Production process of commercial profit

First of all, it is an illusion to regard commercial profit as the result of simple fare increase. Commercial profit is the difference between the sales price and the purchase price of goods, but this difference does not constitute the whole of commercial profit, because part of it must be used to compensate the pure circulation expenses paid by commercial capitalists. Here, for the convenience of research, the part of compensation for pure circulation expenses is temporarily set aside, and it is assumed that all this balance constitutes commercial profits.

As far as industrial capitalists are concerned, the difference between the sales price of goods and the purchase price of production factors is equal to the difference between the production price of goods and its cost price, or, as far as social total capital is concerned, it is equal to the difference between the value of goods and the cost price spent by capitalists on goods. "This difference comes down to the difference that the total amount of labor materialized in commodities exceeds the payment momentum materialized in commodities", that is, industrial profits are formed in the production process. While commercial capitalists are confined to the field of circulation. They can't create value, they can only realize value. Therefore, commercial profits can only be formed in the difference between the purchase price and the selling price of goods, that is, after increasing the purchase price, they are sold. However, it is only an illusion to realize commercial profit by raising prices. If the illusion is regarded as the essence, it will be mistaken that the commercial profit is the result of buying goods cheaply and selling them at high prices.

Secondly, commercial profits can not be achieved simply by raising prices. (1) At first, it was assumed that industrial capitalists sold to commercial capitalists according to the production price or value of commodities, and commercial capitalists sold them at a price higher than the production price or value of commodities to obtain commercial profits. This situation is actually against the requirements of the law of value and the law of production price, which is unreasonable. (2) Initially, it was assumed that the competition among various departments made the profits average. At that time, commercial capital was put aside, assuming that commercial capital did not participate in the average profit. In fact, with the emergence of an independent form of commodity capital, that is, commercial capital, it independently performs the functions of capital and also requires an average profit. Because commercial capital and industrial capital participate in the sharing of profits, it is necessary to reveal the secret of where commercial profits come from.

Third, the key for commercial capital to obtain commercial profits lies in the participation of commercial capital in the formation of average profit rate. Marx explained through an example that because both commercial capital and industrial capital participate in the formation of average profit rate and want to get average profit, industrial capitalists sell goods to commercial capitalists according to the cost price plus the price of industrial profit, that is, the price lower than the production price. Then, commercial capitalists sell goods according to their value or production price, thus obtaining commercial profits.

Thirdly, because commercial capital participates in the formation of average profit rate, the concepts of average profit rate and production price are further defined in a more precise sense. When the industrial capital movement is investigated separately, the average profit is determined by the total profit of the total production capital, and the production price is equal to the cost price plus the average profit. Because commercial capital participates in the formation of the average profit rate, the average profit is determined by the ratio of the sum of total production capital and total commercial capital to the total profit generated in the production process. Accordingly, the actual production price of goods is equal to cost price+industrial profit+commercial profit. Marx pointed out: "We will use the term production price in a more precise sense just explained." The so-called more accurate production price refers to the production price of the industrial sector, which is equal to the cost price+industrial profit. Cost price+industrial profit+commercial profit Marx called it the actual production price, or "the actual price of goods = the production price of goods+commercial profit." In this way, "the profit of industrial capitalists is equal to the balance that the production price of goods exceeds its cost price" and "the commercial profit is equal to that the sales price of goods exceeds its production price". Commercial capitalists can make commercial profits because industrial capitalists do not realize all surplus value or profits in commodity prices, but transfer some of them to commercial capitalists. It can be seen that although commercial capitalists do not produce surplus value, they participate in the distribution of surplus value.