If we take the process of production, nothing can be present at its end that is not present (“as a presupposition and precondition”) at its beginning, and everything that is present at its beginning must appear at its end. Nothing can just disappear, therefore, and nothing can appear out of nothing. If, therefore, capital appears as a presupposition, and appears to have disappeared as a formal relation over the course of the production process, “this can have taken place only because the invisible threads which draw it through the process have been overlooked.” It is these “invisible threads” that Marx will now examine.

More (pdf, 85 KB): The Chapter on Capital Part 7: The Labour Process and the Valorisation Process (pp. 304-320)