Productive and Circulation Capital

It is now necessary to consider the different forms that capital assumes at different moments in its circuit. As it passes through the spheres of production and circulation so capital changes; in one it is productive capital; in the other circulation capital. These two forms are as distinct from each other as the activities to which they correspond: the production of commodities in the one case; the buying and selling of them in the other. But in capitalist society the circuit of capital does not merely embrace the spheres of production and circulation, it unites them: they remain distinct, but they are inseparable. So it is with the two forms of capital that operate within them: while each has its own distinguishing features, they share the common property of being capital and are governed by its general laws.