Capital

From Infoshop OpenWiki

Capital is an accumulation of money whose historical appearance can not come about until the circulation of commodities has given rise to the money relation.

The distinction between money which is capital, and money which is money only, arises from the difference in their form of circulation. Money which is acquired in order to buy something is just money, facilitating the exchange of commodities. On the other hand, capital is money which is used to buy something only in order to sell it again. This means that capital exists only within the process of buying and selling, as money advanced only in order to get it back again.

Money is only capital if it buys a good whose consumption brings about an increase in the value of the commodity, realised in selling it for a profit.

The word "capital" was first used in its current meaning in England around 1611, derived from "capital grant," meaning a grant of land from the King – i.e. the head – which would be the basis of a new estate, and so meaning "original" funds, thus carrying in its genealogy a mirror of the changing sources and origins of power, with the rise of the bourgeois revolution in England.