Еволюція категорії «капітал» в економічній думці

Abstract

Проведено характеристику еволюційного розвитку капіталу: в античні часи (Аристотель), з позицій меркантилістів (В.Стаффорд, А.Мокретьєн), фізіократів (В.Гурне, Ф.Кене), класиків політичної економії (А.Сміт, Д.Рікардо, Ж.-Б.Сей, Дж.Мілль, К.Маркс), представників неокласичної економічної школи (А.Маршалл, Дж. Кларк, М.Туган-Барановський). Здійснено дослідження економічної природи капіталу. Розглянуто погляди і підходи сучасних вітчизняних науковців щодо поняття капіталу, його функцій. Наведено власне твердження капіталу як економічної категорії. Ключові слова: капітал, багатство, нагромадження, гроші, засоби виробництва, сфера обігу, дохід.

The description of evolutional development of the capital has been presented: in ancient times (Aristotle), from mercantilist point of view (V.Stafford, A.Mokretyen), physiocrats (V.Hurne, F.Kene), classical political economy (Adam Smith, D.Rikardo, F.-B.Sey, Dzh.Mill, Marx), representatives of neoclassical economic school (A. Marshall, J. Clark M.Tuhan-Baranowski). The investigation of the economic nature of the capital at every stage of socio-economic relations has been conducted. It was proved that capital is interpreted as a complex, multifaceted category, which reflects the evolution of the historical development of society and its productive forces and production relations, property rights, the dynamics and structure of commodity production and consumption. The capital is considered as natural wealth; economic resource; a set of specific measures that have special properties; public asset that is used in the carrying value of the finished product; means of multiplying wealth; stock of economic benefits; form of holding wealth, a large sum of money; economic relations; initial amount of funds allocated to economic activity; the net cost (source of income formation). Consider the views and approaches of modern domestic scholars on the concept of capital and its functions. The capital as an economic category can be viewed from different positions depending on the specific object of study, namely there are distinguished the following approaches: subject-functional, socio-economic, identification with time, money and saving approaches to defining the essence of capital. Performance objectives and fundamental targets of capital formation are carried out due to certain functions: accumulation, investment, social, reproductive, cost, production, financial function. There was presented our own statement of capital as an economic category, which is a combination of the value of tangible and intangible property (assets), including cash and investments used to obtain social or economic results (profit, growth of the business, access to resources, etc.).The study achieved the main goal - systematization and compilation of views of leading scientists - representatives of different economic schools about the nature of capital and research content of this economic category. Keywords: capital, wealth, savings, money, means of production, the scope of circulation revenue.