ABSTRACT
Capital theory is arcane. Students of capitalism are instructed in basic arguments first, beginning with the pure theory of exchange, purified of production and of process—and thus of time, error, and experience. This is sound pedagogy, for when production is added on, it takes the form of an indirect exchange of factors for commodities, among households, via the intermediation of producing agents—bloodless actors who, without experience, never err in moving the props about the stage as efficiently as possible.
