But for fixed capital circulation to be fully effective, a number of preconditions must exist:

[...]

This requires 'a certain level of productivity and of relative overabundance, and more specifically, a level directly related to the transformation of the circulating capital into fixed capital ... Surplus population (from this standpoint) as well as _surplus production, is a condition for this.'

Capital tends, as we have seen, to produce surplus populations (an industrial reserve army) and surplus products (commodities facing problems of realisation). It thus systematically produces conditions conducive to fixed capital formation. [...]