d clothing consumed by the
labourer, the buildings in which he works, the implements with which his
labour is assisted, are all of a perishable nature. There is however a
vast difference in the time for which these different capitals will
endure: a steam-engine will last longer than a ship, a ship than the
clothing of the labourer, and the clothing of the labourer longer than
the food which he consumes.

According as capital is rapidly perishable, and requires to be
frequently reproduced, or is of slow consumption, it is classed under
the heads of circulating, or of fixed capital. A brewer, whose buildings
and machinery are valuable and durable, is said to employ a large
portion of fixed capital: on the contrary, a shoemaker, whose capital
is chiefly employed in the payment of wages, which are expended on food
and clothing, commodities more perishable than buildings and machinery,
is said to employ a large proportion of his capital as circulating
capital.

Two trades then may employ the same amount of capital; but it may be
very differently divided with respect to the portion which is fixed, and
that which is circulating.

Again two manufacturers may employ the same amount of fixed, and the
same amount of circulating capital; but the durability of their fixed
capitals may be very unequal. One may have steam engines of the value of
10,000_l._ the other, ships of the same value.

Besides the alteration in the relative value of commodities, occasioned
by more or less labour being required to produce them, they are also
subject to fluctuations from a rise of wages, and consequent fall of
profits, if the fixed capitals employed be either of unequal value, or
of unequal duration.

Suppose that in the early stages of society, the bows and arrows of the
hunter were of equal value, and of equal durability, with the canoe and
implements of the fisherman, both being the produce of the same quantity
of labour. Under such circumstances the value of the deer, the produce
of the hunter's day's labour, would be exactly equal to the value of
the fish, the produce of the fisherman's day's labour. The comparative
value of the fish and the game, would be entirely regulated by the
quantity of labour realised in each; whatever might be the quantity of
production, or however high or low general wages or profits might be. If
for example the canoes and implements of the fisherman were of the value
of 100_l._ and were calculated to last fo