The actual circuit of industrial capital in its continuity is
 therefore not alone the unity of the processes of circulation and production
 but also the unity of all its three circuits. But it can be such a unity
 only if all the different parts of capital can go through the successive
 stages of the circuit, can pass from one phase, from one functional form
 to another, so that the industrial capital, being the whole of all these
 parts, exists simultaneously in its various phases and functions and thus
 describes all three circuits at the same time. The succession ]das Nacheinander] of these parts is here governed by their co-existence [das Nebeneinander], that is to say, by the division of capital. In a ramified factory system the product is constantly in the various stages of its process of formation
 and constantly passes from one phase of production to another. As the individual
 industrial capital has a definite size which depends on the means of the
 capitalist and which has a definite minimum magnitude for every branch
 of industry, it follows that its division must proceed according to definite
 proportions. The magnitude of the available capital determines the dimensions
 of the process of production, and this again determines the dimensions
 of the commodity-capital and money-capital in so far as they perform their
 functions parallel with the process of production. However co-existence,
 by which continuity of production is determined, is only due to the movement
 of those parts of capital in which they successively pass through their
 different stages. Co-existence is itself merely the result of succession.
 If for instance C' — M' as far as one part is concerned, if the commodity
 cannot be sold, then the circuit of this part is interrupted and no replacement
 by its means of reproduction takes place; the succeeding parts, which emerge
 from the process of production in the shape of C', find the change of their
 functions blocked by their predecessors. If this lasts for some time, production
 is restricted and the entire process brought to a halt. Every stagnation
 in succession carries disorder into co-existence, every stagnation in one
 stage causes more or less stagnation in the entire circuit of not only
 the stagnant part of capital but also of the total individual capital.