became an unconscious, "natural," and economic process, by the addition of the circulation-process to the production-process of commodities, as part of the general economic process of society, and that part of it in which the distribution of the produced commodities among those entitled to them is to take place.
From the capitalist standpoint the circulation-process of commodities is the most important of the economic processes. Not, however, because it is only by this process that the produced commodities reach their social destination, the consumers, but because it is in this process that all value, including the surplus-value, the cause and aim of capitalist production, is realized. Until realized in the circulation process, all value produced for the capitalist, "necessary" as well as "surplus," is only potential value, liable to be destroyed at any moment by some change in the social conditions of its production or distribution. In order that the capitalist class may obtain its surplus-value, the whole value must not only be produced but consumed, either absolutely or productively. And in order that the individual capitalist may obtain his share of the fund of surplus-value created for his class, the value in the production or circulation of which he is economically engaged must be consumed as far as he is concerned, that is to say, it must reach his immediate consumer.
This process of the realization of value and of the distribution of the surplus-value in the circulation-process of commodities is presided over by the God of capitalism—Competition—who, as all the world knows, is "the life of trade." The share of the surplus-value which each individual capitalist obtains depending on his success in this competition, the source of all surplus-value has been lost sight of, and the importance of the circulation process grossly exaggerated. It has, however, a real and vital importance to the capitalist class, for it is here that the surplus-value produced elsewhere is actually realized.
The essentials of capitalism are therefore three. Private
