Capital

From RationalWiki

Capital is a concept in economics, referring to an accumulated supply of wealth, be it stock market investments, money used to start a business, heavy machinery, farmland, et cetera, which is used to generate additional wealth via production. For example, a company-owned vehicle would be considered part of the company's capital, as workers use said vehicle to increase their productivity. Farmland is used to generate food which can be sold at market. Machine tools are used to make consumer goods.

Capital in a form that can be easily exchanged, like cash or valuable metals, is said to be more "liquid" than capital in such forms as factories and machinery.

More recent theorists have expanded the idea of capital to include elements of human subjectivities and the social, notably Pierre Bourdieu's idea of "cultural capital," i.e. those practices that help to maintain the boundaries of particular social groups. Examples could include a person's command of language, or knowledge of a traditional farming technique.

It is also the English translation of the title of Das Kapital, a seminal communist book by Karl Marx.