Commercial capital. In capitalist society, commercial capital is the disaggregated part of industrial capital applied by a special group of capitalists, exclusively in the sphere of circulation . Its specific function is to attend to the sale process of the merchandise produced by the industrial capitalists.
Summary
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- 1 Capital and commercial profit
- 1 Commercial capital as a disaggregated part of industrial capital
- 2 Commercial gain
- 3 Circulation expenses. His replacement
- 4 Exploitation of trade workers
- 2 Forms of capitalist trade
- 1 Wholesale trade
- 2 Retail trade
- 3 Cooperative trade
- 4 Criticism of “Cooperative Socialism”
- 3 Foreign trade
- 4 Sources
Capital and commercial profit
Commercial capital as a disaggregated part of industrial capital
The rotation of commercial capital (D – M – D ‘) presupposes not only the replacement of the capital anticipated by the merchants for the process of commercialization of the merchandise, but also the obtaining of the profit on this capital .
On the surface of bourgeois relations, commercial profit appears to be a plus on the price of goods. But in reality, commercial profit is a transfigured form of surplus value created by wage laborers in the sphere of production . It is the part of the surplus value that the industrial capitalists cede to the commercial capitalists for dedicating themselves to the realization of commodities.
Industrial and commercial capitalists jointly exploit the working class, dividing the surplus produced by it among themselves according to the principle: equal profit over equal capital .
Commercial gain
Gain from commercial capital. Its source is in the surplus value created by wage labor in the production process. When there is free competition, commercial profit equals average profit. The industrial capitalist sells the goods to the commercial capitalists not for their value, but for something less, which makes it possible for the commercial capitalists to obtain the average (general) share of profit. The commercial capitalist obtains the profit in the form of a difference between the purchase price and the sale price of the goods at the cost of the surplus value created in the production process. Commercial capital exploits small producers – as sellers and as buyers – by establishing so-called “price scissors”.
It is especially characteristic of the imperialist era to increase the prices of industrial consumer goods and to reduce the prices of the goods that are bought from small producers. This leads to a redistribution of workers’ incomes in favor of commercial capitalists and an increase in commercial profit. Under imperialism , monopoly commercial capital ensures high monopoly profit. Under socialism, commercial companies, as a result of their economic activity, make a profit. The commercial profit of socialist companies constitutes a part of the value of the product created by workers for society. The proceeds from socialist trade are used to further develop the national economy, including refining the ways and methods of serving the population through the trading system.
Circulation expenses. His replacement
The circulation process requires not only that capital be advanced for the purchase of merchandise, but also expenses to organize its commercialization. These expenses are called the cost of circulation.
The supplementary costs of production are those related to the operations of finishing, packaging, storage of goods and their transportation to commercial establishments. They are actually related to the prolongation of the production process in the sphere of circulation . The work invested in these operations creates value and surplus value , due to which the value of the merchandise subjected to said operations rises .
The net costs of circulation are the expenses involved in the sale of merchandise, the organization of advertising, etc. They are replaced by deducting them from the global surplus produced in society. The workers who directly attend the merchandising process do not create value , so their work is not productive.
Exploitation of trade workers
Business workers and employees constitute a special category of salaried workers. The wage labor in the sphere of circulation , as well as in production is exploited by the principal . The working hours of trade workers are also divided into necessary time and additional working time. But the exploitation of the workers of the commerce, dedicated directly to the sale of merchandise, has specific characteristics. Despite the fact that its work is considered non-productive work and, therefore, it does not produce the equivalent of the value of its labor power or create surplus valueNevertheless, it ensures the realization of the value enclosed in the merchandise and creates conditions for obtaining the profit by the commercial capitalists.
During the necessary time of work, the workers of the commerce realize a mass of merchandise in which the part of the surplus value is enclosed with which the value of the labor force occupied in commerce is paid . In the additional labor time they realize the goods that embody the part of the surplus-value that forms the profit of the commercial capitalists. With the development of capitalism , the exploitation of wage labor in commerce intensifies.
An important source of profit for the commercial bourgeoisie, in the current conditions, is the exploitation of all sectors of the workers through the sale of goods at prices that exceed their value . The industrial proletariat is exploited not only in the sphere of production , but is subjected to complementary exploitation in the sphere of commerce.
Commercial capitalists further exploit small commodity producers (peasants and artisans) through non-equivalent exchange.
Forms of capitalist trade
Wholesale trade
Wholesale trade is trade between industrial and commercial capitalists , and within these special groups of capitalists. It is usually carried out in wholesale trade centers: stock exchanges, fairs and auctions.
In the process of wholesale trade, a large mass of goods has not yet passed from the sphere of circulation to that of consumption. This step is done in the retail trade
Retail trade
Retail trade is the sale of goods by commercial capitalists directly to consumers. The essential orientation of the development of retail trade under capitalism is its concentration in department stores, imposed by the universal nature of consumptive demand and competition. At the same time, there are specialized stores and large commercial firms that sell certain types of merchandise.
In commerce as in industry, large capitalist transnational corporations currently dominate.
Cooperative trade
The consumer cooperative and the supply and sale cooperative occupy a modest place in capitalist commerce. Consumer cooperatives, which primarily group city workers, buy goods directly from producers and sell them to consumers at somewhat lower prices than in warehouses belonging to commercial capitalists. The supply and sale cooperatives group small producers, preferably farmers, organize the most advantageous sales of their products and the acquisition of the necessary means of production.
Criticism of “Cooperative Socialism”
The founders of Marxism-Leninism positively appreciated the meaning of cooperative trade in capitalism , as one of the forms of union of workers in their fight against exploitation. At the same time they criticized the followers of the petty-bourgeois theory of “Cooperative Socialism”, who argued that the grouping into cooperatives of consumers and small producers in the context of the domination of capitalist private property, can be a means of gradual socialist transformation of the society. Supporters of this theory lose sight of the decisive meaning that ownership of the means of production has in the transformation of society, misinterpreting the social nature of the cooperative in socialism.
Foreign trade
The need for foreign trade and its development in capitalismThey are determined by the following factors: first, by the development of the social division of labor and mercantile production that has already crossed national borders; secondly, due to the inequality of the development of the capitalist economy due to which supplementary markets are needed for the sale of the production of the sectors and companies that develop rapidly; thirdly, by the sharpening of the contradiction between production and consumption within each capitalist country; fourthly, by the increase in the export of “surplus” capital from highly developed capitalist states, which stimulates the export of merchandise to other countries; fifthly,
Foreign trade consists of the export of merchandise to other countries and its importation from other States. The correlation between the value of exports and that of imports in a given period is called the trade balance. If the value of exported goods is higher than that of imported goods, the country has an active trade balance. When imports exceed exports, a passive trade balance is formed. The state of the trade balance is an important indicator of the competitive capacity of goods in a given country on the world market and, in a sense, the state of its economy.
