ABSTRACT
Complete abstraction from the circulation of money, though making
the process of accumulation so smooth and simple in the diagram of
enlarged reproduction, has great disadvantages of its own, we see.
There was much to be said for this method in the analysis of simple
reproduction, where consumption is the be-all and end-all of produc-
tion. Money there had an ephemeral part, mediating the distribution of
the social product among the various groups of consumers-the agent
for the renewal of capital. In the process of accumulation, however, the
money form has an essential function: it no longer serves as a mere
agent in the circulation of commodities-here it has come to be a
feature of capital itself, an element in the circulation of capital. Even if
the transformation of the surplus value is not essential to real reproduc-
tion, it is the economic sine qua non of capitalist accumulation. In the
transition from production to reproduction, the surplus product is thus
subjected to two metamorphoses: first it casts off its use-form and then
it assumes a natural form which is fit for the purpose of accumulation.
The point here is not that the different cycles of production are
counted off in units of years. It would be just as well to take the month;
for that matter, the successive transformation of individual portions of
