turnover of industrial capital. Commercial capital accelerates the conversion of commodity capital into monetary capital, thereby accelerating the turnover of industrial capital. At the same time, due to the concentration of commercial capital, its one turnover can not only represent the turnover of many capitals in one production sector, but also represent different production sectors. Turnover of certain capitals, thereby accelerating the turnover of industrial capital.

The activities of commercial capital can shorten the circulation time. Commercial capitalists specialize in the buying and selling of commodities, and are familiar with market conditions, circulation channels, and commodity prices, so they can accelerate the circulation of commodities and shorten the circulation time.

Commercial and Industrial Capital

Under the capitalist mode of production, commercial capital is subordinated to

In the industrial capital cycle, the circulating capital with the function of realizing surplus value has participated in the averaging of the profit rate together with the production capital to obtain the average profit. The independence of a portion of circulating capital into commercial capital will reduce industrial capital's circulating expenses and accelerate capital turnover. It will still participate in the averaging of profit margins and continue to obtain average profits. The difference is that industrial capital only realizes the surplus value that has been produced in the circulation process, while commercial capital must not only realize its profits in the circulation process, but also obtain profits through the circulation field. In terms of the form of profit, commercial profits come from the difference between the purchase price of a commodity and its selling price, and from the source of its profits, it comes from the surplus value created by industrial workers.

As long as commodity circulation occurs, commercial capital and usury capital will appear. This twin brother is the earliest form of capital in history, and it depends on slavery and feudal production relations. The main characteristic of ancient commercial capital was to buy and sell expensively to add value to themselves. The targets of exploitation were mainly small producers (individual farmers, craftsmen, etc.). They also divided slaves or serpent owners by providing valuable commodities or usury to them A part of serf surplus product. It promotes the development of commodity production and the economic ties between regions, accelerates the differentiation of small commodity producers, and disintegrates the self-sufficient natural economy, but it cannot produce any new production methods. Only when the feudal system was about to collapse and industrial capital had taken off, it prepared certain conditions for the establishment of a capitalist mode of production.

Business capital generation

The pre-capitalist business capital was born with the development of commodity exchange during the period when the primitive society disintegrated and the slave society formed. Commodity exchanges are becoming more frequent, and the exchange area is gradually expanding. Some people need to specialize in the exchange business and act as middlemen between producers. Therefore, businessmen appear and business capital is generated. The original commercial capital was transformed by emerging slave owners and wealthy free people using accumulated monetary wealth. In the slave societies of ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and the Chinese Shang Dynasty, commercial capital has become increasingly active. In feudal society, commercial capital continued to develop and played an important role in social and economic life.

Conditions for the existence of commercial capital

Simple commodity circulation and currency circulation are the conditions for the existence of commercial capital. However, the nature of the circulation changed after the exchange of merchants as an intermediary instead of the direct exchange of commodities between small producers. The commodity exchange between small producers is to obtain the use value as the ultimate goal. The merchant engages in trade in order to increase the currency in his hands. Its circulation process is: money-commodities-more money. Money concentrated in the hands of merchants performed the function of capital from the beginning, and the commodities here were also converted into commodity capital; the proliferation of monetary capital was the motivation and purpose of all activities. In addition, merchants buy and sell for many people, and concentrate many of them in their own hands. They are no longer connected with the direct needs of buyers, just like simple commodity circulation.

Commercial capital characteristics

In the pre-capitalist society, it was mainly surplus products produced by farmers that entered into circulation. Commerce turned these products into commodities, not the commodities that had already been produced to form commerce with their own movement. Therefore, the former capitalist commercial capital exists independently of the two poles of sale, that is, independent of the small producers, and it is not subordinate to any producer. After the production of small commodities developed, handicraftsmen's products were changed from self-produced to sold by merchants, but they were not produced in large quantities, and commercial capital was still in an independent position. This is the basic feature of pre-capitalist commercial capital that is different from capitalist commercial capital-the commercial capital in the capitalist mode of production is a separate part of industrial capital and belongs to the movement of industrial capital.

The larger-scale operations of the former capitalist commercial capital are interregional and international trafficking trade. The profits of this trafficking trade are very high. This is due to the inconvenience of transportation, slow capital turnover, high risks and large business costs. On the other hand, this kind of trafficking trade takes advantage of underdeveloped production conditions. Exploiting buyers and sellers to exploit buyers and sellers is an unequal exchange. In some ancient and medieval commercial nations of the West, it was directly combined with violent plunder, piracy, and the conquest of colonies. This is also a feature that is different from capitalist commercial capital-in a capitalist society, commercial capital has fallen from its original independent existence to general investment, subject to the law of profit equalization, and commercial profit has also been transformed into a general average level.

Business capital role

The commercial capital of the society before capitalism served different modes of production. In these production methods, it will promote the production of surplus products, and promote the production of more and more the nature of the purpose of exchange value, and promote more and more products into goods. At the same time, it has increased the circulation of money and has increasingly concentrated money property in the hands of merchants. All these will have a disintegrating effect on the old mode of production. K. Marx once pointed out: "The existence and development of merchant capital to a certain level is itself a historical premise of the development of capitalist mode of production."

However, the development of pre-capitalist commercial capital, that is, merchant capital, was not enough to facilitate the transition from one mode of production to another. This is because merchant capital does not have its own mode of production. Although it can promote the disintegration of the old system, it cannot determine the direction of the new system. The independent development of merchant capital means that production has not yet been subordinated to capital. The backward state of production is precisely the condition for this merchant's capital to obtain high profits. In the slave society, merchant capital has developed considerably, but production capitalization cannot be promoted. Social development can only enter feudal production mode. Only at the end of feudal society, when conditions for the production of capitalist relations of production were already in place, the development of merchant capital became an important factor in promoting the transition from production to capitalism. At this time, the merchant capital that had originally developed independently has gradually penetrated into the field of production. Some merchants gradually dominated small producers through ordering, pre-purchasing, and contract buying, and even turned them into their own wage workers. The large amount of money accumulated by merchants' capital provided capital for the development of capitalist production, and some merchants have actually turned into factory owners. The expansion of commodity circulation provided a market for capitalist production; at the same time, it accelerated the polarization of small producers and provided free labor for the development of capitalism. However, when the capitalist mode of production was established, merchant capital not only lost its independence, but also became a "slave" of industrial capital, obeying the movement of industrial capital.

Commercial capital capital value

The premise of the transformation of commodity value into production price is that the formation of average profit is the result of competition between different sectors.

(1) The production price is composed of production cost plus average profit. As the profit is converted into average profit, the value of goods is converted into production price.

(2) After the value is converted into the production price, the form of action of the value law also changes, that is, the price fluctuates around the production price. This does not negate the law of value, which governs changes in production prices.

(3) The conversion of value into production price does not exclude that a few advanced enterprises in various sectors can still obtain excess profits.

(4) Excess profit is a conversion form of excess surplus value. It reflects the relationship between different entrepreneurs within the same sector.

Commercial capital and commercial profit functional capitalists: industrial, commercial, agricultural capitalists. The essence of commercial profit: the surplus value created by hiring workers.

(1) Commercial capital: an independent form of capital that engages in the buying and selling of commodities in the field of circulation and aims to capture commercial profits.

(2) Function of commercial capital: Perform the function of commodity capital, that is, realize the value and surplus value of commodities through the sale of commodities.

(3) Commercial profit: The conversion form of the surplus value that the commercial capitalist divides from the surplus value exploited by the industrial capitalist through the difference between the purchase and sale and the average profit rate. It embodies the relationship between commercial capitalists and industrial capitalists to share the surplus value and exploit the employment of workers, including commercial workers. Commodity capital: Commodities that directly produce surplus value.