52 SOCIAL SCIENTIST activity of the SCP consists of the production and exchange of things as commodities. Thus SCP implies constant purchase and sale of products, excepting of course labour-power. The intervention of a common medium of circulation is clearly needed to effect continuous exchange of commodities. Thus SCP gives rise to, and in turn requires, considerable development of money and money-relations. If one considers the typical transaction of producers in SCP, one observes (a) the sale of commodity by the producer, and (b) the purchase, using the proceeds of (a), of another commodity. The first step can be represented as C-M, C for the commodity sold and M for the money thus obtained. The second step can be represented as M-C5, C9 being the new commodity bought with the money M obtained in the first step. Thus a farmer might sell paddy, and use the money to buy clothes. The typical transaction of SCP can thus be represented as C-M-C'. Simple Commodity Production and Capitalist Production This circuit of commodities, C-M-C' has some definite characteristics of interest to us. The object of the circuit is clearly to exchange one kind of use-value, that of commodity C, for another use-value, that ofC'. Money performs here a purely intermediary function. The aim of the circuit C-M-C5 then is a change of use-values. The object is thus consumption, and the end result is a qualitative change inthe u^e-vahie. The 4 life5 of an individual C-M-C' circuit is thus limited by the purpose of the activity itself, namely to obtain a u^e-vabfe or a set of use-values for consumption dijjerpnt from the one with which we began. Capitalist production is most sharply differentiated from SCP in its characteristic circuit. While the typical circuit of SCP is C-M-C', that ofCMP is M-C-M'. The capitalist begins with money M, and converts it into commodities C only to reconvert these again into money M\ This operation starts with money and ends with money. Thus there is no qualitative change in the nature of the use-values as a result of this circuit. The object of this circuit cannot therefore be c^nmmpli^n. In fact, the circuit cannot make any sense unless the money M' received at the end by the initial buyer is greater than the money M that the buyer starts with. In the absence of qualitative change, the motive force for the circuit M-C-M' can only come from the possibility of a qua Hit two increase ofM' over M. It is the expectation of monetary gain that provides the underlying dynamic for M-C-M'. M' must be expected to exceed M. The basic difference between C-M-C5 and M-C-M5 is that the object of the former is consumption or use-value, while that of the latter is the increase of the initial value M to M'. While the former circuit C M-C' is limited by the objective of consumption, the latter circuit, being based solely on quantitative increase, knows of no logical limits. After all, if one can make a gain of Rs 10 on an initial sum of Rs 100, why should one not use the new sum, Rs 110 in the same manner, to make Rs 121, and so on? Thus the circuit M-C-M5, based on self-expan-