Capital

Capital is an economic category expressing the exploitation of hired labor by the capitalists; it is the value that returns surplus value. Capital concentrated in the hands of the capitalists is the means of appropriating surplus value. It represents a historical category; that is, it is characteristic of a certain socioeconomic formation.

Capital comes into existence at that stage of commodity-production development when labor power becomes a commodity. In the process of the primitive accumulation of capital the direct producers became separated from the means of production, which became concentrated in the hands of the capitalist entrepreneurs. Deprived of the means of production, the worker was forced to sell his labor power to the capitalists. This process meant a conversion from simple commodity production into capitalist production. In the production process the capitalist combines the commodities that he has acquired on the market: labor power and the means of production. As a result of the productive consumption of labor power and the means of production in the production process after the capitalist completes the sale of the newly produced commodity, he receives a greater value than the one he invested. The general formula for capital was advanced by Karl Marx: M—C—M′, in which Mi s money, C is the commodity, and M′ is the amount of money plus the increase. This increase, which is the surplus over the advanced amount, represents the surplus value, which comes from the appropriation by the capitalist of the excess value created by the unpaid labor of the hired workers over and above the price of their labor. The production and appropriation of surplus value in ever-growing proportions constitute the goal of capitalist production. In the era of imperialism, the acquisition of monopoly profit becomes the moving force of capitalist production. As capitalism develops and the domination of capital increases, the degree of the exploitation of workers grows.