Constant capital

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Constant capital referred to in the theory of Karl Marx , who thus ties in bourgeois economists before him, the portion of the applied by the entrepreneur capital, no increase in the production process, but is merely obtained by its exchange value by working on the produced goods is transferred . That is why this capital is constant , in contrast to the variable capital , which consists in the wages for labor power and which increases in the production process through the formation of new value .

The constant capital consists of two different parts, which behave differently in the circulation of value and were therefore already referred to by Adam Smith as " fixed capital " and " circulating capital ". Rosa Luxemburg combined these categories in her work “ The Accumulation of Capital ” (Collected Works V) to form the terms “fixed constant capital” and “circulating constant capital”, making her the first woman to make an important contribution to the development of the economy.

The fixed constant capital consists of land, buildings, machines, tools and larger spare parts. It is the beginning of a company created and then transmits its exchange value within the depreciation period to the produced goods. The fixed constant capital is thus divided

  1. in "originally invested" fixed constant capital that is invested when starting a company,
  2. in "invested" fixed constant capital that has not yet been written off but is not currently being used,
  3. into "applied" fixed constant capital that is currently being used in production and
  4. into "amortized" fixed constant capital that has already transferred its value to the goods and is "written off".

The circulating constant capital consists of raw material and auxiliary materials (these including the "ideal [= non-material] auxiliary materials" electricity and rent). It is invested at the beginning of a company and transfers its exchange value within a capital turnover completely to the produced goods, goes into circulation with them, its exchange value is separated in the sale (together with the fixed constant capital part, the variable capital part and the surplus value, which on the individual commodity is omitted) from the use value of the commodity and is circulated back in the form of money in the value circulation to the entrepreneur, who invests it again in raw materials and auxiliary materials. Therefore, together with the variable capital, but without the surplus value, it forms part of the “circulating capital”, which constantly repeats this cycle. The circulating constant capital divides

  1. in "invested" circulating constant capital, which consists of the raw material and auxiliary material supply and
  2. into "applied" circulating constant capital that is currently used in production.

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