parts of which this latter capital is composed, money, provisions,
materials, and finished work, the three last, it has already been observed,
are regularly withdrawn from it, and placed either in the fixed capital of
the society, or in their stock reserved for immediate consumption. Whatever
portion of those consumable goods is not employed in maintaining the former,
goes all to the latter, and makes a part of the neat revenue of the society.
The maintenance of those three parts of the circulating capital, therefore,
withdraws no portion of the annual produce from the neat revenue of the
society, besides what is necessary for maintaining the fixed capital.

The circulating capital of a society is in this respect different from that
of an individual. That of an individual is totally excluded from making any
part of his neat revenue, which must consist altogether in his profits. But
though the circulating capital of every individual makes a part of that of
the society to which he belongs, it is not upon that account totally
excluded from making a part likewise of their neat revenue. Though the whole
goods in a merchant's shop must by no means be placed in his own stock
reserved for immediate consumption, they may in that of other people, who,
from a revenue derived from other funds, may regularly replace their value
to him, together with its profits, without occasioning any diminution either
of his capital or of theirs.

Money, therefore, is the only part of the circulating capital of a society,
of which the maintenance can occasion any diminution in their neat revenue.

The fixed capital, and that part of the circulating capital which consists
in money, so far as they affect the revenue of the society, bear a very
great resemblance to one another.

First, as those machines and instruments of trade, etc. require a certain