Previous
Exclusive Trade Monopoly
Fixed capital is the capital stock that gets invested in long-term upgrades to production processes. Fixed capital includes machines, buildings, land improvement, and even education.
Fixed Capital Quotes in The Wealth of Nations
The The Wealth of Nations quotes below are all either spoken by Fixed Capital or refer to Fixed Capital. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book 2, Chapter 1
Quotes
Every fixed capital is both originally derived from, and requires to be continually supported by, a circulating capital. All useful machines and instruments of trade are originally derived from a circulating capital, which furnishes the materials of which they are made, and the maintenance of the workmen who make them. They require, too, a capital of the same kind to keep them in constant repair.
No fixed capital can yield any revenue but by means of a circulating capital. The most useful machines and instruments of trade will produce nothing, without the circulating capital, which affords the materials they are employed upon, and the maintenance of the workmen who employ them. Land, however improved, will yield no revenue without a circulating capital, which maintains the labourers who cultivate and collect its produce.
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Wealth of Nations LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fixed Capital Term Timeline in The Wealth of Nations
The timeline below shows where the term Fixed Capital appears in The Wealth of Nations. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 2, Chapter 1
...capital, or capital used to produce or obtain goods that are sold for profit, and fixed capital , or capital used to improve production processes by buying machines, improving land, and so...
(full context)
Like an individual’s stock, a society’s stock is also made of three parts: circulating capital, fixed capital , and a reserve for immediate consumption. This reserve includes food, clothes, furniture, and owner-occupied...
(full context)
...they either go to replenish the stock reserved for consumption, or they get invested into fixed capital . In turn, this fixed capital only produces revenue when combined with circulating capital—for instance,...
(full context)
Book 2, Chapter 2
...people can actually spend on consumption, is the gross revenue minus the expense of maintaining fixed capital and replacing circulating capital. Fixed capital is designed to make workers more productive, but keeping...
(full context)
...new provisions, raw materials, and unsold products to replace those that have been turned into fixed capital or the reserve for consumption—is different. The circulating capital that turned into fixed capital is...
(full context)
...the money supply (or the coins in circulation) is similar to the cost of maintaining fixed capital , as they both enable the rest of the economy to function. Thus, the cost...
(full context)
...operate, as this will never produce adequate returns in the moderate term. Lending merchants their fixed capital would produce even slower returns for banks. If merchants want long-term credit, they should seek...
(full context)
Book 2, Chapter 5
Manufacturers use their capital to buy the instruments ( fixed capital ) and materials (circulating capital) that they need to make their products, as well as...
(full context)
Book 4, Chapter 2
...fail, these manufacturers sell off their circulating capital, but they lose the value of their fixed capital . But the slower taxes fall, the less fixed capital they lose.
(full context)
