The lengthening of the act of circulation represents for the industrial
 capitalist 1) a personal loss of time, since it prevents him from performing in
 person his function as manager of the productive process; 2) a longer stay of
 his product in money- or commodity-form, in the circulation process, hence in a
 process where it does not expand value and where the direct production process
 is interrupted. If this process is not to be interrupted, production must
 either be curtailed, or more money-capital must be advanced to maintain the
 process of production on the same scale. This means that each time either a
 smaller profit is made on the capital hitherto invested, or that additional
 money-capital must be advanced to make the previous profit. All this remains
 unchanged when the merchant takes the place of the industrial capitalist.
 Instead of the industrial capitalist devoting more time to the process of
 circulation, it is the merchant who is so engaged; instead of the industrial
 capitalist it is the merchant who advances additional capital for circulation;
 or, what amounts to the same thing, instead of a large portion of the
 industrial capital being continually diverted into the process of circulation,
 it is the merchant's capital which is wholly tied up in it; and instead of
 making a smaller profit, the industrial capitalist must yield a portion of his
 profit wholly to the merchant. So long as merchant's capital remains within the
 bounds in which it is necessary, the only difference is that this division of
 the functions of capital reduces the time exclusively used up in the process of
 circulation, that less additional capital is advanced for this purpose, and
 that the loss in total profit, represented by mercantile profit, is smaller
 than it would otherwise have been. If in the above example, 720c + 180v + 180s,
 assisted by a merchant's capital of 100, produces a profit of 162, or 18%, for
 the industrial capitalist, hence implying a deduction of 18, then, but for this
 independent merchant's capital, the additional capital required would probably
 be 200, and we should have a total advance by the industrial capitalist of
 1,100 instead of 900, which, based upon a surplus-value of 180, would yield a
 rate of profit of only 16 4/11%.